I was actually fully intending this afternoon to start this speech and kind of read the notes in front of me and talk about the $3.8-billion Roadmap to Wellness, the historic investment that our government has made. I was going to talk about $77.35 million in supportive housing since 2019-20. I was going to talk about 60,000 nurses that have been trained under this government, and health care workers. I was probably going to make a few partisan points about how the members of the opposition voted against all of those investments. I was going to talk about education and how we’ve made a 420% increase in mental health supports for kids in our school system.

But after hearing a lot of speeches and hearing about the importance of this issue, I’m not going to do any of that today. In the spirit of non-partisanship, I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for bringing this forward. Any day that we talk about mental health in this House is a good day for Ontario.

I want to talk a little bit about just some personal experience. I was inspired by some of the stories that we heard from other members in this House. I’ve recently been going to therapy myself. I try to go every two weeks. I don’t always make it every two weeks, but I do it. I do it to deal with my anxiety and some past traumas in my own life. And I really believe that that therapy that I go through makes me a better brother, a better son, a better partner, probably a better legislator—the opposition might disagree sometimes, but I think I’m doing an okay job sometimes.

I just want to say to anybody that’s watching at home that thinks that their brain is broken and wakes up every day trapped in their own head—I know what that feels like. Members of our caucus know what that feels like. Members of this Legislature on all sides of the House know what it feels like. We all have family members; we all have friends. We all have experiences, lived or supported, of our family members where mental health has really kicked us in the butt or kicked our family members in the butt. I just want to say you’re not alone. Go get help. It is a very strong thing to seek help for your mental health, and I encourage everybody to take care of that.

Experience in my own life about—I’ve got a friend of mine that I grew up with—I’ve known him for over 20 years and I’m not very old, so you can talk about what kind of friend that is—who lost his sister a few years ago to suicide. I remember being over there that evening and seeing the pain on his and his father’s faces as they went through that. It was a problem that we never saw coming.

Now, this friend of mine also dealt with different drug addictions—ketamine and some others—as well as alcohol abuse, and that same friend of mine tried to take his own life a few years ago. I’m so thankful that the attempt was unsuccessful and that he’s here with us. But I remember speaking to not only my friend but speaking to his father, who I also consider a friend—I won’t name you—and just seeing the fear in his eyes that not only was he going to lose one kid but lose his second kid a few years later.

So I think it’s important that—I’m new to being a legislator. I’m new to being an MPP. I just want to make sure that these real stories get put on the Hansard because these are issues that we deal with. So if anybody is sitting at home thinking that mental health is a bubble issue that only you deal with, you’ve heard stories from other legislators, you’ve heard some of the stories I’m sharing now. You’re not alone. There is help, and things will get better.

I’ll wrap up the remarks that, look, regardless of the results of this particular vote and regardless of partisanship, I think we can all agree that mental health is in a much better place today than it was a few years ago. As I said, I just want to thank the opposition for bringing it forward. Any time that we talk about mental health in this House is probably a good day for certainly my constituents but certainly for Ontario as well.

I know what it feels like to not want to wake up in the morning, to not want to get out of bed, but I encourage all my constituents and anybody watching: Get out of bed, drink some water and go get the help you need. Tomorrow will be better.