Welcome back to Adjournment Proceedings, our weekly deep-dive into the issues and people driving Canadian politics. Check out the latest edition every Friday. This week we look at Ontario Green Leader Mike Schreiner and what goals he’s set for his party, which he’s led since 2009.
Missed a week? Take a look through our archives here.
After 16 years as leader and two electoral breakthroughs, Mike Schreiner says the Greens are now aiming for real power, betting voter frustration with the Ford government and the prospect of a minority parliament could make them a decisive force at Queen’s Park.
The party doubled its caucus in the last election, and now holds two seats at Queen’s Park. They also posted a record fundraising year, and are increasingly positioning themselves not as a protest vote, but as a governing partner-in-waiting, especially as in a minority parliament.
“I’m not under any illusion that we’re going to have a Green majority government after the next election,” Schreiner said in an interview. “But I think there’s a real possibility we’ll have a minority government, and Greens can be part of that minority government and part of making it work.”
That, in his words, is the party’s core objective right now.
Schreiner became leader in 2009, when the Greens were still largely viewed as an activist party rather than a serious electoral force. One of his central missions, he said, was to change that culture.
“When I first got involved, people saw the party more as a vehicle for activism, which was valuable,” he said. “But less about actually electing people. And if we want to turn activism into real change, we need to start electing people.”
This shift wasn’t quick. Schreiner spent his early years as leader focused on building the party’s internal capacity: fundraising, staffing, data infrastructure, and campaign tools.
“That took about six or seven years,” he said. “I brought an entrepreneurial mindset. I’ve built small businesses and nonprofits, and applied that to building the party.”
The payoff came in stages: Schreiner’s own breakthrough win in Guelph in 2018, followed by a by-election victory in Kitchener Centre in 2023, and then the Greens successfully defending both seats in the 2025 general election. Both Green MPPs were elected with more than 50 per cent of the vote, a rare thing in Ontario politics.
“That’s a sign,” Schreiner said, “that when people have a Green MPP, they see someone putting people before politics, community before partisanship. And they like that.”
Schreiner says the biggest obstacle to Green growth isn’t voter hostility, but skepticism.
“Polling shows people like our vision, they like our values, they like our policies,” he said. “But they don’t think we can win.”
Each electoral breakthrough chips away at that perception. Guelph in 2018 proved it was possible, and when Aislinn Clancy won Kitchener Centre, Schreiner believes, it proved it wasn’t a one-off.
“Now people are starting to take notice and say, ‘Oh, we can actually elect Greens.’ And that’s the number one barrier breaking down.”
He sees real opportunity for growth in mid-sized cities and surrounding regions: Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Wellington-Halton Hills, Parry Sound-Muskoka, places where voters may feel increasingly disconnected from the main parties but still want pragmatic representation.
What do the Greens want to achieve?
Substantively, Schreiner keeps returning to three policy pillars: affordability, green economic development, and land protection.
Housing is the entry point.
“Housing affordability is the number one issue people are worried about in Ontario,” he said. “And most housing experts would say the Ontario Greens have the best, most comprehensive plan to address it.”
He ties that directly to opposition to sprawl and to Ford government policies that, he says, have favoured land speculators.
“People are sick and tired of the government putting the interests of land speculators ahead of affordable home ownership, and paving over the places we love and the farmland that feeds us.”
On the economy, Schreiner frames climate policy not as a sacrifice but as a missed opportunity.
“The green energy transition is an $8 trillion global opportunity,” he said. “$2.2 trillion was invested just last year alone. And with this government, Ontario is missing out.”
He argues Ontario should be positioning itself to attract investment, lower energy costs through made-in-Ontario clean power, and build a domestic green manufacturing base, especially as global supply chains and U.S. trade uncertainty intensify.
Meanwhile, in the current legislature, Schreiner is trying to demonstrate relevance even with just two seats. He points to three private members’ bills he has helped pass, and to his current bill proposing a protected “food belt” to safeguard farmland.
The proposed legislation was introduced in May last year, and it aims to establish a protected “food belt” to safeguard Ontario’s prime agricultural land from development, urban sprawl, and aggregate mining.
“That’s about protecting our $52-billion agri-food sector, which supports one in nine jobs in Ontario, nearly 900,000 jobs,” he said. “At a time when food security is increasingly under threat.”
A minority government strategy
The short-term goal is not outright victory, but leverage.
“If we elected five Green MPPs in a minority parliament, we could have real influence,” Schreiner said, pointing to the experience of Green caucuses in B.C. and New Brunswick. “We’ve seen how small Green caucuses can shape outcomes when they hold the balance of power.”
He believes the party’s reputation for collaboration positions it well for that role.
“We’ve earned a reputation for working across party lines, tamping down partisanship, and putting people before politics,” he said. “That’s exactly what makes minority governments function.”
Schreiner acknowledges that for years, the dominant message he heard was that the Greens weren’t serious.
“I can’t tell you how many times people told me, ‘You’ll never be elected. You’re wasting your time,'” he said. “It just made me work harder.”
He stayed, he said, because of the party’s underlying values: action on climate, reducing inequality, and reforming Ontario’s democratic system.
“The Greens were leading on the three issues that mattered most to me, with bold, innovative policy solutions,” he said. “And I thought, this is what Ontario politics needs.”
Today, after nearly two decades, the goal for the party is now to position itself to exercise real influence.
“A hundred per cent,” Schreiner said, when asked if the party’s goal is to be part of the next government. “Not as a majority, but as a constructive force in a minority parliament, helping make life more affordable, protecting what we love, and doing politics differently.”
