Rob Leone has achieved much success in his educational and business pursuits, but his proudest achievement of all is being a husband to his wife, Kate, and a father of his two young boys.
Rob holds a PhD in public policy and administration from McMaster University. He also holds a MA and BA in public policy and administration.
Rob is known in the Region as a political scientist at Wilfrid Laurier University where he has lectured in Political Science, Leadership and Journalism. For the past several years, he has owned and operated a public policy consulting firm. Rob is also an author having recently published a book in public administration.
Rob Leone has volunteered for Work for a Cure, a Cambridge charity that raises tens of thousands of dollars for cancer-related causes. He is also a former member of the Aurora Lodge on Townline Road. Rob has also participated in government committees based on his expertise in municipal accountability and transparency.
Rob was born and raised in Cambridge. He met his wife when they were in high school in the city. Rob went to Southwood Secondary School and Kate went to Preston High School. His family lives in Ayr.
Why should Ontarians vote for you?
After 8 years of higher taxes, larger debts, and broken promises, we cannot afford another 4 years of Dalton McGuinty. We will respect your family budget by lowering taxes, invest in health and education while restraining government spending in other areas, and bring honesty to government by eliminating waste like e-Health. I was born at Cambridge Memorial Hospital and raised in Galt. I work extremely well with my good friend, MP Gary Goodyear, as I have been the president of his Cambridge riding association. I also have worked with the Mayor and many councillors in the past. I can speak to young, middle-class families that are struggling to pay the bills. Like them, I have a mortgage, kids to take care of, and have to pay ever rising bills. At the same time, our parents are needing more health care. We're concerned to see government spending getting out of control.
If you are elected as an MPP by your constituents, what will your top two priorities be?
The first priority is to ensure that we all work toward infrastructure projects that will benefit this community. It is not helpful to continually make things like our hospital a political issue when there is significant community need for an expansion. Unfortunately, we have only seen more false hope and empty promises when it comes to our hospital over the last 8 years. I plan to be a strong advocate for the hospital because health care has been prominent in my life. My sister-in-law is a doctor at CMH and my wife is a psychologist in the region. My priority is to not play politics with our health care and be its strongest advocate. My second priority is to re-engage with business and community groups. I have set up several meetings with different businesses and community groups who do great work in Cambridge. I often hear from businesses that nobody proactively seeks to talk to them or even thank them for creating jobs here. I have been doing that over the last few months, and that will continue under my leadership. As a small business owner, I want to be the best partner small business in Cambridge has ever had.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing Ontarians?
The biggest challenge facing Ontario is the economy. Under McGuinty's leadership, Ontario has become an economic laggard, a have-not province, and we're collecting equalization payments from the federal government for the very first time. This is the 56th month where the unemployment rate for the province of Ontario has been above the national average. We've lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs. The only jobs created by this government are either new public sector employees or they are in government subsidized industries. Then, to make matters worse, McGuinty proposes an affirmative action scheme that does nothing for the half a million Ontarians who are unemployed. This is neither equal nor fair. When things in the US look so bleak, we cannot afford to have a premier that will drive more jobs out of Ontario, which is what Dalton McGuinty would do with higher taxes and higher energy costs for business.
