Educator and former Emo councillor says he's 'really passionate about politics in general.'
“I’m really passionate about politics in general,” the educator and former Emo township councillor told Newswatch. “I’ve been involved for many years, since my mid-twenties. And so for me … if there’s an opportunity to get involved in the process again, then I’m willing to do that.
Leek previously ran for the red party in Kenora-Rainy River in the 2011, 2014 and 2022 Ontario elections. His best result was in 2014, when he got almost 16 per cent of the vote.The regional economy is “resource-based pretty heavily here," he said. "There is in Kenora a lot of tourism and there are other communities that do rely on the tourism, but we want to look at finding multiple ways to diversify the industries and to diversify commercialization and so on, and we just want to make sure that people live well.” Health-care funding has been growing in nominal dollar terms “but it’s just not being delivered properly to frontline workers” – and as a result, he said, Ontarians aren’t “getting the care that they need.” Leek has two bachelor degrees from the University of Manitoba and a Bachelor of Education in Indigenous learning from Lakehead University. He has been employed by Seven Generations Education Institute for the last 10 years, currently at its Kenora campus. He was on Emo municipal council for two terms and was president of the Rainy River District Municipal Association for some of that time. Among other community work, he is past president of the Borderland Racing Association and has a leading role in Lake of the Woods Speedway in Kenora. Leek said the Liberal Party is his choice because “personally, I’m a centrist. When I look at governance, I am very pragmatic, I feel, in my approach.” The Liberals take a “pragmatic approach” balancing social issues and “the economy as a whole,” he said. “I’ve always felt, even when there’s shift in policy, that trying to find some sort of middle ground and listening to people, and then trying to provide support with that – I just think that’s really important.” Leek said “we're in a world of a lot of extreme perspectives – almost like a binary type of perspective. It’s either yes or no, and I think that there's a lot more complexity than that.”
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