The federal election campaign hasn't officially started yet.

But Mike Morrice, Green party candidate in Kitchener Centre, already has raised more than $100,000. That's out of the park, even for mainstream parties.

Morrice has knocked at 25,000 doors to talk with voters (and is on his third pair of shoes).

He has 350 volunteers signed up. He has met 46 groups of people in "kitchen-table chats" at private homes.

That level of organization and support has some people wondering if the Green party could make a breakthrough here.

Polls are showing that people are more concerned about the environment. That's an issue strongly aligned with the Greens.

And Morrice is a respected figure in the movement since founding Sustainable Waterloo Region and Green Economy Canada. Both organizations help businesses and non-profits reduce their carbon footprint.

Last month an article in the Globe and Mail identified Morrice as appearing to be the only Green candidate in Canada "getting big-name buzz."

"A year ago, Kitchener Centre was never on our radar," said Jonathan Dickie, national campaign director for the Green Party of Canada, who stopped in last week at Morrice's campaign office across from Kitchener City Hall.

The riding has seemed indifferent to Greens in the past. In the 2015 election, the Green candidate came in fourth with just three per cent of the vote. Liberal Raj Saini won easily.

But that was then.

Kitchener Centre is now one of two ridings in Southwestern Ontario that the party is focusing on. (The other is Guelph, where Mike Schreiner became the province's first Green MPP last year)

Morrice "is really impressing us," Dickie said.

"There's something special going on there."

On Saturday, 40 volunteers in green T-shirts gathered to help the 35-year-old Morrice knock on doors.

Morrice focused on a neighbourhood of modest homes near Chopin Drive.

He explained to residents there that he listens first.

One of the reasons he is running with the Green party, he said, is that there is less party discipline and more ability than other parties have for the individual MP to vote the way constituents would want.

"We're hearing a lot about health care, making life more affordable, taking real action on climate change," he told Sandy Jabour as she stood on her back deck.

"Are those things on the mark for you, Sandy?"

He got a positive response.

"We've voted everything else and how'd it work out so far?" said Sandy's son, Henry, who was helping rebuild his mother's shed.

"Why not give the minority a chance?"

Another voter has a longer way to go before committing.

Ryan Kreuzer was preoccupied with three small girls and a puppy as he answered the door on Saturday.

He said he needs to do more research before committing himself. But the environment resonates.

"Taking care of the world makes a lot of sense," he said.

Dickie, the national campaign director, said the party will do some polling in Kitchener Centre and elsewhere, as it decides where to shift resources to help candidates in winnable ridings.

The Green party's fortunes have increased nationally, but still hover around the 10 per cent mark.

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Kitchener Centre has long been regarded as a "bellwether" riding, which often votes the same way as the country does.

But it's also changing very quickly, with an influx of young tech professionals. In the provincial election last year, this area sent a New Democratic Party MPP to Queen's Park even though the Progressive Conservatives won.

Dickie said there is evidence that people who are highly mobile are more likely to take a chance on a different political leader.

That's what has happened in southern Vancouver Island, where most polls suggest the Green party will pick up more seats this fall.

Climate change is often described as an issue that divides generations.

Older people aren't so concerned because they won't be around for the worst of it.

Younger people, who will be around, are desperate for intervention.

But when older people become grandparents, their thinking sometimes changes.

Alan Quarry said he has been a card-carrying Liberal for his entire life.

"But this year, this election, something changed," said Quarry, who now supports Morrice.

"I think that some of it has to do with becoming a grandparent."

Quarry said he looks at his grandson, Jack, and thinks "I have to do something to make the world he's going to inherit better, kinder, more tolerant, and, in terms of the environment, healthier."

Another grandparent, Dean Foster, met Morrice at his office Saturday.

"I've always been looking after myself and worried about me. It's time for a change," said Foster.

"It's time to do something for everybody else."

ldamato@therecord.com

Twitter: @DamatoRecord