Ontario Greens look west for political boost
Leader Mike Schreiner says positive results in B.C. put party on the map for voters
Green. With envy.
Looking west to British Columbia — where the Green party elected three MLAs and agreed to back the NDP in a minority government — Ontario’s Green boss hopes for a breakthrough in next June’s election here.
“The Green party is more on the map because of what happened in B.C.,” Mike Schreiner said Monday.
Voters who have been “reluctant” could be more open to supporting the party, given the May 9 election out west showed “Greens can be elected and hold the balance of power,” he added.
“What B.C. has shown us is that you can vote for what you want.”
The Greens, however, have never elected an MPP in Ontario and shouldn’t get ahead of themselves, said University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman.
“I don’t think what happened in B.C. portends anything for Ontario,” he told the Star, noting the Greens have a more solid base in B.C. with federal party leader Elizabeth May holding a seat on Vancouver Island and a different “political culture” in the coastal province. As well, B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver first won a seat four years ago.
While he believes the B.C. situation will give the Ontario Greens a boost because the party won’t seem “as alien a force,” Schreiner would get a bigger bang by being included in party leaders’ debates, Wiseman added.
“Getting that changed is everything.”
Schreiner will again run in Guelph, an environmentally conscious city he considers the party’s best shot and one of the top five ridings for Green support.
He got 19.3 per cent of the vote in 2014 — just under half of the 41.5 per cent won by Liberal cabinet minister Liz Sandals.
“I’ve got to close the gap on her,” acknowledges Schreiner, who placed third behind Sandals and the Progressive Conservative candidate at 20.8 per cent. A New Democrat placed a close fourth with 17.7 per cent.
With Liberals struggling in the polls, and rumblings of discontent from social conservatives who believe PC Leader Patrick Brown has turned his back on them, Schreiner has his fingers crossed for some favourable vote splits that could help the Greens.
The party is still struggling to get back to the 8 per cent of the popular vote it reached province-wide in 2008.
That dropped to 2.9 per cent in 2011, when the Dalton McGuinty Liberals were reduced to a minority, and recovered somewhat to 4.8 per cent in 2014.
Schreiner is promising — but won’t yet name — some “relatively highprofile” candidates for several ridings in the June 7, 2018 election to further boost awareness levels for the party.
While the minority situation in B.C. is yet to sort itself out, Ontario Greens are looking to their B.C. counterparts to show that “a more collaborative, co-operative and less partisan approach” can attract voters, Schreiner said.
He’s championing one publicly funded school system to eliminate “wasteful duplication” of administrative costs, including staff and buildings, that could lead to fewer school closures by saving as much as $1 billion a year.