TORONTO

You have to hand it to Green Party leader Mike Schreiner.

He’s willing to boldly go where no man’s gone before.

Or, perhaps more accurately, he’ll go where other politicians fear to tread.

Take his education policy.

He believes he can save the system $1.5 billion by merging the Catholic and public school systems.

“What really hit home was when People For Education released a report about how many children with special needs are being sent home from schools because our schools don’t have the resources to support them,” Schreiner told reporters as he released his platform Tuesday.

He pointed out the unfairness of having a system that discriminates in its hiring.

“Between the human rights issue and the fairness issue and the fiscal responsibility issue, there’s definitely growing support for this and I think you will see that reflected in our voting numbers,” Schreiner said.

School funding has been a no-go zone ever since John Tory’s 2007 debacle, where his proposal to open up school funding to all faiths squelched his chances of becoming premier.

It’s a toxic topic with voters — yet one this province must come to terms with eventually.

Our current system of education funding is discriminatory and unfair.

It favours one religion over all others and while it’s fair to say this is a constitutional hiccup left over from the days when only two religions dominated this province, that’s not today’s reality.

How fair is it for a Jewish family, say, to drive their child to a Jewish school they pay for out of their own pocket, when their Catholic neighbours have their kids picked up by a publicly-funded bus and driven to a publicly-funded school?

Yet, despite that inherent unfairness, we continue this discriminatory policy and apparently can’t even have an adult conversation about the issue.

So good for Schreiner for raising it in his campaign. And he’s taking on Liz Sandals — Kathleen Wynne’s education minister — in her home riding of Guelph.

The other topic he’s refreshingly open about is the issue of integrity in government.

You’d have thought this would be a no-brainer for the NDP and the Tories.

If I were PC leader Tim Hudak, I’d start every news conference with these words: “Ladies and gentlemen, if elected, I will never, ever take your tax dollars for granted. I will not tolerate corruption within my government and I will fire anyone in my office or in my cabinet who indulges in activities that are not above-board.”

Hudak actually touched on this Tuesday at a speech in Ottawa, when he said he’d fire any cabinet minister who behaved the way some Liberals have done.

“If I had a cabinet minister caught up in this kind of scandal, whether it’s the gas plant scandal, eHealth, Ornge, Ontario Lottery and Gaming, if I had a minister that exhibited that kind of behaviour, I’d fire that minister,” Hudak said.

“I’d boot them out of cabinet.”

That’s good. But the message was buried deep in a bearpit question-and-answer session.

He needs to put it front and centre — as Schreiner’s done.

Look, the chance of the Greens electing a candidate are fairly remote, which is a shame.

Schreiner’s a smart, successful businessman who has worked hard and has good ideas.

And he had the right response when I asked him if he was pleased Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has endorsed him. In a recent audio rant, Ford was heard saying he couldn’t vote for Hudak because of his support for the raising of the Pride flag at Queen’s Park, but he could support Schreiner.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Schreiner said.

“The Green party is fighting against sexism and homophobia.”

Well, he may be Green, but he certainly isn’t dumb.