KENORA- Anthony Leek holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Indigenous Studies from the University of Manitoba, and a Bachelor of Education in Indigenous Learning from Lakehead University. A former municipal Councillor in Rainy River District, Leek and his family now live in Kenora.
When asked what brought him back into the election warzone, Leek said, “It’s something that has always been on my mind. It was on my mind in 2018, and it just wasn’t going to work out, and it’s been off and on all the way through. I’ve always tried to keep myself invoked, paying attention to the politics of everything, especially provincial because provincial has been something I’ve always been interested in since day one. It is especially being on the town council in Emo, where a lot of the direct relationships are with the province. You want to get your funding; you want to get things done. It’s a lot of negotiating with the province for funding. So, I just kind of naturally went into that. Even though it looked like I kind of disappeared after the second run in 2014. I’ve always tied to stay tuned to what’s going on.”
What’s going on over the last four has significantly changed the way people live. The global pandemic highlighted the staggering problem with our health care. Doctor and nurse shortages have been affecting the region for quite some time, but it’s only recently this information has a giant spotlight. However, the toll the pandemic, and now the war in Uranian, has on the Canadian economy has left many people questioning, how can we afford to live?
“I think it’s really trying to deal with the things that are really affecting people here. We talk about health care is a big one. Education. Affordability is really number one recently because of the pandemic as well as what’s been going on internationally that affects us here, so as far away we are from it, it affects us on a daily basis and more so now than ever before. So, I want to focus on those things and make sure that we have a good strong voice in Queens Park and one that is willing to take ideas and discussion and make it happen. I think it’s really important that the MPP here is able to do that.”
The most troubling issues for the people of Kenora- Rainy River are not on a global scale but right in their backyards. Highway driving can be dangerous, especially during the winter. With the twinning of the Highway 11/17 project from the Manitoba border to Kenora in the works, it should relieve some of the terror one would feel while taking those long drives from remote communities to urban centres. However, terrifying road condition isn’t just a matter of having access to a passing lane. Our climate is changing, and the recent flooding in Kenora has shown that our roads are not up to standard.
Leek wants to take a proactive approach to climate change.
“I think that when we look at climate change and how it’s affecting us on a day-to-day basis, especially here when we look at the flooding that happened, we need to see that if this is an issue based on this circumstance now, well we know this can happen again at maybe a shorter interval,” Leek suggests. “So, we want to look at where our infrastructures are being affected by, in this case, the flooding, and be able to invest in improving the infrastructure so if it were to happen again that we are not being interrupted by it in the same way currently or in the past. As great as the twining is between Kenora and Manitoba, I think the twinning between Kenora and Vermilion Bay or east of that is just as important as well. I’ve seen lots of conversations about how dangerous it can be on the way to Vermillion Bay from Kenora, and I think that is also a priority that should be looked at along the way. So, I am all for improvements in infrastructure and reducing accidents and death out there, but we also need to be mindful of the more dangerous parts of our area that really haven’t had the attention they need.”
