The Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) are working together to defend public health care.
Together we organized town hall meetings in communities including Winnipeg (April 17), Moncton (April 23), Bridgewater (April 29), Regina (June 23), North Bay (June 24), Charlottetown (August 26), Oshawa (September 4), Sault Ste. Marie (September 18), Campbell River (October 20), Courtenay (October 21), St. John’s (December 1) and Corner Brook (December 2). Along with these town hall meetings, other critical elements of this campaign included door knocking, leafleting and mail outs in key ridings.
In a new 11-page summary of our joint campaign, CUPE president Paul Moist and Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow write, “This report captures the key components of the campaign, where we went, what we heard and how we act, collectively, to preserve and enhance Canada’s Medicare system. It’s not too late to act, in fact it is our duty to do so for today’s and future generations of Canadians.” The report highlights that 42,500 doors were knocked on, 103,500 leaflets were distributed and 59,500 leaflets were mailed.
Among the comments heard during this campaign that were noted in this report:
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“Wealth should never determine health.” -
“Nanos poll – 84% of Canadians feel Medicare is threatened.” -
“Private privileged interests cannot trump public interests.” -
“Federal retreat from medicare funding is a treasonous act.” -
“Medicare without Pharmacare is quite hypocritical.” -
“Every generation must fight to defend Medicare.”
The report concludes, “Election 2015 will be about many things, including the state of Medicare and our federal commitment to public health care. Our Health Accord Campaign showed us that Canadians care about public health care. It is a priority worth fighting for.”
To read the full report, please click here. For more about our joint campaign, please click here and on Twitter be sure to follow @SaveRhealthcare.
We express our deep appreciation to CUPE for their support and partnership in this campaign.
Further reading
2014 save our health care tour wrap up (December 2014 blog by Michael Butler)
