MoxyGG 💫🇨🇦

Trusting the journey ✨Living life with moxy

[Tyler Watt 🇨🇦 @tylerwatt]

Doug Ford you are the Premier of Ontario, not the Premier of Toronto. Northern Ontario is burning. Ottawa is still recovering from devastating floods.

These disasters may look different, but they expose the same problem: when Ontarians need their government most, this government is falling short.

We need a government that is prepared, invests in prevention, and is there for communities before, during, and after disaster strikes. #onpoli

[Ontario Liberal Party | Parti Libéral de l'Ontario @OntLiberal]

Minister Cho’s resignation isn’t the end of the latest Doug Ford scandal.

Conservative GTA MPPs spent $100K+ in taxpayer money on hotels. What were taxpayers paying for? Hotel rooms on non-sitting days? Premium stays? Personal expenses?

Accountability needs to be taken. Until the government releases the receipts, this resignation is just papering over the cracks.

#onpoli #FordNationStaycation

[Birgit Umaigba-Omoruyi @birgitomo]

Ontario already has the lowest number of RNs per capita in Canada, and now more RN cuts are being announced. Longer waits. More hallway medicine. More burnout. Fewer nurses. It’s an endless cycle. You don't solve a health care crisis by eliminating the very professionals who keep the system running. #ONpoli

[Tyler Watt 🇨🇦 @tylerwatt]

Are you serious with this post? Hundreds of hospital nurses fired this week in Ontario. Like I’ve said to you numerous times in QP, you are doing nothing to retain nurses.

The student nurses in your free tuition program won’t be even able to find a job in their area, per contract, and will have to pay back the $40k in tuition. Get your head out of the sand, Minister. #onpoli

[Tyler Watt 🇨🇦 @tylerwatt]

Sending support to my fellow nurses in British Columbia taking strike action to fight deteriorating workplace safety, unfair pay, and burnout.

Nurses deserve safe working conditions and the support they need to provide quality patient care. Stay safe, and I hope a fair deal is reached soon. You’re fighting for nurses everywhere. @BCNursesUnion
https://t.co/ZRf43SQQGe

[MoxyGG 💫🇨🇦 @MoxyGG]

Enjoy! 😊

[Tyler Watt 🇨🇦 @tylerwatt]

More nurses are being cut across Ontario.

This is exactly why I continue asking the Health Minister what the Ford government is doing to retain nurses. Every time, I get talking points instead of answers.

The consequences are real. Hospitals are cutting front-line staff, nurses are burning out, and patients are waiting longer for care.

Ontarians deserve a government that invests in the nurses and healthcare workers who care for us, not one that keeps asking them to do more with less. #onpoli
https://t.co/Gqlr6knq7h

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

Doug Ford's tsunami of cuts are hitting hospitals all across the province. Fewer nurses on every shift. Longer waits. Patients paying the price. It doesn't have to be this way. In Manitoba, Wab Kinew's NDP government legislated nurse-to-patient ratios and it's working.

We've introduced the same thing here and the Conservatives keep voting it down. Our Shadow Health Minisiter France Gélinas is bringing it back this fall – and we're going to need your help to pass it.

[Chris Glover @chrisglover]

Ford is cutting thousands of nurses from Hospitals & Long Term Care homes across Ontario.

"The Ford government is intentionally underfunding our public health-care system in its quest to justify more privatization," Ontario Nurses Association.

#onpoli

https://t.co/vN8HgrFsUX

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

I thought we figured out after the last Ontario Conservative Premiers Harris and Eves that cutting nurses from hospitals with a growing, older and more medically complex population was a disastrous idea. This new reality is nothing short of crazy.
https://t.co/ldGYbbqFuL

[Iris Gorfinkel, M.D. @DrGorfinkel]

🇨🇦 Ottawa's Queensway Carleton Hospital

🏥Built to serve 100,000
..but cares for 500,000

🏥Designed for 63,000 patients/year
..but treats 83,000 yearly

🏥 Avg ER stay for admitted patients 17.5 hours

@fordnation's "plan" ?
ELIMINATE 87 RN positions

https://t.co/nppNqbHBEj

[Tyler Watt 🇨🇦 @tylerwatt]

Doug Ford claims to be making record investments in Ontario’s healthcare system. The reality? Hospitals are being forced to work more with less. The QCH announced the layoffs of 87 RN’s, citing financial pressures.

This government has gotten their priorities all wrong. We need to be adequately funding our public health care system, invest in access, prevention, and community care, and ensure they have the resources capable of providing the quality-of-care Ontarians deserve. #onpoli
https://t.co/0GNgnlOzOe

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

The loss of 87 nurses from the Queensway-Carleton Hospital is scandalous. Make no mistake this will impact patient care. Thank you MPP Watt for speaking out on this travesty by the Ontario Conservative government.

[Team Canada @TeamCanada]

World record broken on night one in Montréal 🇨🇦

Summer McIntosh delivered a historic performance in the women’s 200m butterfly at the 2026 Canadian Swimming Trials, stopping the clock in 2:01.65 to better a mark that had stood since 2009.

[AJ Punk 🇨🇦 @SilentSnow89]

@Acyn

[Tyler Watt 🇨🇦 @tylerwatt]

"Liberal Tyler Watt said in a statement that while the government blamed students and increasing costs, the documents 'tell a very different story.'

He said the government should release the civil servants’ recommendations in full.

'Ontario students deserve to know what advice was rejected, who rejected it, and why Doug Ford chose to gut OSAP instead of fixing the real issue,' he said in a statement." #onpoli
https://t.co/3UYJfgJXv3

[Tyler Watt 🇨🇦 @tylerwatt]

High-performing students who are balancing school with sports, music, the arts, volunteering, or other extracurriculars shouldn't be punished for it.

These experiences don't take away from a student's education - they are part of it. They build leadership, discipline, teamwork, and prepare young people for life beyond the classroom. Policies that could hurt final grades, university admissions, or scholarship opportunities completely miss the point.

If the government wants to improve attendance, it should focus on the real issues: smaller class sizes, better mental health supports, and safer schools.

Let's invest in students, not punish them. #onpoli
https://t.co/9ju59dUwz2

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

Hi Ben, thanks for commenting. Allow me to elaborate. 

First, nice to meet you. We may disagree on policy. But like many Canadians I have a deep respect for the commitment of your family to the betterment of our great nation.

Second, you raised that I'm making a political point which I disagree with. My arguments are based on medical foundations, which you correctly noted is my expertise. Where I think you are right is that policy disagreement can seem political. 

Ben, I don't belong to a political party. I've been an Ontario ER doctor for 20 years. I take care of diabetes, hypertension and addictions daily. I'm a full-time ER doc engaged in civic matters. And while I may criticize conservative policy Ben, I am able to praise Leader Poilievre (yesterday), Premier Ford (June 24) and Deputy Premier Jones (May 19, 26, 28) when I think they get it right. Like you Ben, I'm interested in good public policy with my orientation to the average and lower-income Canadian. 

Third - let's look at it - but I think you and I will agree on most public health policy around addictions, but not all. But first - my wheelhouse - medicine.

The foundations of medicine are the foundations of 1) chronic disease management and 2) addictions. 

The Four Pillars of Addiction Medicine:

1) Law enforcement - here Ben, we likely agree. People who violate our laws should face the criminal-justice system. As has been shown however, I don't think arresting and incarcerating someone for active drug use is the solution. They need medical care and wrap-around social services. Incarceration is far more expensive than hospital care which is far more expensive than shelters which is far more expensive than safe consumption sites. I hope we can agree a criminal-justice approach to the homeless fentanyl user (who I take care of almost daily) isn't compassionate, effective or a good use of taxpayer's money. 

2) Education/Prevention - here Ben, we likely agree. You and I likely agree all Ontarians should be drug-free. We should educate adults and children about the harms of recreational drug use. It wrecks human lives. I see it daily. Patients I have taken care of are now dead too early. You and I likely agree on the goal of total drug abstinence. We should inform those with addictions that there is no barrier addictions support (walk-in) Monday to Friday in Toronto. 

3) Treatment - here Ben, we likely agree. We likely agree Premier Ford's expansion of HART hubs is a good policy idea. We likely agree low barrier medical detox and treatment facilities should be expanded. We likely agree we are not meeting the need for treatment, because too many Ontarians still die from toxic drugs. And let's agree that it's mostly non-Toronto, young, Caucasian men of lower income that are mostly dying (with First Nations over-represented in deaths). 

4) Harm reduction - here, we may disagree but we shouldn't. Harm reduction is not a dirty phrase. It's what physicians do for a living. For the vast majority of diabetics I examine, I don't have a cure for their condition (and neither does their family MD or endocrinologist). But I treat exacerbations of their condition, we aim to improve their diet, promote exercise, counsel on adherence to medications - and this reduces the harm of their yet untreatable condition. This is harm reduction. There is no other way to describe it medically. The same holds for hypertension. For many Canadians we counsel diet (reduced salt), exercise, stopping smoking and excess drinking, weight loss and medications - because for some, their high blood pressure is incurable. Of note, some hypertensives can be cured and de-prescribed medications. 

I hope you can see how for diabetes and hypertension, physicians employ harm reduction. The same applies to addictions. 

For addictions, we should want law enforcement, education, treatment and harm prevention. Lacking harm prevention is like driving a 3-wheeled car. It can work, but it's not optimal. 

For addictions, the point of harm reduction is that it is supposed to be a bridge to somewhere. A bridge to abstinence, housing, social supports and a better life.

Two hang-ups for some are two big myths:
1) Harm reduction increases crime
2) Harm reduction doesn't work. 

Myth: harm reduction (safe consumption) increases crime
-In November 2025, McGill researchers looked at 10 years of Toronto Police data. Harm reduction sites were found to be associated with stable or less crime. Journal of the American Medical Association. https://t.co/rxeEp9x8nQ

Myth: harm reduction (safe consumption) doesn't work to save lives
-In February 2024, Toronto researchers looked at and showed safe consumption sites saved lives, The Lancet. https://t.co/yQlLOH8KhX

Thanks for reading. Ultimately, if you examine this issue from a strictly medical lens, the foundations of medicine are the foundations of addictions medicine. We have unfairly villainized harm reduction when it is what doctors in Ontario and Canada do everyday. We want to cure human disease, but when we cannot, we try to lessen the effects of the condition, and that is harm reduction - whether for diabetes, hypertension or the homeless fentanyl user. 

Thanks Ben, Raghu