Premier Doug Ford wants to let predatory private companies buy up parts of Ontario’s health services. This would be a disaster for patients, with the elderly and most vulnerable hit the hardest.

And unless we speak up now, he’ll push ahead – and set a precedent that could eventually destroy Canada’s public health care system.

Greedy for-profit companies can’t wait. Privatizing Canadian health care is their dream come true. But we don’t want to become the US, where getting sick can mean going bankrupt. We have to let Ford and other provincial leaders know that selling off our health care is incredibly unpopular – and could end their political careers:

Ford’s government say privatizing parts of the healthcare system will help fix chronic staff shortages. But if they hadn’t capped pay and imposed appalling working conditions, skilled health care staff wouldn’t have deserted in droves in the first place.

Rather than bringing in greedy companies who will put profits over patients, the government would be better off properly funding health care. We’ve already seen what happens when we kick open the doors to private companies in the for-profit nursing home industry with exposes of abuse, neglect, and poor infection control in some homes.

In a landmark decision in 2020, a British Columbia Justice ensured that access to health care in Canada will continue to be based on need and not on ability to pay with his ruling against Doctor Profit Brian Day. And SumOfUs was there every step of the four year court case starting with the first week of the trial in 2016 when we made a big splash outside the BC Supreme Court.

And we can stop this attempt by Doug Ford to privatize our health care if we join the nurses, doctors, and hundreds of civil society organizations are speaking out now.