WELLINGTON-HALTON HILLS POLITICAST 2021 - Ran Zhu, Green Party Candidate

Michael Chong won Wellington Halton-Hills in the 2019 election with 47.4 per cent of the vote. The only way he could have been defeated was if the combined Liberal, NDP, and Green Party vote had gotten behind one candidate. The word "untouchable" would not be an overstatement, but there's a new kid in town that hopes to catch everyone, and Chong, by surprise.

We kick-off this new (election season) of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast with Ran Zhu. If you’ve interacted with provincial politics in the last few years in Guelph then you’ve likely met or talked to Zhu who has been the constituency co-ordinator for Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner. Now, Zhu wants to be an elected representative for the Green Party himself, but he's got to beat Chong, who's running in his seventh election, to do it.

In 2019 election, with another easy Chong victory, the election story in Wellington Halton-Hills was the rise of the Green Party. In 2019, Ralph Martin increased the Green Party's share of the vote locally by nearly nine per cent to finish third with 12.7 per cent. The watch word is “momentum”, and it looks like the Greens have got some in this riding. The question is, can Zhu capitalize on Martin’s success in 2019, or has the moment passed?

Zhu will talk about all that and more on this week's podcast. We will discuss running in an election as a young person, running as a Green, and running in a riding with a very tough incumbent candidate. He also talk about how climate change can be made a priority in this election, and whether it's the sleeper issue among the electorate during this campaign. And finally, he will discuss why he’s excited about Annamie Paul’s leadership, what he’s learned working for Mike Schreiner.

So let’s talk about Ran's run on this edition of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast!

To learn more about Ran Zhu's campaign, you can visit his website here.

NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca!

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, and Spotify.

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.