By MARY CLARKIN

Special to The Hays Daily News

A native son of western Kansas is the new leader of the Green Party of Ontario, with a shot -- albeit a long one -- of becoming a future premier in the Canadian province.

Mike Schreiner, reared in WaKeeney but a resident of Canada since 1995, is a business entrepreneur whose new full-time job will be building up the Green Party ahead of provincial elections in 2011.

"I wished he was backing home," was the first thing Schreiner's grandfather, Jack Boyd, living in South Hutchinson with his wife, Idabelle Boyd, said in a phone interview.

But Jack Boyd also said, "We're real proud of him."

Boyd said his grandson possesses a "wonderful personality" and is "the type who doesn't give up."

Schriener was the 1990-91 student body presidents at the University of Kansas, and, in his early 20s, fell in love.

"So I moved to Toronto for love and have been here ever since," he said.

He and his wife, Sandy Welsh, also born in the U.S. and working at the University of Toronto, are the parents of two daughters, ages 10 and 4.

Schreiner ran a food distribution business for 10 years, working with local farmers to distribute their produce into the Toronto area.

"That kept me connected to my roots, growing up on a farm in western Kansas," he said.

During the last four years, he oversaw a nonprofit organization, Local Food Plus, seeking to link farmers with public institutions.

In the Westminster system of government in Ontario, the leader of the political party occupying the most seats in the legislative assembly becomes the premier. The Green Party captured about 8 percent of the votes in 2007 elections, but its expansion since its start in 1983 makes it the fastest-growing political party in Ontario.

"We're the new kid on the block," Schreiner said of the Green Party.

He called the Green Party a "centrist party" that promotes "small businesses, family farms, local economies, sustainable communities and health and well-being."

In addition to serving as party leader, Schreiner also will be running to become a member of the provincial parliament in 2011.

Potential rivals for Green Party leadership dropped out before the London, Ontario, convention vote Saturday, and Schreiner was elected leader without opposition.

The fact that he is not a native of Ontario "has been brought up before, but it hasn't been a deterrent," said Schreiner, who holds dual citizenship.

Schreiner's father, Ron Schreiner, is deceased, but his mother continues to live in the WaKeeney area where the family owns a farm. Schreiner comes back to Kansas for Christmas every other year, said grandfather Jack Boyd, and also visits on other occasions, too.