Former Medical Officer of Health Seeks Green Party Nomination

Jeff Green | Nov 17, 2021

Dr. Marlene Spruyt and her husband Simon Packwood-Greaves retired to the Ardoch area a year ago, to a Pine Lake property that they purchased three years earlier.

Her last year of work was a pretty stressful one, as she was the Medical Officer of Health in the sprawling Algoma District during the first 9 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After spending her entire career working in rural healthcare, first as a family physician and later in Public Health, she said that she has been enjoying living in North Frontenac, hiking and paddling and biking, and spending time with family.

“It is a beautiful place to live, and we also have family in the Sydenham area, so we wanted to live close to them,” she said.

Her son and daughter in-law run Frontenac Outfitters, near Frontenac Park.

With some time on her hands, and a lifetime thinking about the social determinants of health, she has been thinking about getting more involved in politics, as they relate to what she sees as the most pressing long term threat to our well-being as communities, climate change.

For those reasons, and because she “felt a little restless”, she answered the call from the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston riding association, of the Green Party of Ontario, for a candidate to contest the next Ontario provincial election, which will take place in early June of next year.

With the call for candidates closing this week, Dr. Spruyt joins Carleton Place based Maddy Dever, who is described in a riding association release as an autism advocate, in seeking the nomination. Both of them have now been through the provincial vetting process and are cleared to seek the nomination. A meeting will be set up, likely in December, where members of the riding association will select a candidate.

“Climate change is a threat to our families, communities and our economy,” said Dr. Spruyt in a statement this week. “We are beginning to see how extreme weather events destroy properties, damage communities and disrupt livelihoods. After a career supporting the health of individuals as a family doctor, and then the well-being of communities as a public health physician, I now wish to focus my energies on reducing the negative impacts that climate change will have on our society and particularly on our vulnerable populations.”

In a telephone interview on Monday, she said that the Green Party's focus fits well with the policy work she has been involved with in public health.

“I am interested in looking at how we can make policy that promotes the health and wellness of the people who live in this province, particularly in the kinds of rural areas where I have worked for many years,” she said.

She also said that we can learn lessons from the battle against COVID, that she was integrally involved with last year, and continues to have a hand in through some of the consulting work that she continues to do.

“COVID is a dress rehearsal for some of the things we are going to have to do for climate change,” she said.

She also brings a perspective about some of the threats that come with climate change.

“Not many people know that malaria was present in Ontario back when the Rideau Canal was being built, among the workers who were digging the mud to build it. We could see malaria and other diseases that are considered to be tropical diseases, in our communities, in a few years,” she said.

Other issues that she sees as important in this riding are internet and cell access, and the necessity to “preserve recreational opportunities and tourism.”

She also said that she understands that “small businesses, which is what our communities are built upon, are probably anxious about what a shift to a carbon neutral economy will mean to them. Helping them to make that shift is a priority for our party.”

She is aware that the controversies surrounding the Federal Green Party could be a drag on the Green vote provincially, but pointed out that the provincial party is independent from the federal party.

“Mike Sheiner, the leader of the Ontario Green Party, is well respected, in and outside of the party, and that will be important to Ontario voters, I think.”

With the likelihood that the current MPP, Randy Hillier, will be running under the People’s Party banner in June, she said the local riding could be in for “an interesting” election.

“When I was in Algoma, I had heard of Randy Hillier, but I did not know where he was from,” she said. “Now I do