Merrilee Fullerton
Ontario Minister of Children, Community and Social Services
In office
June 18, 2021 – March 24, 2023
PremierDoug Ford
Preceded byTodd Smith
Succeeded byMichael Parsa
Ontario Minister of Long-Term Care
In office
June 20, 2019 – June 18, 2021
PremierDoug Ford
Preceded byChristine Elliott
as Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
Succeeded byRod Phillips
Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities
In office
June 29, 2018 – June 20, 2019
PremierDoug Ford
Preceded byMitzie Hunter
Succeeded byRoss Romano
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament
for Kanata—Carleton
In office
June 7, 2018 – March 27, 2023
Preceded byRiding established
Succeeded byKaren McCrimmon
Personal details
BornWhitehorse, Yukon, Canada
Political partyProgressive Conservative
Residence(s)Kanata Lakes,[1] Ottawa
EducationUniversity of Ottawa
OccupationPhysician

Merrilee K. Fullerton[1] is a Canadian physician and former politician who represented Kanata—Carleton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2018 to 2023. A member of the Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, Fullerton was the minister of training, colleges, and universities from 2018 to 2019, minister of long-term care from 2019 to 2021, and minister of children, community and social services from 2021 to 2023.

Early life and education

Fullerton was born in Whitehorse, Yukon,[2] and grew up in the Beaverbrook neighbourhood of Kanata, Ontario.[3] She is a graduate of the University of Ottawa's medical school.[4]

Medical career

Fullerton initially practiced from the Carleton Place and District Hospital before going into private practice as a family physician in the Ottawa area.[4] She practiced medicine in Ontario for 27 years, and also spent time in Alberta during her medical training.[2] She first practiced out of the Carleton Place Hospital, before opening a practice as a family physician at Med-Team Clinic in Kanata.[3]

Fullerton is a former president of the Academy of Medicine Ottawa and served as a member of the Health Professionals Advisory Committee of the Champlain Local Health Integration Network.[2] She was selected as a City of Ottawa Board of Health member for a four-year term which ended in 2014. She was also a member of The Ottawa Hospital’s Community Advisory Committee from 2008 to 2010.[2]

Fullerton was a representative on the Ontario Medical Association Council as well as a delegate to the Canadian Medical Association Council. In those roles, she brought forward concepts regarding the sustainability of Canada’s healthcare system, health human-resource planning, social determinants of health, and virtual care, including mHealth, also known as "mobile health".[2] Most recently, Fullerton assisted in creating and delivering a leadership program for women physicians.[2] She has advocated for a hybrid public healthcare system in Canada.[2]

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario website indicates that her licence expired in 2014 when she resigned from membership.[5]

Columnist

Fullerton wrote a number of columns in the Ottawa Citizen from 2004 to 2007.[2] Her columns were on a variety of information related to general health and the healthcare system. She also ran a medical blog on her website.

Political career

Fullerton entered provincial politics in 2016, declaring her intention to run against then-Progressive Conservative MPP Jack MacLaren in Kanata-Carleton. MacLaren caused and encountered a number of issues around this time. On May 28, 2017, MacLaren was kicked out of the Ontario PC caucus and barred from being a candidate in the 2018 election,[6] leading to a two-way race between Fullerton and Police Sergeant Rick Keindel.[7] Fullerton won the nomination.

Fullerton came under fire during the 2018 campaign for her tweets, which were labelled Islamophobic by the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Committee, as well as for blocking Muslim leaders in her community on Twitter.[8] She was also accused of being in favour of a two-tier healthcare system,[9] a claim which she disputes.

After being elected in the 2018 Ontario general election, she was appointed to Premier Doug Ford's cabinet as the Minister of Colleges and Universities.[10]

In 2019, Fullerton was shuffled and became the Minister of Long-Term Care.[10] During the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, about 3,800 residents died from COVID and thousands more infected, by the time Fullerton was shuffled out of that role in June 2021.[10] The situation in five nursing homes required Ontario to get help from the Canadian Armed Forces.[10] In April 2021, both the Auditor General of Ontario and the independent Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission issued reports finding that the Ontario government had reacted too slowly to the spread of COVID-19 and that decades of neglect from Fullerton and her predecessors had left it systematically unprepared to deal with a pandemic. Fullerton came under fire for dodging questions on the reports and blaming the actions of Liberal predecessors, but committed the government to implementing some of the recommendations.[11][12][13]

In June 2021, Fullerton was reassigned as the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. During her tenure, Ontario failed to meet its targets of 8,000 families getting funding for autism therapies by Fall 2022 and stopped updating the public and the press on progress on the file. The Ontario Autism Coalition complained that it had not been consulted by Fullerton and that she never gave a press conference on the issue.[10]

On March 24, 2023, Fullerton issued a public statement that she was resigning as both a cabinet minister and MPP, effective immediately.[14][10] However, her resignation as an MPP was effective March 27.[15] The by-election for her successor was scheduled for July 27, 2023.[16]

Electoral record

2018 Ontario general election: Kanata—Carleton
Party Candidate Votes%±%
Progressive ConservativeMerrilee Fullerton23,08943.19-2.39
New DemocraticJohn Hansen15,59229.17+15.21
LiberalStephanie Maghnam9,09017.01-16.35
GreenAndrew West2,8275.29-1.81
TrilliumJack MacLaren1,9473.64
LibertarianPeter D'Entremont5240.98
None of the AboveRobert LeBrun3840.72
Total valid votes 53,45399.22
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 4180.78
Turnout 53,87162.32
Eligible voters 86,449
Progressive Conservative notional hold Swing -8.80
Source: Elections Ontario[17]

Cabinet posts

References

  1. 1 2 "Search For Contributions". Elections Canada. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 http://www.merrileefullerton.com/profile/
  3. 1 2 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2016-11-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. 1 2 "Election primer: Kanata-Carleton". Ottawa Citizen. May 29, 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ "CPSO - Doctor Details". doctors.cpso.on.ca.
  6. ↑ Jones, Allison (May 28, 2017). "Controversial Ont. MPP Jack MacLaren kicked out of caucus". CTVNews.
  7. ↑ Cunha, Jessica (June 30, 2017). "Merrilee Fullerton wins PC nomination in Kanata-Carleton". Toronto.com.
  8. ↑ "Elfeitori: Why Merrilee Fullerton should apologize for tweets about Muslims". Ottawa Citizen. 2018-06-04. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  9. ↑ "Kanata Tory called for privatized health care, Liberals charge". Ottawa Citizen. 2018-05-09. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Casey, Liam; Jones, Allison (March 24, 2023). "Ontario PC cabinet minister Merrilee Fullerton resigns". The Toronto Star. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  11. ↑ Beattie, Samantha (May 3, 2021). "Long-term care minister dodges questions in 1st press conference since independent report". CBC News. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  12. ↑ Carter, Adam (April 28, 2023). "Ontario's long-term care sector wasn't ready or equipped for COVID-19: report". CBC News. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  13. ↑ "CAF Operational Observations LTCF" (PDF). 2020-05-14.
  14. ↑ Merrilee Fullerton [@DrFullertonMPP] (March 24, 2023). "This afternoon I spoke with the Premier and tendered my resignation as MPP for Kanata-Carleton and as Minister of Children, Community & Social Services, effective immediately. It has been a distinct honour to have represented the residents of Kanata-Carleton" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 24, 2023 – via Twitter.
  15. ↑ "Resignation of member for Kanata–Carleton". Ontario Hansard. March 27, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Two Ontario provincial byelections called for July 27 | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  17. ↑ "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  18. 1 2 "Ontario Newsroom".
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