Ontario premier’s unprecedented partisan attack on public health worries health experts

“I have no recollection of an attack by a politician of this magnitude on public health officials,” said Ian Culbert, the executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association.

Ford’s comments were made about the council members and public representatives who set public health policy in Toronto but could colour opinion of public health in general, Culbert argued. “For those who take the premier’s messages to heart, they could become dismissive of messages that come out of Toronto Public Health that are really intended to protect and promote their health and wellbeing, the most obvious example being immunization of their children.”