Long-term care, PSWs, hospital system top election issues for these voters. Here's why
CBC News | Posted: May 24, 2022 8:00 AM | Last Updated: May 24, 2022
The Ontario election is June 2 and CBC Windsor wants to hear about your top issues
Ahead of the Ontario election, these Windsor-Essex voters say health care is their top priority as they decide who to vote for on June 2.
To have your say, fill out the form at the bottom of this article and tell us your top priorities leading up to the election.
Susan Way, cancer patient
Susan Way, who lives in Wheatley, said she is paying close attention to this election. Way has Stage 4 cancer and said action on health care is pivotal.
"As a general principle it's always going to be important to me because I don't think it's right that people get disadvantaged just because they get sick," she said.
"I don't think they should have a financial disadvantage I don't think they should have differences in treatment. It's just an equitable issue."
Way said she knows her situation is extreme but many families deal with health issues, which makes it hard for them to get by in life.
She's also concerned about the availability of family doctors in the region, after spending months trying to find one on her own, only to be contacted by a local doctor who took her on after seeing her story in the media.
Natalia Funkenhauser, PSW
Natalia Funkenhauser, a personal support worker in Windsor, is worried about how people in her line of work are treated.
She calls it a crisis.
"The whole problem is that they're understaffed, underpaid, and nobody wants to go to work knowing they're going to be understaffed," she said.
"I've worked in many different places where it's three PSWs for, oh God, over 20 people. it's insane."
Funkenhauser said she does a lot of home care, but sees issues in retirement and long-term care homes.
'When I'm in nursing homes, I always feel really bad for what I see, when I see that they're short staffed and I see what's expected of them," she said. "I think it's so wrong."
Lisa Lum, concerned about long-term care
Lisa Lum's former mother-in-law was a resident of a long-term care home.
"Long-term care is huge," said Lum, sharing it as her top concern in this election.
Lum said the facility where her relative was staying often wasn't equipped to handle the residents' needs.
"Our elderly people deserve to be treated with dignity, and they're just not."
Even though she split from her husband, Lum said, she took her mother-in-law from the home to live with her instead because of the treatment she was receiving.
"It ticks me off to such an extent that that home, that the military came into and identified so many operational issues, and not just because of COVID, and that's a for-profit and Ford gives them this amazing extended lease," she said.
Have your say
What are your top issues heading to the polls on June 2? Fill out the form below and let us know: