Mike Schreiner

Early runs for office

Schreiner first ran as a candidate for the GPO in the Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock by-election in March 2009, losing to Rick Johnson.

In the 2011 election, Schreiner ran as a candidate for Simcoe—Grey, finishing fourth behind Progressive Conservative incumbent Jim Wilson.^[18]

Schreiner was nominated as the party's candidate for Guelph in the 2014 Ontario general election, where he finished third behind winner Liz Sandals of the Ontario Liberal Party, garnering over 19% of the vote.

2018 election

In May 2018, the Toronto Star editorial board endorsed him as the best candidate in Guelph and said that he was "the most forthright leader in the campaign for the 7 June Ontario election".^[19] He was also endorsed by the Guelph Mercury's editorial board in an op-ed, "Mike Schreiner is the candidate most worthy of representing Guelph provincially", citing ten reasons to vote for Schreiner.^[20]

Schreiner's campaign proved successful in a four-party race, becoming the first ever Green MPP in Ontario history.^[21] He captured 45 per cent of the vote in the Guelph riding, more than doubling the previous percentage and nearly tripling the actual number of voters for him.

Schreiner's platform for the Green Party of Ontario included the following, as summarized by the Toronto Star.^[22]

• Implement more programs to help homeowners with green retrofits to save energy
• Offer universal dental care and pharmacare
• Set a date to phase out internal combustion engines to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• Introduce carbon pricing to discourage use of greenhouse gas-producing goods and services, with revenues returned to Ontarians as dividends
• Focus health system more on illness prevention

Schreiner expanded on the platform with this comment: "I am fighting for a livable future for my children, I am fighting to tackle climate change and address income inequality, social justice issues and improving our democracy".^[23] During an interview in May 2018 he added that the Party proposed cutting payroll taxes for some small businesses to be made up for with an increased tax rate on larger businesses.^[24] Just prior to the election, he told the CBC that he hopes to see Ontario moving to 100 per cent renewable energy and was in favour of closing the nuclear power plant at Pickering. He also favoured adding mental health coverage into the Ontario Health Insurance Plan and a basic income program.^[25]

Despite efforts to convince them otherwise, Schreiner was excluded from televised leaders debates, a move the Toronto Star billed as "unfair". The publication's Ontario Politics Commentator made this comment: "This isn't the first time they have conspired to exclude the Greens, but this time the exclusion is more egregious than ever".^[26]

Following his win in the 2018 election, Schreiner was sworn into the Ontario Legislature on 5 July. Although he had been viewed by many as primarily a "green" candidate Schreiner said that his goal would be broader. "I'm going to do politics differently. I campaigned on a promise to create jobs, put people and planet first. I’m going to keep fighting for that."^[27]

Ontario Provincial Parliament

During the first three months of the 42nd Parliament, he was a frequent critic of Premier Doug Ford.^[28][29][30] As a party leader, Schreiner has been extensively quoted by the news media on issues such as the government's decisions to cancel the province's cap-and-trade legislation, scrapping the green energy programs and rebates, on the tactics used by Ford to reduce the size of Toronto City Council and on the provincial plan to allow marijuana smoking in numerous locations.^{[28][29][30][31]}

He was re-elected in the 2022 Ontario general election.^[32] In 2023, Aislinn Clancy became the second elected provincial Green in Ontario and joined Schreiner in Parliament. She was appointed deputy leader before her election.^[33]

He kept his seat in Guelph in the 2025 Ontario general election, along with Aislinn Clancy. Prior to the election, Bonnie Crombie declined to form an electoral alliance in select ridings with the Green Party of Ontario.^[34]