{"id":30279,"date":"2025-02-13T18:26:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T23:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=30279"},"modified":"2025-02-26T10:51:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T15:51:34","slug":"grey-bruce-health-coalition-drives-election-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/grey-bruce-health-coalition-drives-election-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Grey Bruce Health Coalition drives election pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(February 13, 2025)<\/p>\n<p>By: South Grey News<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Grey Bruce Health Coalition,<\/em>\u00a0a volunteer-driven non-partisan organization committed to strengthening Ontario\u2019s healthcare system, ensuring adequate primary, emergency and hospital care and opposing privatization of the system, has been busy during Ontario\u2019s election campaign drawing voters\u2019 attention to healthcare system deficiencies and calling on candidates to explain how they would defend and enhance the system.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, February 8, this coalition, in partnership with the\u00a0<em>Greater Toronto\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Brampton Caledon Health Coalitions<\/em>, held a rally in Orangeville in front of the constituency office of Ontario\u2019s Minister of Health, Sylvia Jones, decrying the Ford Government\u2019s creeping privatization of the province\u2019s healthcare system and protesting the government\u2019s response to a range of healthcare shortfalls. On that cold afternoon, over a hundred vociferous but orderly protestors crowded the sidewalk on both sides of Broadway adjacent to Jones\u2019 office, carrying homemade signs and banners, and encouraged by the almost continuous din of passing drivers honking their support for the protestors. \u201cThe public\u2019s support kept us warm that afternoon \u2014 it energized us,\u201d said Norah Beatty of Kiowana Beach near Meaford, Co-Chair of the\u00a0<em>Grey Bruce Health Coalition<\/em>. After listening to a number of speakers, the chanting protestors proceeded for a few blocks to Sylvia Jones\u2019 campaign office to continue the demonstration.<\/p>\n<p>With a nod to rhyming poetry, chants voiced by the crowd included:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSylvia Jones hear us shout,\u00a0Ontario patients want you out!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoug and Sylvia, Sitting in a tree,\u00a0C &#8211; U &#8211; T &#8211; T &#8211; I &#8211; N &#8211; G,\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cFirst comes hospitals then LTC,\u00a0Nothin&#8217; left for you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Grey Bruce Coalition Co-Chair, Norah Beatty was one of the event\u2019s speakers. In her remarks she slammed health system privatization and underfunding and their effects on rural areas in particular. She went on to say that a thousand people in Walkerton recently lined up in a blizzard to sign up for access to a family doctor, 20% of the population of Grey Bruce have no primary care affiliation, and government officials (including the Minister of Health) have blamed doctors, rather than government policies, for many of the primary care shortfalls. Said Beatty, \u201cI never want to see the day when Canadians have medical debt, go bankrupt or go without quality care. Words are cheap. Look at the actual record of the Ford Conservatives. Vote wisely to save public healthcare in all corners of Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brief but energetic speeches were also made by representatives of the\u00a0<em>Greater Toronto Health Coalition<\/em>, the\u00a0<em>Brampton Caledon Health Coalition<\/em>, the\u00a0<em>Orangeville &amp; District Labour Council<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0<em>Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Hospital Division<\/em>. Nathan King, a Shelburne resident and teacher, also spoke.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Grey Bruce Heath Coalition\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0activities continued on the evening of Monday February 10 when it sponsored an all-candidates\u2019 meeting focused on healthcare at the Durham and District Community Centre in Durham. Brenda Scott, Co-chair of the\u00a0<em>Coalition<\/em>, initiated and led the organization of the event. She was assisted by\u00a0<em>The Save The Durham Hospital Committee<\/em>, a group created to protest the removal of inpatient beds from the Durham hospital and the replacement of its 24\/7 emergency department with an emergent\/urgent care clinic with daytime hours only.<\/p>\n<p>A crowd estimated at 175 attended. West Grey Mayor Kevin Eccles expressed greetings from his municipality at the meeting\u2019s outset. Candidates in the riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound who attended and spoke at the meeting included<em>\u00a0NDP\u00a0<\/em>candidate James Cameron Harris,\u00a0<em>Liberal<\/em>\u00a0candidate Selwyn Hicks and\u00a0<em>Green Party<\/em>\u00a0candidate Joel Loughead. Each candidate spoke for three minutes, then candidates answered questions that attendees had submitted at the beginning of the meeting. Candidates for lesser parties were provided with a table at the event to display their pamphlets and were given the opportunity to supply written submissions. In keeping with the\u00a0<em>Progressive Conservative Party\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0dictum in this election that its candidates should not attend all-candidates\u2019 meetings, the local\u00a0<em>Progressive Conservative<\/em>\u00a0candidate Paul Vickers did not attend, but provided written comments that were read at the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>As well, Coalition volunteers continue to distribute the\u00a0<em>Ontario Health Coalition<\/em>\u00a0pamphlet \u201cSituation Critical\u201d during the campaign. Ten thousand pamphlets have been printed, said Norah Beatty, and they are being distributed to newspapers and at public meetings and in restaurants and other publicly accessible facilities across Grey and Bruce counties. She says one of the most promising places to distribute the pamphlets are the waiting rooms in car dealerships, where people have the time to read the pamphlets thoroughly while their vehicles are being fixed. \u201cIf only our government would fix our healthcare system as efficiently,\u201d said Beatty.<\/p>\n<p>As well, the\u00a0<em>Grey Bruce Health Coalition<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0<em>Climate Action Team Owen Sound<\/em>\u00a0are co-sponsoring an all-candidates\u2019 meeting on February 24 at 7pm at the\u00a0<em>Harmony Centre<\/em>\u00a0in Owen Sound. Although the focus is health and climate, questions from other areas of interest to the audience will be answered. All citizens of Grey Bruce-Owen Sound are encouraged to attend.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<em>Grey Bruce Health Coalition\u00a0<\/em>continues its advocacy, throughout and beyond the election, through its Facebook page and\u00a0<span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greybrucehc.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">web page<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and through appearances once a month on Murray Calder\u2019s phone-in radio show on\u00a0<em>CFOS\u00a0<\/em>in Owen Sound.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.southgreynews.ca\/local-news\/gbhc-drives-election-pressure\">Click here for the original article<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(February 13, 2025) By: South Grey News The\u00a0Grey Bruce Health Coalition,\u00a0a volunteer-driven non-partisan organization committed to strengthening Ontario\u2019s healthcare system, ensuring adequate primary, emergency and hospital care and opposing privatization of the system, has been busy during Ontario\u2019s election campaign drawing voters\u2019 attention to healthcare system deficiencies and calling on candidates to explain how they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ohc-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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