Health Coalition holding referendum vote on Friday & Saturday - Burlingtonians will miss out - they couldn't find any volunteers

By Pepper Parr

May 26th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

They call themselves the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) and they are doing everything they can to keep the hospitals as public places where people can go to for the health services they need.

The provincial government tabled a Bill in the Legislature – Bill 60 – that has resulted in private clinics being set up where people can go to for surgeries and pay for a service that is free if you have an OHIP card.

The Ontario Health Coalition hopes they can gather a million votes and present those numbers to the government then demanding that the government change their policy.

Unfortunately there will not be any voting stations in Burlington. The organizers weren’t able to find any volunteers who would take on the task. That says more than you want to know about the people of Burlington.

The OHC is setting up voting station around the province that will be offering people a ballot they can fill in

It’s a bold move – the teachers did something similar when they ran into problems with the way the province was paying educational assistants.

It is being called the People’s Referendum to stop the privatization of Ontario’s public hospitals – and it takes place on Friday and Saturday.

Referendum voting locations

Look for the signs at the almost 1000 voting stations that will be staffed by thousands of volunteers in a massive effort to force the Ford government to respect democratic process and input on their hospital privatization plans; just don’t expect to see any in Burlington..

Vote counting & results announcement information listed here

Online voting is also available for all Ontario residents at PublicHospitalVote.ca

Voting closes on Saturday, May 27 at midnight.

At time of writing, more than 160,000 votes have been received online and in advance polls.

Province-wide results will be announced outside Queen’s Park on Wednesday May 31 at 10 a.m.

A massive pile of ballots from the people’s referendum will be brought in from across Ontario and piled in front of the Legislature to be delivered to the government. Local health coalitions across the province will be counting ballots on Saturday evening May 27 or Sunday, May 28 as listed below and announcing results locally on Tuesday, May 30 as listed below.