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Essex MPP Leardi named Deputy Ontario Government House Leader · Kvetch & Release

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Good morning everyone. I hope you're doing well. Welcome back
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to the Dan McDonald Show. I am John Lydkey, your
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: guest host for the rest of the show, the rest
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: of this week. Can't believe it is the thirtieth of July.
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  Speaker 1: Time for us to shift our sights over to Essex,
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  Speaker 1: where we have found out that our Member of Provincial
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  Speaker 1: Parliament for Essex, Anthony Leardy, has been chosen as a
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  Speaker 1: new parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health as well
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  Speaker 1: as the Deputy Government House Leader. Joining me right now
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  Speaker 1: to discuss is the aforementioned MPP Anthony Leardy. Anthony, great
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  Speaker 1: to have you here.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning John, It's great to be here.
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  Speaker 1: Congratulations on being named to these new roles.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you very much, very very excited to
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  Speaker 2: be doing this and to be participating.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you were just in studio last week. You didn't
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  Speaker 1: bring it up to me, so you know, well done
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  Speaker 1: on keeping it under wraps until it all came out here. Really,
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  Speaker 1: what is the role of Deputy Government House Leader, Like,
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  Speaker 1: what are you going to be doing here?
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  Speaker 2: So, as the name suggests, I'm the deputy to the
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  Speaker 2: House Leader. The House leader is kind of like a
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  Speaker 2: coach or a quarterback or a team captain, and he
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  Speaker 2: calls the shots inside the legislature, and my job as
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  Speaker 2: the deputy to the House Leader is to carry out
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  Speaker 2: the House leaders instructions. So, for example, if the House
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  Speaker 2: Leader says we're going to debate this on such a
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  Speaker 2: day or carry out this procedure on such a day,
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  Speaker 2: it's my job to carry out those instructions inside the
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  Speaker 2: Legislative Assembly. And the biggest, I think the biggest commitment
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  Speaker 2: for a Deputy House Leader is the fact that the
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  Speaker 2: Deputy House Leader sits in the chamber physically four days
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  Speaker 2: a week, as compared to the typical MPP who only
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  Speaker 2: physically sits inside the chamber typically one day a week.
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  Speaker 1: To change your travel schedule a little bit, Oh yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: It's a huge commitment, massive time commitment. And as the
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  Speaker 2: Deputy House Leader, you have to pay attention to what's
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  Speaker 2: going on with the debate and the procedures and whether
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  Speaker 2: or not anybody's putting motions that are proper or improper.
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  Speaker 2: We have to stay on top of all that and
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  Speaker 2: that's what I'll be doing.
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  Speaker 1: Well, is it at all like your prior job?
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  Speaker 2: I suppose as a Crown actually, as a matter of fact,
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  Speaker 2: it's very similar to the job that a lawyer does.
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  Speaker 2: A lawyer in a courtroom, litigation situations such as I
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  Speaker 2: was for twenty four years, as always on his toes,
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  Speaker 2: watching what the other side is doing, watching whether the
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  Speaker 2: procedures are being followed, and of course following the evidence
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  Speaker 2: and making notes and planning for the next move. It's
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  Speaker 2: very very much like a courtroom. And of course I
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  Speaker 2: was in courtrooms in the province of Ontario for twenty
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  Speaker 2: four years, so it's something that's very familiar to me.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so you know, I'm still trying to figure out
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  Speaker 1: exactly what this is going to look like. Then, how
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  Speaker 1: how are you going to balance? Well, guess you're not balancing.
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  Speaker 1: You're gonna be doing four days a week up in Toronto.
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  Speaker 1: But you still have to, of course do constituency work.
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  Speaker 1: You want to be able to get re elected by
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  Speaker 1: your voters down in these parts. So how are you
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  Speaker 1: going to be able to pull that off?
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  Speaker 2: That's really that's the reality of the situation. That's why
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  Speaker 2: I need a really excellent staff here in the constituency,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm lucky to have that excellent staff. So any
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  Speaker 2: person in the constituency of Essex, which is of course
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  Speaker 2: the towns of LaSalle, Amersburg, Essex, Kingsville and Lakeshore. Will
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  Speaker 2: not notice any difference at all. You can still call
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  Speaker 2: my office, you can still interact with my staff. You'll
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  Speaker 2: still get the answers that you're looking for, You'll get
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  Speaker 2: the service that you're looking for. None of that will
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  Speaker 2: change because I have an excellent and dedicated staff that
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  Speaker 2: work very very hard.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I presume that is what you were going to
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  Speaker 1: say with that one wanted to give you the opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, the province is a big province, of course,
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  Speaker 1: and there's lots of MPPs. You're taking over the post
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  Speaker 1: from a one of you know, your colleagues from this area,
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  Speaker 1: Trevor Jones. What does it say that he was with
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  Speaker 1: Chatham Kent Leanington. What does it say that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: this region down here in southwest Ontario was receiving this recognition,
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  Speaker 1: this level of attention in terms of being you know,
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  Speaker 1: two time Deputy House Leader.
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  Speaker 2: Now, well you've referred to Trevor Jones being the MPP
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  Speaker 2: from Chatham Kent Leamington. He's an excellent MPP. He has
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  Speaker 2: actually been promoted to the role of Associate Minister in
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  Speaker 2: charge of Emergency Preparedness. Yes, that speaks well to him.
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  Speaker 2: It speaks well of his role where he was previously
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  Speaker 2: an officer with the OPP. He had a good and
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  Speaker 2: long service record and I think that he's going to
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  Speaker 2: be an excellent minister Associate Minister in that role. And
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  Speaker 2: it is a step up and there's going to be
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  Speaker 2: more demands on him and on his time, but he's
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  Speaker 2: going to fulfill those roles as MPP and Associate Minister
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  Speaker 2: very well. He's an extremely professional individual, very dedicated to
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  Speaker 2: his community and to his roles, and I think he's
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  Speaker 2: going to do a great job.
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  Speaker 1: Well. It's going to be good having a Associate Minister
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  Speaker 1: who represents southwest Ontario able to bring some of the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge that we have to the conversations that need to
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  Speaker 1: be held.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. In addition to his previous career as an OPP officer,
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  Speaker 2: Arver Jones was also deeply involved in agrig business and agriculture.
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  Speaker 2: He's very very well informed and conversant in all those
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  Speaker 2: issues and seeking of southwest Ontario. The next member over
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  Speaker 2: is Minister Rob Flack is now the new Minister of
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  Speaker 2: Agribusiness and agriculture and food and so we have a
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  Speaker 2: real powerhouse in Minister Rob Flack. His entire life has
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  Speaker 2: been dedicated those to those issues, and he's a beef
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  Speaker 2: farmer himself. It really speaks well for us here in
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  Speaker 2: southwestern Ontario.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely so. And lastly, I see so you started, you
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  Speaker 1: assumed your new duties on July nineteenth, have been in
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  Speaker 1: the role. Now it's your eleventh day. What is it
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  Speaker 1: like in earnest for you? Has do things start while
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  Speaker 1: we're still in the summer session, How does like? What
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  Speaker 1: does it look like?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely so. In addition to being the Deputy House Leader,
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  Speaker 2: I'm also the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health HM.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, healthcare, especially for us in this region is
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  Speaker 2: making great leaps forward. We have two new MRIs in
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  Speaker 2: the region, we have a new cat lab, we have
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  Speaker 2: a new hospital in the process of being designed and built.
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  Speaker 2: So what I've been doing with most of my time
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  Speaker 2: is making sure that I master the file of health care,
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  Speaker 2: making sure that we are able to continue delivering what
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  Speaker 2: we have been delivering for the last several years in
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  Speaker 2: way of healthcare for this area, which I think is
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  Speaker 2: really spectacular.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we've been seeing some significant investment. We've got a
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  Speaker 1: mega hospital that's coming here and I'm sure that with
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  Speaker 1: you in this role, you'll be keeping your eye on
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  Speaker 1: all of those files and we got to see that
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  Speaker 1: hospital built sooner than later. Is there any chance that
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  Speaker 1: moving it up now that you've got some higher roles
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  Speaker 1: there or are we still on the old time schedule.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to stick. We're going to stick to the schedule.
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  Speaker 2: It's tried and true. We're done the first two phases
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  Speaker 2: and now we're into phase three. I just finished the
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  Speaker 2: design stage. So you know what, the hospital is a
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  Speaker 2: big thing to build. It's a complex and they're not
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  Speaker 2: getting simpler, that's for sure. So you know, we want
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  Speaker 2: to make sure we do it right, and we do
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  Speaker 2: it right the first time.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, you want to dot all your i's and cross
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  Speaker 1: those t's before you go and have to do any revisions.
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  Speaker 1: No need for that. I guess what do they say,
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  Speaker 1: measure twice cut once. I want to thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for your time, Anthony. Congratulations on your new roles,
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  Speaker 1: new Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and Deputy
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  Speaker 1: Government House Leader. We'll talk with you again soon.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Have a great day as