The London Health Coalition is calling out Progressive Conservative Susan Truppe for declining to attend an all-candidates debate about health care.
The debate is sponsored by the local health coalition along with the Middlesex-Elgin Chapter of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) and will cover public issues raised by both organizations in their election platforms.
The event will only have London North Centre candidates who will be asked about their party’s plans to handle public-health issues including access to nursing care, hospital funding and overcrowding, Ontario’s health system, living standards, the environment and fiscal capacity.
Truppe spoke about some of these issues in an all-candidates debate on Tuesday, May 22 in studio at 980 CFPL.
“We also face a public health emergency, our city has the third highest opioid hospitalization rate in the country.”
She outlined how her party intends to improve the health-care system.
“With us, we are going to listen to health care, we are going to talk to the doctors and nurses and see what is best for our hospitals — we have to talk to the frontlines,” Truppe said.
“We’re adding 30,000 new long-term care beds in order to relieve some of the pressure at the hospitals, and we are investing $1.9 billion which will be a total of $3.8 billion in mental health which is a part of the federal commitment as well.”
Peter Bergmanis, co-chair of the London Health Coalition tells 980 CFPL that it is peculiar that Truppe would talk about health issues on a different platform. He adds that he met with Truppe last week to express his concerns about her absence.
“She said she was busy canvassing,” Bergmanis said.
“This I found odd because isn’t every candidate supposed to be canvassing? And they make time, especially when it is this important.”
Susan Truppe’s campaign communications manager explained to 980 CFPL on Thursday that Truppe receives numerous invitations to events and debates but cannot accept all of them over such a short campaign period. Nick Colosimo added that he reached out to the London Health Coalition last week to set up a one-on-one meeting with Truppe but never received a response.
The Ontario Health Coalition released a statement stating that Truppe’s actions follow numerous Conservative candidates’ refusals to join public debates and all-candidates meetings in recent weeks.
At a press conference on Wednesday, May 23, Bergmanis addressed concerns with Ontario PC Party Leader Doug Ford visiting a private clinic in London while talking about public health care.
Bergmanis said Ford spoke about hospital wait times but failed to specify what he is going to do about it.
“For us, the agenda should be — well, you have to increase funded hospital beds, so that’s at least a 5.3 per cent increase in the funding for the next four years, that means actual bedside care that does not mean it goes to bureaucracy, and we are sadly disappointed that he did not grasp that this is not where you announce a public hospital debate at a private clinic.”
The debate will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 24, at Wolf Performance Hall at the London Public Library’s Central Branch.