Mike Schreiner making his mark at Queen’s Park as lone Green party MPP

TheStar.com
January 4, 2019
Kristin Rushowy

Green -- party of one.

MPP Mike Schreiner may be the lone voice of the Green party in the Ontario legislature following his historic victory last June, but he’s had no trouble making himself heard.

Green Party Leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner in his Queen’s Park office. Schreiner is a party of one, which he says is “very liberating and invigorating.”

From fighting the cancellation of the basic income pilot to being the first to appeal to Ontario’s integrity commissioner to look into allegations of “abuses of power” in Premier Doug Ford’s office, the Green party leader has gone from someone who used to roam the halls at Queen’s Park looking for reporters to talk to, to being sought-after every day to comment on big issues.

“I suspect if you look to other jurisdictions, to have a single member -- a party with a single member elected -- they wouldn’t be looked to quite as frequently for comment as (Schreiner) is here in Ontario … and diversity of viewpoint is a good thing,” says political science Prof. Tim Mau at the University of Guelph, in Schreiner’s riding.

Plus, Schreiner has, in his few short months in office, become “effective in calling out Ford and the Conservative government on issues that he doesn’t believe are the right decisions to make,” Mau added.

Schreiner, who won almost half the vote in his Guelph riding, is the first Green MPP in Ontario, which also means there are four parties in the legislature this term -- a rarity. The riding was formerly held by Liberal Liz Sandals, who did not seek re-election, and his victory comes as Greens are making incremental gains across the country.

In the house, he sits in the far corner alongside the seven Liberal MPPs who were re-elected, and told the Star that out of necessity they co-ordinate things like questions and member statements as they are all considered independents, along with former PC MPPs Jim Wilson and Amanda Simard. The arrangement works well, says Schreiner, who is from Kansas but moved to Ontario in the early 1990s for his wife’s academic career (she is now a vice-provost at the University of Toronto).

Being a party of one can be “very liberating and invigorating, I can speak up and stand up for my values, my vision, what the people in Guelph elected me to do,” Schreiner told the Star in a recent sit-down interview. “I don’t have to answer to a party whip or party boss. I’m not part of any high-priced pom-pom squad or any cheerleading squad, I can really stand up and be an advocate.”

But it can also be lonely. “There are times where it would be nice to have some other Green caucus members because it’s hard to be everywhere, all the time, all at once … I joke a lot that 100 per cent of the Green caucus is here (at events) -- it’s true and it always gets a good laugh.”

Schreiner said he’s trying to do politics differently, also working with the NDP and supporting Conservative MPPs on some initiatives, and even voting with the PCs on their changes to privatize cannabis stores.

Being an MPP under the Ford regime has been “intense,” Schreiner said, coming off a busy election campaign straight into a summer session -- meaning he had to wait until the last week of August to squeeze in an annual canoe trip with his two daughters.

He said his best moment so far is calling out the government on a broken promise when it cancelled the basic income pilot, after saying during the election campaign it would see the social assistance research project through to completion. He was also proud to hand the environment minister his party’s 50-point environment plan.

Schreiner called partisanship in the legislature “off the charts now” under Ford -- and while he understands much of it is for show, he dislikes the heckling and insults, and the numerous standing ovations ministers receive after answering questions.

Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, the lone Green Party member at Queen's Park, said being a party of one means "I don't have to answer to a party whip or party boss. I'm not part of any high-priced pom-pom squad or any cheerleading squad, I can really stand up and be an advocate."

“I think MPPs were elected to represent their constituents, and come to Queen’s Park to work for the people,” he said. “Not to be a high-priced pom-pom squad. It’s getting ridiculous, frankly.”

He also made a pledge not to heckle “and mostly lived up to that pledge” amid what he characterizes as a “toxic” atmosphere in the house under the PCs.

Schreiner said he’s remained focused on what the Ford government’s decisions are costing taxpayers, including cancelling cap and trade, which removed $3 billion from the provincial treasury, and meddling in the Avista-Hydro One deal, which may cost tens of millions in cancellation fees. “The cost of his politically motivated actions are mounting. At the rate he’s going, it’s going to exceed the Liberals’ gas plants scandal,” Schreiner said.

“It seems unbelievable to me, but you know -- $100 million here, $100 million there, $30 million here -- and it all starts adding up to be a pretty significant amount of money that’s just being wasted,” Schreiner said, adding that Ford “criticized the Liberals, and rightfully so, of playing politics with the province’s finances, and here he is barely six months into the job and he’s playing politics with the province’s finances.”

Henry Jacek, a political science professor at McMaster University, follows question period closely and said Schreiner asks good questions, “and what he does -- and it’s a bit disarming for the government -- in his questions he doesn’t insult the government which is a good idea, you don’t want them to be howling at the insult without answering the question.”

Schreiner, he added, “has been very good about pointing out that the Ford government is not good at managing the books.”

So far, he is “punching above his weight,” Jacek said -- but both Jacek and Mau agree the Green party has its work cut out.

“The real question is, is this going to be a four-year historic blip where Mike got elected and disappeared off the radar, or is this going to be an opportunity for the Greens to build on that success?” Mau said.

In 2019, Schreiner hopes the province will be talking about “leading the clean economy revolution that’s happening around the world,” and said with GM closing its Oshawa plant “Ontario should be leading the electric vehicle revolution, not losing jobs to it.”

But he said the early part of 2019 will be spent fighting Bill 66, which he calls a “frontal assault on the protections for the people and places we love in the province.” The wide-ranging legislation is meant to cut regulations but has been criticized for adjusting daycare ratios, impacting clean water legislation and opening up the greenbelt to development.

Schreiner will also get to introduce his first private member’s bill, which is modelled on the Harris government’s Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, but for the Paris-Galt moraine in the Guelph, Kitchener and Cambridge area.