Silas: Time to Get Loud and Take Action!

As you are already aware, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election on August 3, signaling one of the longest and most expensive elections in our country’s history. 

Experts predict that this was a move done tactically, to help silence the many critics speaking out about the policy decisions that his government has made. One element of those policies is health care, which will lose $43.5 billion in funding over the next eight years.

To date, the issue of health care has not earned the attention it deserves in the leader’s debates, on the front pages of Canada’s newspapers, on radio call-in shows and on broadcast political panels.

Reductions in health care funding symbolize a radical shift in thinking about health care in our country, one that could have drastic impacts on all of our country’s citizens. From seniors waiting for home care or a long-term care bed, to patients who each day are forced to choose between filling their prescription and feeding their families, to the youngest children who will have to live in this new order. Still, no-one is talking about.

Until now.

As one of Canada’s Nurses, you are a member of one of the largest voices on health care in the country. We are nearly 200,000 strong. Our voices are among the most trusted and reliable to voters. We care for patients and their families on the front lines, each and every day.

Together, we must rise up and put this issue on the map. We must demand our leaders address it head-on, and offer real discussion on their visions for the future of our health care system.

For months, we have been preparing for the election with our Vote for Care campaign. Now it’s here, and we need you to help carry our rallying call.

We encourage you to take action, both big and small. For instance, you may want to share a link to the campaign website on your personal Facebook or Twitter accounts, or look for the Canadian Federtation of Nurses Unions' shareable message of the day on social media as we follow the headlines from the campaign trail. You may attend a local all-leaders debate and put a question to them directly. Or write a letter to the editor in your local newspaper.

Be loud and make your voice heard over the next nine weeks.

Stand up and make sure that everyone you know remembers this come October 19: it is up to us to vote for the health care we deserve.

Solidarity Always,

Linda Silas 

Connect with me on Twitter @CFNUpresident #vote4Care