Backstabbing Mike Schreiner
So it looks as if a bunch of high-profile Liberals are wooing Ontario Green leader Mike Schreiner to run for the provincial Ontario Liberal leadership. This is a trap. He should not do it. If he does then he will not win the Liberal leadership, and he will lose all credibility as a Green.
I have seen this movie before. Whenever the Liberals are in third place, they promise to "really listen" and attempt to woo successful Green candidates into their fold. It happened back in 2014-2015 with the federal Liberals. They tried to get Cathy MacLellan to run. She ran and was defeated. I believe they did the same to Tony Maas. Both candidates have largely disappeared from the political scene, which is a shame.
There is no way that establishment Liberals are going to allow Mike Schreiner to win the Liberal leadership. They are too arrogant. They believe that Liberals are the natural ruling party of Ontario, and although they will steal the talking points of smaller parties, they have no inclination whatsoever to listen to those smaller voices. They will chew Mike Schreiner and spit him out.
I do not say this out of any particular loyalty to Mike Schreiner. I am less enamoured of him than many others, and think he benefits a lot because he is the affable (white, male) leader of a small insignificant party. Those perceptions would change dramatically if he was to run for the Liberal leadership.
In some sense I am unhappy that the Kathleen Wynne has to bear the sins of the Liberal Party. She was not supposed to win a majority government after Dalton McGuinty fled, and although I remain upset with her for lots of things, she is not the sole (or even the primary) reason the Ontario Liberals languish in third place. Having said that, the Ontario Liberals deserve no mercy. They sabotaged the 2007 electoral reform referendum. They made this bed, and they should lie in it. I would be happy for them to be wiped out next election, and the election after that, and the election after that. I do not know enough about Marit Stiles to know whether she is a good leader for the NDP or not, but I would take her over Doug Ford and I would take her over whomever the Liberals put up.
If Liberals really want to "do politics differently" then let them accept their third-party status and vote for Greens. They will never do so, of course. Their thirst for power (and entitlement of such) is too strong.