Guelph Today Reporter, Anam Khan spent a day with Guelph MPP and Ontario Green Party leader, Mike Schreiner.
It’s a Wednesday morning. Southern Ontario is hit with freezing rain affecting most of Ontario’s schedule. It's an ice day. But it is also, as usual, a busy day in Mike Schreiner’s office.
6 a.m. At home- Schreiner wakes up, has coffee.
7 a.m. Usually, Schreiner has a vegetable omelette. But today, he had granola with almond milk and another coffee.
8 a.m. Begins his French lesson on Skype that runs for an hour and a half.
9:42 a.m. In the office- Peter, a volunteer in the office, gets yelled at by a woman on the phone. He listens to her respectfully.
“They're allowing to kill coyotes and Canada geese and giving them to refugees and people can't afford them,” the caller says.
Peter listens.
9:54 a.m. Schreiner’s pulls into the office in an electric car. A Chevrolet Volt. He enters wearing a dark grey suit with a Trillium pin, no tie, a plaid green shirt, black dress shoes and Wyndham House socks with a green, blue, and navy plaid print.
“Good morning! I decided to do French at home. Je suis un étudiant de français so so,”
9:55 a.m. Peter says a woman left a message for him. “You're not from Kansas anymore,” she said.
Schreiner smiles. “Okay,” he says.
Schreiner moved to Canada for love. He and his future wife Sandy began dating back home in the United States then when Sandy moved to Canada to become a sociology professor at the University of Toronto he followed a year later. The couple has two teenage daughters.
"We both just fell in love with Ontario,” says Schreiner.
10 a.m. Schreiner gets his morning schedule and news brief from Candice Lepage, his assistant who works for the Green Party. Her job is to help Schreiner do his job. He listens while cleaning his glasses.
Some meetings get cancelled due to the weather and some turn into phone meetings.
10:30 a.m. Joins a phone meeting about regional ambulance dispatches that discusses labour, merging and service delivery issues.
Lepage takes notes. Schreiner listens and responds attentively. The meeting is on speaker.
His office is simple. It has framed pictures of his family, a Canadian and Ontario flag and three things posted on the wall; the Rotary Club’s four-way test- an organization whose “service above self” motto he says he lives by- a 2012 bicycling leadership award and his frozen friend award from the Hope House.
There are no Green Party logos.
“A lot of people think this is a Green Party office. It's not. It's very non-partisan. You won't see any green party logos. We are very conscious of being non-partisan. Whoever comes, whatever opinions they have, we always serve them,” says Ran Zhu, a constituency advocate working in his office.
When the legislature is sitting in Queens Park, Schreiner drives there on Sunday night and comes back on Thursday night. He says people have stereotypes of him hugging trees.
And although he doesn't show affection to trees physically, he certainly tries to be environmentally friendly by driving an electric vehicle and minimizing his commute to Toronto by living there. He also takes public transit in Toronto when needed.
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Schreiner participates in two phone meetings. One about water protection with the Wellington Water Watchers and another with a constituent to discuss funding for technology to treat sludge from water treatment in Ontario.
11:57 a.m. Schreiner is hungry. Lepage orders fish tacos from The Wooly Pub across the street, a local restaurant that serves local food products, something Schreiner feels passionate about.
“I grew up on a farm and I was looking to start a food business and everyone said “Go to Guelph, go to Guelph,” so I came to Guelph to the Guelph Organic Food Conference and met some farmers there who farm right outside of Guelph and started a business, one of Ontario’s first local Ontario food business,” says Schreiner.
“In my twenties, I became disillusioned with mainstream party politics so I decided I can do politics in other ways. Part of my business was about building a more local sustainable food system. My business was focused on supporting local organic food and farmers.”
12 p.m. Reads updates on “Ontario takes decisive action to help more families with autism.” It also plays in the office.
“It’s an issue I really care about because there are so many kids and families struggling to find service. I wanna make sure the changes the government makes support children and parents who need autism services while at the same time making sure that organizations that provide those kinds of services receive funding as well,” says Schreiner.
12:10 p.m. He eats, makes phone calls and watches the conference attentively all at once.
1- 2 p.m. Two constituent meetings take place. One in person and one on the phone.
2:35 p.m Schreiner participates in a phone meeting with an MPP about Private members bill.
2:30-3:30 p.m. An event to speak to the group of environmental governance students was supposed to take place but the University was closed due to weather conditions and so, Schreiner took time to run personal errands.
4 p.m. Engages in a call to a University of Guelph professor about the private member's bill press conference.
4:40 p.m. Orders Dinner from Market Fresh, a grocery store and restaurant that supports local food.
5:10 p.m. Leaves his office to attend the Mold-Masters Sportsplex in Halton Hills. Takes a phone meeting in the car with a local autism service provider about the autism announcement from the minister of children, community and social services.
6:30 p.m. Arrives at the event in Halton Hills.
Schreiner says two things are important to him as an MPP in Guelph. What he campaigned on, and what he told people he was going to do.
When asked what the best thing about Guelph is, he smiles and replies, “the people.”
7:50 p.m. to 9:10p.m. Schreiner speaks at the event and answers questions from the audience.
9:34 p.m. Leaves the Mold-Masters Sportsplex event.
10:18 p.m. Arrives home.
