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Thessalon Rallies to the Highway
Posted: February 19, 2025
(February 19, 2025)
By: Gordon Graham, Shore Report Special Correspondent
Demonstration keeps up the pressure to save Thessalon hospital
Saving the Thessalon hospital has emerged as the top issue for that North Shore town in the current Ontario election.
On February 19, about 100 people marched from the hospital to the nearby Trans-Canada Highway, waving signs to demand funding for the site, which has been closed on several recent occasions.
The Thessalon site of the North Shore Health Network provides the only emergency services in 150 km of highway between Blind River and the Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste Marie.
Demonstrators waved signs at passing motorists in cold, clear weather with a wind chill of -20C. Almost every passing trucker slowed and honked to show their support.
“On such a cold day, this is amazing to get over 100 people out,” said Mary Jane Thompson, the main organizer of both the march and the earlier town hall meeting about the hospital. “And we know many more people who agree who just couldn’t come out in this cold.”
The marchers assembled at Thessalon Hospital, and heard brief remarks from Al Dupuis from the Algoma Health Coalition, Mike Hurley from CUPE, and Sharon Richer from the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
Every speaker blamed Doug Ford for the uncertain future of the Thessalon Hospital and the larger crisis in provincial healthcare. But they held out hope for the demonstrators.
“When the hospital in Richard’s Landing [on St. Joseph’s Island] was threatened a few years ago, people rallied to save that one-bed hospital,” said Dupuis.
“So, we’re putting out two clear demands today. We demand that emergency services in Thessalon remain open, and that the hospital beds here are re-opened with adequate funding to ensure their future.”
With the hospital’s future a hot-button issue, the Algoma-Manitoulin riding is still a tossup, according to 338canada.com which today shows the Conservatives at 38% and the NDP at 36%. The Liberals trail at 10%.
Popular Thessalon mayor Bill Rosenberg, the Conservative candidate, has been a no-show at both events about the town’s hospital.
NDP candidate David Timeriski, on the other hand, has been to both.
“I’m a paramedic,” he told the Shore Report. “And I’m a private citizen. So, I have a vested interest too. I’m going to keep coming to all these events for the hospital here.”
Carol Hughes, NDP MP for the soon-to-be-dissolved federal riding of Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, and current MPP Mike Mantha, former NDP now running for re-election as an independent, also attended both events.
