By: Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
Since Essex PC MPP Anthony Leardi was elected in 2022, he has hosted a coffee connection event in the communities he represents each winter to engage with residents, and further hear their thoughts, concerns, and ideas on provincial policies and matters.
He has been hosting his fourth annual travelling tour recently, and made a stop in Harrow on the evening of Tuesday, February 10.
“People like to talk face-to-face, they appreciate that,” Leardi said while enjoying a cup of coffee with area residents who stopped by to pay him a visit. Some of the individuals at these events are ones he has met before, while he met others for the first time.
February is a good time of the year to host such events, as it is nice to get people out of the house during those cold spells. It is also a good time of year for Leardi to host these events as the Legislature is not sitting in Queen’s Park, giving him the time and opportunity to connect with local residents in-person.
“Tonight, I heard support for Doug Ford’s Protect [Ontario’s Economy] program. People support that very strongly,” Leardi said.
According to the program’s webpage, it is a plan to secure Ontario’s energy future, make Ontario an energy superpower, speed up approvals to build mines to unlock the economic potential of the Ring of Fire and supply of the critical minerals in the North, protecting workers and their jobs in the most tariff-impacted sectors (like auto, forestry and steel,) and diversifying trade.
“We are going to protect our auto industry and our autoworkers. We are going to protect our aluminum industry. We are going to protect our steel industry. And, we are not going to roll over and play dead. We are going to fight for what is ours, and we are going to keep it,” Leardi said.
He has spoken to residents who own companies locally, which are doing well. “I’m proud of that. I am glad for them. I want to make sure that continues.”
Leardi said he has also connected with professionals who told him it isn’t easy for large industries to leave and set up in the US.
“As we have said at the provincial-level, [President] Donald Trump is harming American business. Donald Trump is harming Canadian business. We should not be working against each other; we should be working with each, other to build a fortressed North America.
He also spoke of how the Provincial government adopted a procurement policy in March of 2025, which noted that anything the provincial government procures has to meet certain Ontario content rules. If they are met, the province can buy from that business. If they do not, it will not.
“That is part of our Protect Ontario Plan,” he said.
In speaking to inter-provincial trade, Leardi relayed that Ontario will host free trade with any Province that provides free trade with Ontario.
“The best way for Canadians to support Canadians is to have inter-provincial free trade,” Leardi commented.
With the 2026 Provincial Budget expected to drop in the near future, Leardi said the Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy has kept a tight lid on the details so far.
Since taking government in 2018, Leardi noted Premier Ford has not increased a single tax or fee.
“In fact, we have done the opposite. We have lowered taxes. We have lowered fees,” Leardi said, noting that includes eliminating the sticker fee for car licenses and the provincial portion of the HST off of qualifying purpose-built rentals. Now, he said, there is an 18% increase in the number of apartments being built in Ontario. “It was a fantastically successful move, and that is bringing down the rents across Ontario.”
He said locally, he received a great response regarding the Province’s infrastructure investments that exceeded $76M to Essex County municipalities through the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund (HEWSF).
“We are going to get shovels in the ground on all those projects, and the dirt is going to be flying in Essex County – let me tell you that,” Leardi said.
At the municipal-level, “valuable infrastructure is the guts that make everything else work.”
The Province’s main goal is to get more housing built, Leardi commented. The biggest cost for housing is infrastructure: the water, sewer, gas, and electrical lines.
“Infrastructure is the biggest cost, and by bringing down the cost of infrastructure, that’s how we build more houses,” he said.
