Deb Deller, Clerk of the Ontario Legislature, Vic Fedeli and his respected Executive Assistant Clint Thomas at Vic's swearing in at Queen's Park July 2, 2014. PHOTO SUBMITTED.
What started out as two people working together on a Call-In show on TVCogeco has turned in to a tremendous working relationship.
Now Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is looking seriously at running for the Ontario PC Leadership and his Executive Assistant Clint Thomas would be right by his side.
“I met Clint when I was the mayor of the city of North Bay,” said Fedeli.
“Of course, as somebody who was born and raised in North Bay I always listened to him on the radio during his broadcasting days. But as mayor of the city of North Bay Clint hosted a Call-in show on our local cable station. We really got to know each other there because for many, many years we would meet on the first Tuesday of every month and do a live broadcast where he would pose questions and we would take calls and we just got to know each other through there, enough that we thought maybe we’d do a couple of rounds of golf together and we did get to know each other socially as well.”
For three years now, Thomas has operated Fedeli’s Toronto office basically all on his own.
On top of that, Fedeli says the former CKAT News Director has become the envy of other MPP’s at Queen’s Park.
“First of all Clint has a very high level of respect, an impeccable reputation and a reputation as the go to guy at Queen’s Park when it comes to Executive Assistants or modelling an executive assistant,” Fedeli says about Thomas, who began working for the Nipissing MPP in October of 2011.
“He is a bit older than the EA’s there, so he brings a sense of maturity. He has tremendous depth of experience, whether it was as News Director in North Bay or with his career in news in Toronto. He understands what the news people need to be sent in a news release. He has a tremendous discipline, he’s a machine, everybody will tell you, Clint is a machine.”
Thomas is flattered and humbled by the recognition.
“I think I just try to work hard, try to set an example in doing so, and I have just tried to be a team player. You really need to work as a team, I try to show some leadership in that respect. Those are the things I try to do on a daily basis serving the people of Nipissing and in a broader sense the people of Ontario,” said Thomas.
Fedeli points to Thomas doing a tremendous job sifting through the thousands of documents during the Ontario Liberals Gas Plant Scandal, as some of his best work.
He also became a key contributor in the PC War Room during the run up to the June 12th Provincial Election.
“He worked in the war room and he was one of the calm leaders in that room. He rose to every challenge presented,” Fedeli stated.
And if Fedeli does make the step forward and go for the Tory Leadership, he knows he wants Thomas to be there.
“Clint has played a critical role in almost every word which has come out of our office and should I decide to progress along into a leadership bid, Clint will be at my side of course, and in many cases in front dragging me along and I would expect him to continue to play an absolutely critical role in our future together.”
