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London Mayor Ed Holder said his 30-minute meeting Monday morning with Premier Doug Ford was “extremely positive.” The two discussed transit, jobs, affordable housing and the city’s opioid crisis at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

“I found the premier well-versed on London’s issues,” Holder said, adding it was “the kind of meeting that I was hoping to get from the premier.”

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Ford was in the Forest City late last month for the announcement by Maple Leaf Foods it plans to open a chicken-processing plant in London, creating 1,450 jobs.

London’s new mayor has known the premier since at least the days when Ford was a Toronto city councillor. “We go back some years now,” Holder said. “He’s a straight-up person. My sense is he says what he means and means what he says.”

The premier committed to giving Holder a firm answer on the level of the new provincial government’s commitment to transit other than a BRT project in early January. “If we get this response within a month, we’ll be well satisfied,” Holder said. “He absolutely understood my position.”