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Born Tony Panayi to a Greek-Cyrpiot father and Canadian mother in Britain, Clement immigrated to Canada in childhood with his mother and later adopted his last name from his stepfather, Ontario politician John Clement.
As a student conservative activist Clement first attracted the attention of the media in 1985 when he invited apartheid South Africa's Ambassador to Canada, Glenn Babb, to speak at the University of Toronto.
A graduate of U of T, he completed degrees in political science in 1983 and law in 1986, and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1988.
Clement became president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in 1990 and became a close ally of then-party leader Mike Harris. Clement won election to the Ontario legislature in 1995 as a a PC candidate in his hometown of Brampton, Ontario. He went on to serve in the Harris cabinet first as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing until 2000 and then, most notably, as Minister of Health.
When Harris unexpectedly resigned in 2002, Clement ran for the leadership of the Ontario PCs coming in third place behind winner Ernie Eves and runner-up Jim Flaherty. When Eves became Premier he kept Clement on in the health ministry.
As Health Minister, Clement received accolades for his stewardship during the SARS crisis that hit Toronto in the summer of 2003. However, during the crisis Clement noted that he hadn't been aware that most nurses had to keep down more than one job to make ends meet and described the health system as "close to collapse". Critics point out that it was the policies of his Tory government, particularly cuts to health in the first years of the Harris government, privatization of parts of the system and the laying off of thousands of nurses, that led to the system's near collapse in the face of crisis.
Clement lost his seat in the legislature when the Eves government was defeated in the 2003 provincial election.
A staunch conservative and admirer of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Clement has been a longtime supporter of the Canadian Unite the Right movement. He sat on the United Alternative steering committee and was the founding president of the Canadian Alliance. As Ontario health minister, he was often criticized for being too right-wing to administer the province's medicare system earning himself the nickname "two-tier Tony."
Clement is expected to run in the 2004 Canadian election in the riding of Brampton West regardless of the outcome of the Conservative party's leadership race.