The Tour is Over; Thank you for your support!

Hi everyone, sorry for my short hiatus; the last couple days of the tour were intense and then I moved back home to Ottawa! Firstly, here are the links to some of our media exposure in Brantford, Ontario:

Pharmacy Protest Hits City

Pharmacy Students Protest Subsidy Ban

On May 14 (Friday), we headed to Belleville for what would turn out to be an eventful day. First off, we main-streeted on a (relatively) busy street, and got quite a bit of attention from passersby. A couple of students even got into a heated debate with a man who was against the big pharmacy chains. Then, we headed to Kelly's Pharmacy (Guardian) where we were greeted by pharmacy staff, who thanked us for our efforts for the past two weeks and pumped us up for our meeting with Education Minister and Belleville MPP Leona Dombrowsky (Prince Edward-Hastings). Once we got to her office, we set up outside and began our usual chants, complete with our signs and white labcoats. Local Belleville pharmacists also joined in. It was decided that four of us would go in to meet Dombrowky--Rahim Ismail, Rahman Hussain, Nadeem Remtulla, and myself. Once we got inside, Dombrowsky expressed that she had wanted to talk to all the students (it seemed like a ploy to get the students in from outside, so that they wouldn't attract media attention!) However, we maintained that we were representatives of the students and would voice their concerns. Leona Dombrowsky was quite pleasant to talk to and listened to all of our concerns. She refused to talk to practicing pharmacists but seemed genuinely interested in speaking to students. The entire exchange lasted about half an hour and after one student, Rahman Hussain, explained the issue in simple terms with an analogy, she thanked us for coming and stated that we had enhanced her understanding of the complicated situation! We were impressed with ourselves but left with a somewhat cynical view of the world--these MPPs, who don't even properly understand the situation, are in charge of the future of our professions and the healthcare of Ontarians?! It's unbelievable.

The next day, according to the schedule, we were due to be in London to canvas in Deb Matthews riding. However, we found out that the Liberal Party was holding a policy convention in Collingwood at a Blue Mountain Resort, so we headed there to do what we do best--make some noise and cause some ruckus!! Once we got there, we sat on the bus for about an hour as the organizers negotiated with security to let us out and protest. Finally, they gave us a spot in the parking lot and we were told we had to stay within that compound (there were no other protesters, which was unexpected). So we stood in the parking lot, yelling at the building where the MPPs were meeting. A couple of Liberal aids (wearing red sweaters and Liberal badges) came out and taped us for about an hour, but then went back in. We got a bit of attention from passersby, but to our disappointment, no media came out and worst of all, we didn't get to speak to any MPPs. So we yelled for a couple of hours in the parking lot, and got back on the bus. It was a bit of an anticlimax for the last day of the tour. However, the security guard told us that he had gotten a phone call from a bodyguard inside, asking him who we were, so I guess we were loud enough to be heard inside!

All in all, the tour was a great experience. I learned a great deal about media relations and politics, and had a great time getting to know my fellow students and future colleagues. A big thank you to everyone who followed along with my blog and for your encouraging comments. It's been confirmed that Ontario has delayed the drug reform for about a month--congrats to everyone involved in the campaign...don't stop fighting and let's show them what we're made of!!!

Signing off,
Zenah

Will update later today

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't posted an update from our day in Belleville--it was quite a tiring day. We arrived back to Toronto around 9pm and I got straight into bed, intending on taking a nap...I guess I really needed the sleep since when I woke up, it was morning! Today's the last day of the tour and we are traveling to Collingwood. I will post a summary of yesterday's and today's activities, as well as pictures and videos from the past couple of days, later today.

Thanks for your patience!
Zenah

DAY 13 @ BRANTFORD

So we took off once again from downtown Toronto to the town of Brantford, Ontario. Here, we set up in front of the Brantford General Hospital to protest. It's funny--it seems that every day, we are becoming more and more creative with the cheers. Today, someone came up with "Stopcuts dot C A...call your MPP today!" and "Seven hundred million short...that's why we need your support!!" (we realized that the latter one wasn't too appropriate so we scrapped it!) It was rainy and quite cold, so not alot of pedestrians passed by but we attracted quite a bit of attention from the cars and trucks going by. Also, we had some media coverage from the Brantford Expositor and another local paper.

After a couple of hours we headed to another area of Brantford to canvas. Heather and I were hoping we catch a glimpse of Walter Gretzky, but no luck! In fact, we little luck today. We only talked to about 3 people out of about 40 houses! Either alot of people were at work or just weren't coming to the door. In fact, the whole street was pretty deserted. I think our street was an exception though, since the majority of peers met with and talked to many people who showed interest.

Check out the media coverage from Stratford yesterday:
http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2577783

PHOTOS FROM STRATFORD

No sightings of Justin Bieber, but click the link below to see what we got up to in Stratford!

STOP CUTS @ STRATFORD

DAY 12 @ STRATFORD

Hi everyone, sorry about another really late post!! We spent the day in Stratford, Ontario, home of the Shakespeare Festival (also home of the one and only Justin Bieber!) I had never been to Stratford and found it to be a small, quaint town. We spent some time walking the streets in our white coats and talking to people about the issues. However, it was extremely cold and alot of the people around were tourists!

Next, we hopped on the bus and headed to Sinclair's Pharmacy (Guardian), where we set up across the store at a roundabout of sorts and protested to the public. This was very successful and we were met by countless enthusiastic honks from drivers by as well as several insightful questions. Pharmacy staff from the Guardian came out with STOPCUTS.CA t-shirts to support us. They told us that this year is the 50th anniversary of the store, and they just got a new sign for it, but these cuts have put a damper on the occasion. Our protests drew interest from Stratford youth, and we explained the issues to them and they supported us by texting HEALTHCUTS to 123411 (as you should, too!). Also, every Stratford media outlet came out to cover the story and several of our student team members were interviewed! I have yet to find the articles online but once I do, rest assured that I will post them here, along with the pictures from Stratford.

Then, as per routine, we set off to canvass the streets of Stratford. The area which Heather and I were assigned was composed almost entirely of seniors. Most were in opposition to the cuts, but it was a bit discouraging since most of them had lost faith in the government and believed that they had no power to do anything to change it. We tried to reassure them by telling them that if everyone on this street called their MPP (John Wilkinson), hopefully he'd do something about it! They didn't seem entirely convinced, so I'm not sure that they will actually call. One woman answered her door, and upon asking her "Have you heard about the McGuinty government's proposed funding cuts to pharmacy?" she replied "We've heard about it, we don't understand it, and therefore we don't want to discuss it." Before we could engage in a conversation with her and explain the issues to her, she slammed the door. Perhaps we had caught her at a bad time....

Next stop is the hometown of another great Canadian. Not a world famous pop singer like Justin Bieber, but a great Canadian athlete, none other than the Great One, Wayne Gretzky! See you in Brantford!

KIM CRAITOR'S LETTER TO DEB MATTHEWS

Hi everyone

Please click the link below to read Niagara Falls Liberal MPP's letter to Health Minister Deb Matthews:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1288abc22917272c&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/%3Fui%3D2%26ik%3De44a1e0a02%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1288abc22917272c%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dattd%26realattid%3Df_g93myqwr0%26zw&sig=AHIEtbQ5N_LGMdTN3KjyRW0nt1CU-tFlEA&pli=1

DAY 11 @ NIAGARA FALLS

Today was uncomfortably early for a few of us. 9 of us made it out to Queen's Park at 8AM with the intention of supporting Conservative MPP Christine Elliott present the petitions to the legislature. We were told that our names would be on the security list but once we got in, it turned out that they weren't there! The security guard took our ID and made passes for us (spelling a few of our names wrong, might I add! He used my middle name, Alisha, instead of Zenah, and even spelled it wrong, as you will see in the pictures!), but upon calling the room where we were supposed to go, he claimed that no one was answering. He told us to sit in the lobby and wait, and that'd he'd try again. We waited around for about a 1/2 hour, talking to a couple of other pharmacists in the same predicament. Then, a woman came down and told us that "they no longer needed our services, since the room was full." She wouldn't hear any of our arguments! Some members of our group woke up at 5:30 AM just to get there in time for this important meeting.

Dejected, we decided to kill the 2.5 hours we had left before we had to board the bus by eating breakfast and hanging out at College Park. Later, we boarded the bus and headed to Niagara Falls. Our first stop was the falls, where we were able to take some scenic group pictures. Our next stop was MPP Kim Craitor's office, where we gathered outside and protested. Although Craitor wasn't there, some students were able to speak to him by phone. It turns out that Craitor, although a Liberal, is actually in favour of the pharmacists' position!! What a breath of fresh air! It's great to see that he's not afraid to think for himself despite being surrounded by people who hold a different opinion.

This was followed by a brief session of canvassing in his area (our messaging was different: your MPP supports our position; please support him in this). One thing that we noticed, however, was that in some mailboxes there were "Stop the Cuts" brochures from the coalition targeting Kim Craitor specifically. Craitor expressed confusion, and rightly so, at these brochures in this article:
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2574032

I guess the coalition assumed that he'd be against the pharmacists just because he's a Liberal. Thank you, Kim Craitor, for standing up to the rest of your party and for your support.

Click the link below to view videos and photos from NIAGARA FALLS:

STOP CUTS @ NIAGARA FALLS