I’m really excited to be writing this blog today! On September 13th, members of the Council of Canadians will be gathering from across Ontario for a march and rally to safeguard health care! At 12:00 noon on Tuesday, September 13th, we will gather together with senior’s groups, labour unions and others at Queens Park in Toronto.
Can’t be there in person? Your voice can…see below how you can send your personal message on health care.
In the lead up to the Ontario provincial election on October 6th, we must send provincial candidates the clear message that public health care is a priority for Ontarians. Ontario needs more hospital beds (it has the fewest beds per capita of any province or territory in Canada and ranks at the bottom in the OECD), more public long term care facilities, more home care, affordable prescription drugs and transparency throughout their health care system. We need to stop hospital/ER closures and the building of P3s. And perhaps most importantly, Ontarians need a strong provincial leader who is committed to strengthening medicare, upholding the principles and enforcing the provisions of the Canada Health Act and fighting to negotiate a strong health care accord.
The rally and march are being organised by the Ontario Health Coalition, who are also coordinating buses to bring in hundreds more people from various points across Ontario. See below for a list of communities with bus service and the phone numbers of bus captains. Call to secure your spot! If there is not currently a bus in your area but you are interested in organizing one, please email me, Adrienne Silnicki, at asilnicki@canadians.org and we’ll try to organize something with you.
Send your personal message on health care: Whether you are planning to attend the rally or not, call 1-855-452-2511 and record a short (less than 20 seconds) message about why you’re voting for health care. The Council of Canadians will take your voice with us and broadcast it on our rally float to further demonstrate just how strongly Ontarians support public health care. Think short messages so that people lining the streets can hear at least one full message each as our float passes by! Here are a couple of examples:
“Marc Silnicki, Peterborough, ON, I’m voting for health care because we need strong pro-medicare leadership in the 2014 Health Care Accord renegotiation”.
“John Doe, Timmins, ON, I’m voting for health care because my dad needs an affordable long term care bed.”
Please share this blog with friends, family and supporters of public health care. We’d love to see lots of people out and send a strong message to McGuinty, Hudak, and Horwath (all who are expected to be in attendance) that Ontarians will only elect someone who is committed to strengthening and expanding public medicare.
I hope to see you on September 13th – look for the big yellow Council of Canadians banners! If you can’t attend, please call 1-855-452-2511 and let your voice on health care be heard.
Bus Captains:
Sarnia/Lambton Arlene 519-542-1895
Windsor Katha 519-259-8100
St. Marys Gayle 519-284-8072
Chatham/Kent Shirley 519-677-4474
Port Elgin Grey-Bruce Len 519-389-4490
London Jeff 519-473-6191 or Shirley 519-842-3498
Guelph Magee 519-767-0084
Niagara Sue 905-932-1646
Kingston Dan 613-549-8399
Ottawa Marlene 613-222-8392
Peterborough Roy 705-745-2446
Northumberland Peggy 905-885-4005
Burk’s Falls/Huntsville/Bracebridge Barb – 705-783-4431
Oshawa Charlie 905-728-5715
Brampton Jagtar 416-879-0963
