Michael Hunter
Affordability and Utilities Portfolio
Michael studied Drama at the University of Guelph, worked as a musician, a cook, a treeplanter, an “au pair” in France, an ESL teacher in Taiwan, and a house framer in Guelph, Ontario. He achieved a B.A. in Sociology from Brock University, a Prairie Horticulture Certificate from Olds College, and is a certified Permaculture Designer and Suzuki classical guitar instructor. Michael has limitations from sports injuries and three motor vehicle accidents, which have impacted his long-term health and ability to work. He has also been coping with long-covid since 2022. While recovering from illness and injury, much of his education has come from books he heard about on CBC radio and borrowed from the public library. Michael was a founding member of the Edmonton Permaculture Guild, and for ten seasons worked with organic vegetable farms in the Edmonton area, selling bedding plants and organic vegetables at the 104th Street Downtown farmers’ market.
Since moving to Edmonton in 2005, Michael and his family have been renovating and deep-energy retrofitting a 1954 bungalow in Beverly Heights to “net-zero”, while also growing and preserving as much food as they can with friends and neighbours.
Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May held a “Teach-in” focused on energy retrofitting at their home on Earth Day 2023. The house has also been featured on the Ecosolar Home Tour. In December, 2024 they replaced their 19 year old Prius with an EV which they used to drive across the country to visit family the following summer.
Michael has been involved in several elections with the Green Party of Alberta: as a volunteer, and as a candidate in the 2019 and 2023 provincial elections in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview. In 2025, we believe Michael was the first “net-zero” candidate to run federally, for the Green Party of Canada (net-zero “tier one” emissions: net-zero home, no fossil fuels for transportation).
Michael is very privileged to have had the love and financial support of family through difficult times, and now lives in a healthy, affordable, sustainable home. He has also experienced family breakups, crime, homelessness, and hunger, and is driven to help create sustainable, affordable communities for all.
Energy transition is the pathway to affordability.