Greens have hope for winning first seat in Ontario

LIBERAL VOTE COLLAPSING IN GUELPH

Mike Schreiner cannot walk the streets of downtown Guelph, Ont., without being stopped to talk politics.

“Good job Mike,” one man says as he slaps the Green party leader on the back.

“We’re working hard, eh!” the 48-year-old U.S.born politician responds with a laugh. “Make sure you vote, no matter who it is.”

“I’m voting for you,” the man says.

Schreiner talks and walks fast. He’s got his messaging down, his enthusiasm up.

His goal of becoming the firstever elected Green member of the provincial legislature might be within reach, according to two recent polls that had him in the lead in Guelph, a riding held by Liz Sandals, a veteran Liberal who is not running this time around.

“The Liberal vote is collapsing in Guelph,” Schreiner says. “I’m also finding a lot of Conservatives coming our way as well and it’s mostly driven by Doug Ford. I’ve had so many Conservatives in Guelph come up and say ‘I won’t vote for a Doug Ford-led Conservative party.’”

In the 2014 election, Schreiner, who’s led the provincial Greens since 2009, finished third with 19.29 per cent of the vote, just 1.5 percentage points behind the Progressive Conservative candidate, who is also not running this time, and ahead of the NDP.

“I’m cautiously optimistic we’re going to elect our first Green MPP,” Schreiner says as he canvasses his riding, where he lives in a modest semi-detached house with his wife and two teenage daughters.

Schreiner was born and raised on a farm in Kansas. He says love took him north in 1994 to Canada, where his wife became a professor at the University of Toronto.

A few years ago, Schreiner moved from Toronto to Guelph.