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Letter: Local doctor’s candidacy at odds with party’s positions

A former Chelmsford resident finds it strange that local federal Conservative candidate and family doctor Ian Symington seems fine with running for a party that, in her view, takes positions that contravene good health care  
Letter to the Editor
typewriter pexels-cottonbro-3945337 (From Pexels by Cottonbro)
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Want to talk hypocrisy? Will Dr. Ian Symington (federal Conservative candidate in Sudbury) stand on all of his party’s positions?

Don’t take it from me. Take it from multi-award-winning Canadian journalist Michael Harris, who is doing incredible work on the Poilievre file. 

The Poilievre Conservatives are masterful at saying almost nothing about what their flimsy, cultish slogans actually mean — but Harris knows who Poilievre really is: a “lifelong politician with no work experience outside the Centre Block” and “attack dog” for former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. 

My question is, given what we know about Poilievre, why is Dr. Ian Symington, a physician in Sudbury, standing behind him?

In a recent article in The Tyee, Harris notes, “In 2023, Poilievre voted to cut funding for surgery and emergency room wait time by $196 million, just as in 2012, as a member of the Harper government, he voted to cut $43.5 billion in health-care transfers.” 

Does this sound like something a doctor in Sudbury should stand for?

Harris continues, “In his current role, Poilievre also voted against a national school food program, new dental care, [and] pharmacare.” 

When the Sudbury Food Bank is telling us demand is through the roof, and that people are struggling to make ends meet, Poilievre is standing in the way of taking care of people’s teeth and helping with their medicine. Does blocking food to kids and promoting further health care poverty sound like something a doctor in Sudbury should stand for?

Poilivre also tried to foist a bill on Canadians last year to block mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations on “federal workers and the travelling public.” The total number of deaths in Canada from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic? According to the Government of Canada, 60,871 as of Sept. 21, 2024. 

Does trying to block life-saving vaccinations sound like something a doctor in Sudbury should stand for?

The next time you see Dr. Symington, ask him which parts of Poilievre’s plan sound good to him when he’s at work on behalf of the people of Sudbury.

I’ll give Harris the last word on this, because he’s right: “It’s time for Canadians to put aside their Trudeau-phobia and take a hard look at what the politician likely to replace him really has on offer.”

Sybil MacMillan
Former Chelmsford resident