GUELPH — Former Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller plans to run in Guelph for the Green Party in the upcoming federal election.

Miller confirmed the news to the Mercury Tuesday morning after a press release was sent indicating that he planned to announce his candidacy at an event Wednesday at the Woolwich Arrow in downtown Guelph.

Miller has served as Ontario's top environmental watchdog since 2000, and announced he would not be seeking another five year term in March. Monday was his last day on the job.

"I've been the commissioner for 15 years criticizing the government down here in Queen's Park through four premiers and it's time to walk the talk," he told the Mercury.

"I really am concerned that federal parliament is under siege. Things are not going well in the parliament of Canada and I like what Elizabeth May has been doing," he added.

"The Harper government has become very very authoritarian and is essentially bullying their way forward and radically changing this country."

Miller does not live in Guelph but said he is in the process of moving to the city and sees it as a logical riding to run in.

"I started my career in Guelph and I'm hoping to finish it there," he said.

Miller lived in Guelph from 1972-1979 while completing a bachelor's and a master's degree at the University of Guelph. After graduating he started a small business and purchased his first home in the Royal City.

He also helped to set up the advocacy organization Ontario Public Interest Group Guelph.

Miller previously ran in the riding of Cochrane South for Mike Harris' provincial Progressive Conservatives in 1995 and in Nipissing in 1997 for Jean Charest's federal Progressive Conservatives. He said despite this past, the Green Party is a natural home for him.

He said the Conservative Party of Canada "is not like and doesn't represent the points of view that the federal Progressive Conservative party represented under Jean Charest in 1997."

"My wife's an artist and when she's mixing her paint she always points out there's lots of blue in green," he said.

Guelph will be without an incumbent MP in the election as Liberal Frank Valeriote will not run again.

Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May, reached from British Columbia, said she asked Miller to run while they were both at a global climate change conference in Lima, Peru, in December 2014.

She said it's part of a strategy to attract high profile candidates to the party. Former CBC meteorologist Claire Martin has already announced plans to run for the Greens in North Vancouver B.C.

"The Greens believe in the role of individual members of parliament making in a difference. It's not all about the leader," May said.

"Obviously Guelph has been a strong green riding for a long time. In the past at the federal level when Mike Nagy was the candidate we've done extremely well," she added.

"Clearly one of the top winnable ridings for Ontario, and actually for Canada, is Guelph."

The Green Party currently has two members of parliament, leader Elizabeth May in Saanich–Gulf Islands and Bruce Hyer in Thunder Bay–Superior North. Hyer crossed the floor as an MP to join the party; he was elected as a NDP candidate.

The Greens finished fourth in Guelph the 2011 federal election with around six per cent of the vote.

But in the 2008 federal election the party finished third above the NDP garnering over 20 per cent.

Ben Polley, the current president of the local Green Party constituency association, said Miller is not a "parachute candidate" and met with members of the local chapter of the party to discuss his possible candidacy.

The Guelph Greens will hold a nomination meeting to formally select their candidate sometime in June.

"The reality is that it's essentially a formality at this point," Polley said.

"Unless, and there's still the possibility, that somebody unknown to us might wish to put their name forward, in which case it is still an open nomination, we're not going to close it down, " Polley said.

Former Chamber of Commerce Lloyd Longfield will run for the Liberals and Andrew Seagram will run for the NDP in Guelph.

The Guelph Conservatives have not announced a candidate.

The federal election is scheduled for Oct. 19 but could be called earlier.

mwarren@guelphmercury.com