After all, that small farm is where Mike Schreiner - the Toronto entrepreneur who was the only candidate at a leadership convention in London this past weekend - says his green principles sprouted.

"I think every farmer knows that your prosperity is dependent on healthy soil and a healthy environment," said Schreiner in an interview on the weekend.

"When you're in a profession where the climate and weather and so many natural factors affect your livelihood and prosperity, you come to appreciate how important that is."

Schreiner took over from outgoing leader Frank de Jong, who spent 16 years at the party's helm.

During that time, de Jong oversaw the transformation of Ontario's Greens from a loosely organized group of activists into a party that captured more than eight per cent of the vote in the 2007 provincial election.

Now, the job is Schreiner's, a 40-year-old father-of-two who spent his formative years in the U.S. midwest, as he puts it, "in the middle of nowhere, western Kansas."

"My parents, we grew grain and raised livestock, your typical corn, soybean, wheat rotation. Not that uncommon from a lot of the farms in southwestern Ontario," Schreiner said.

"I've driven plenty of combines and tractors and everything else."

Schreiner was also involved in university politics, and spent a stint in Washington, D.C. working for a Kansas congressman. A Democrat when he lived in the U.S., Schreiner says he found himself "shopping around" for a political party when he moved to Toronto in 1995.

Nine years later, after a successful run heading up a local and organic food distribution company, Schreiner joined the Green Party.

"I believe in the power of small business and local communities and a healthy environment (and) the Green Party, here in Canada, just seemed like a party that expressed those values," he said.

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