“Ontario deserves better”: Front-line nurses and health-care professionals tell the brutal truth about Premier Ford’s health care fail in new ad campaign

TORONTO, ON., October 22, 2024 – Front-line nurses and health-care professionals from across the province are bluntly speaking out in a new series of advertisements about the grim realities of working in Ontario’s underfunded and understaffed public health-care system. They are warning the public that Premier Doug Ford’s dangerous plot to continue privatizing health care will only make things worse.

“Nurses and health-care professionals are bravely speaking out in their own words in these new ads. They are warning the public the Premier Ford’s expansion of private, for-profit health care is a bad idea that will only make things worse for patients and staff,” says Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) Provincial President Erin Ariss, RN. “We’re taking a stand for Ontario’s public health care.”

ONA is launching the new series of TV, social media and print advertisements as part of their Nurses Talk Truth campaign. The black and white video ads feature nurses and health-care professionals sharing unscripted, stark realities of their work and the negative impacts of the Ford government’s policies, including understaffing, underfunding and the damaging impacts of privatization.

“This campaign highlights Premier Ford’s health care failure. Shifting public money to private care will make staffing shortages even worse and hurt access to timely, high-quality public health care for all Ontarians,” adds Ariss. “Nurses and health-care professionals want better for Ontario.”

ONA is the union representing 68,000 ONA registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

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To arrange an interview, contact:

ONA Media Relations, media@ona.org