Key Liberals seek Schreiner as leader

A small group of leading Ontario Liberals are quietly courting Green Party leader Mike Schreiner to switch parties and run for the Liberal party leadership.

Over the past several weeks, individual members of the informal group have spoken with Schreiner, urging him to leave the Green Party that he has led since 2009, sit as a Liberal MPP and run for the party leadership next year when the contest formally starts.

As well, former federal Green Party leader Annamie Paul has apparently discussed with Schreiner the idea of his switching parties, according to well-placed Liberals.

Schreiner has not told the Liberals who have approached him that he would join their party. But they remain hopeful because “he’s not dismissing the idea,” says one senior Liberal who has spoken with Schreiner in recent weeks.

Schreiner did not respond to a request for comment.

The group sees Schreiner as the Liberals’ best bet to win back voter support in the next election after two straight devastating defeats. The Liberals won just eight seats in the June election, the second lowest in the party’s history. The party executive is waiting until March to determine how party members will go about selecting their next leader to replace Stephen Del Duca, who resigned after the election results were announced.

Schreiner won widespread praise for his solid performance during last June’s provincial election. Although the Greens failed to win a second seat,

Schreiner showed himself to be a proven vote-getter in his hometown riding of Guelph, where he captured almost 55 per cent of the total votes cast and increased his margin of victory by nearly 10 percentage points over his 2018 election results.

“He commands respect,” a top Liberal told me. “In fact, he may be the most respected person in the Legislature.”

He’s dynamic, well-spoken, wellliked, hard-working, intelligent, well-researched and isn’t viewed as a radical environmentalist.

Importantly, he already has a seat in the legislature, is from outside Toronto, lacks any ties to the former McGuinty and Wynne governments and would give the Liberals increased credibility on environmental issues.

In short, Schreiner would be a great catch for the Liberals. He would give the party someone people could vote for; someone who would excite the party’s rank-andfile members.

To convince him to join the Liberals, the group is touting the notion that if he becomes the party’s leader he could have a real chance of implementing many of the ideas he has long championed, especially on the environment.

They also suggest that despite Schreiner’s laudable efforts, the Greens are unlikely to make any serious electoral breakthrough for the foreseeable future.

Other Liberals are also considering entering the leadership race. They include former Kingston Liberal MP Ted Hsu, now an Ontario MPP; Liberal MPs Yasir Naqvi, Michael Coteau and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith; former Barrie mayor Jeff Lehman, who ran and lost for the Liberals in the June election; and Mohamad Fakih, CEO of Paramount Fine Foods.

The push to select a high-profile leader took on new urgency this week when the provincial New Democrats announced that Marit Stiles, who is a dynamic and impressive MPP like Schreiner, will be the party’s next leader. The MPP for the Toronto riding of Davenport was the only candidate to enter the leadership race to succeed Andrea Horwath.

Clearly, switching one’s party may be difficult, but it hasn’t stopped other high-profile party leaders.

In Ontario, former NDP premier Bob Rae ran for the federal Liberal leadership in 2006, was elected to Parliament in 2008 and served as interim federal Liberal leader between 2011 and 2013. Jean Charest led the federal Progressive Conservative Party from 1995 to 1999, served as Quebec premier as a Liberal from 2003 to 2012 and then flipped back to the federal Tories and ran for the party leadership earlier this year.

Will Mike Schreiner be the next party leader to switch sides? The Liberals can only hope he will.