Episode #44
Episode 044 | Mike Schreiner: Green Ideas Into Action
When Mike Schreiner was a kid, he spent long days driving a tractor on his family's grain and cattle farm in Kansas, and in his head, he said he was already giving political speeches! Mike came to Toronto in 1995, for love, and then built a career in organic food: Toronto Organics, WOW Foods, EarthDance Organics, and Local Food Plus, a nonprofit that certified sustainable farms across Ontario. He wasn't trying to build a movement. He was trying to build a better food system, one farm at a time. In 2005 he joined the Green Party of Ontario as a volunteer. Four years later he was leading it, without ever having held office, and without a there being a single Green MPP in the province's history. It took nine more years and two lost elections before that changed. In 2018, Schreiner won the riding of Guelph and became the first Green ever elected to the Ontario legislature. Mike joins me today to talk about that journey, and some of the key insights those years of building businesses, leading a party, and legislating from inside a system he once watched from outside. Mike is now based in Guelph, where he's in his third consecutive term as MPP and leader of the Green Party of Ontario, a role he's held since 2009. He's been instrumental in getting Ontario's first Green law passed, a bill protecting electric vehicle charging spots. He’s also introduced bills on carbon reporting, farmland protection, and housing. In our conversation, we talk about his path from environmental advocacy into electoral politics; how Ontario can reconcile housing growth with climate change and biodiversity; where political leverage actually comes from; how he finds common ground across party lines; and what gives him hope for Ontario's future.
