SUN joined close to 1,000 nurses wearing white in marching down historic Barrington Street in Halifax this Friday, June 6, 2015, for the official launch of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions’ effort to emphasize health care issues during the upcoming federal election campaign.
For the first time, nurses from across the country are asking Canadians to vote for the health care they deserve. To date, no political party has made its platform clear, but nurses feel an obligation to address key areas of concern as Canada’s election date approaches. The CFNU has urged all political parties to make their positions on federal support for public health care clear during the campaign for the October 19 federal election.
CFNU President Linda Silas, Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, Hassan Yussuf, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, and Cameron Westhead, newly elected New Democrat MLA for Banff-Cochrane in Alberta, addressed nurses along the march.
The rally was one of the final major events of the CFNU’s 17th Biennial Convention which began Monday at the Halifax World Trade and Convention Centre. The CFNU represents approximately 200,000 frontline nurses across Canada through its affiliated unions. Nursing union leaders from throughout Canada, including the presidents of most Canadian nurses’ unions, attended the Halifax conference.
