Profile: LeBlanc wants business-style accountability

Anthony LeBlanc comes from the world of profit and loss.

If someone at RIM, where LeBlanc worked as the vice-president of global sales, wasn’t performing to the company’s standard, they were fired. And LeBlanc said he believes that’s how government should work.

"Government is just a giant business and it has to be run the same way," The Progressive Conservative candidate for Thunder Bay – Superior North said. "We have said hospital CEOs will have their pay docked if wait time guarantees aren’t maintained."

Cabinet members should take pay cuts if certain measures aren’t met as well, the 41-year-old added.

LeBlanc said his party wants to eliminate waste and end foolish spending.

From a bloated Ontario Power Authority to the province’s 630 agencies and commissions, there are plenty of ways to balance the provincial budget, he said. The Local Integrated Health Networks would also go under a PC government.

"I don’t care if you’re left or right of spectrum I don’t find too many people that have looked at me and said ‘yeah it makes sense that we spend four million dollars on administration as opposed to more nurses and doctors’," LeBlanc said.

Jobs will be the focus for LeBlanc if elected. From remaking the wood allocation process more fair and transparent to scrapping the far north act to allow more development to happen, there’s a lot of life left in the region’s resource industries.

There are 26 million cubic metres of wood out there to be harvested but a lot of it isn’t being used. And the Far North Act would turn the north into a museum rather than an economic engine he said.

"The Far North Act is so mixed up and messed up that the only way to deal with it is scrap it and redo it."

But LeBlanc also wants to remake the north using his experience in the high-tech industry. Government has its place to help and it goes far beyond handing out money he said.

"Just doling money out left and right that’s not a way to stimulate an economy. There has to be a thoughtful approach to ensure the economy grows."

LeBlanc is currently CEO of Ice Edge Holdings. He lives in Thunder Bay with his wife Tracy.
While he didn’t move back to Thunder Bay two years ago to get into politics, the Lakehead University political science major was handpicked by PC leader Tim Hudak. The two met in Thunder Bay and after a long talk, LeBlanc realized he wanted to represent the North.

"Let’s be honest, there are only eight seats (in Northern Ontario) so we’re a bit of an afterthought. We aren’t to Tim," he said.

LeBlanc said that many people have questioned his sanity for taking a run at Liberal incumbent Michael Gravelle. But after knocking on more than 5,000 doors, LeBlanc believes there’s a real challenge coming from the NDP, and not just the Liberals.

"I know Mike. He’s a great guy. I mean you can’t help but like him," he said. "His issue is not his likeability or anything along those lines. His issue is he’s a member of a party that has ignored the north. It is as simple as that."