Christine Elliott

PC party leadership bids of 2009 and 2015 and Deputy Leader

On April 4, 2009, Elliott entered the leadership race to succeed former leader John Tory. She portrayed herself as a centrist alternative to her three right-wing opponents—Hudak, Klees and Randy Hillier.^[15] During her announcement she criticized her main rival Tim Hudak. She said, "He really wants to replicate some of the campaigns and some of the solutions that worked in the 1990s. What happened in 1995 is not the solution for 2009."^[16] She said that as leader, she would push for a "sector-by-sector" innovation strategy for Ontario. She also said that she supports nuclear energy and that the Liberal's green energy plan was insufficient for Ontario's needs.^[17][18] At the leadership convention on June 28, 2009, in Markham, Ontario, Elliott placed third in the results behind winner Tim Hudak and runner-up Frank Klees.^[19]

Elliott became the party's Deputy Leader from 2009 until her resignation in 2015.

On June 25, 2014, Elliott announced she would seek the leadership of the party for a second time.^[20] She had the support of at least nineteen of the twenty-eight caucus members^[21] but lost to Brown on May 9, 2015, in a two-person race with 38% of the vote. She resigned her seat in the legislature on August 28, 2015, one week before Brown's election to the provincial parliament.^[22]

Patient Ombudsman of Ontario

On December 10, 2015, she was appointed by Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Eric Hoskins as Ontario's first Patient Ombudsman effective as of July 1, 2016. The duties of the non-partisan position included acting on behalf of patients who have not had their issues resolved through normal complaint resolution processes. She said, "Ensuring that patients in Ontario's health-care system will now have a strengthened voice is a responsibility I am looking forward to taking on."^[23]

On February 1, 2018, Elliott resigned as Patient Ombudsman to enter the Ontario PC Party leadership election.^[24]

2018 Ontario PC Party leadership bid

Elliott officially announced she was running for leadership on February 1, 2018, via Twitter, to replace Patrick Brown who had resigned as leader after sexual misconduct allegations were made against him.^[25][26] Her campaign slogan was "Ready. Now." and her leadership campaign has focused on her experience compared to the other candidates.^[27][28] She stated she supported the "People's Guarantee" (the existing platform adopted by the PC Party in November 2017) with the exception of a carbon tax, which she opposed.^[29] She had the most support from the Ontario PC caucus of any leadership candidate in the race.^[30] On March 10, she was eliminated on the third and final ballot of the leadership election, which was won by Doug Ford. Elliott had the most votes and had won the most ridings but did not have the most points and therefore came in second.^[31] She initially refused to concede to Ford, citing "serious irregularities" in the race and vowed to "investigate the extent of this discrepancy". However, she conceded to Ford the next day and announced her support for him as party leader.^[32]

Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care

On April 2, 2018, Elliott announced via Twitter her intention to seek the PC candidate nomination for the provincial riding of Newmarket-Aurora.^[33] The original PC candidate, Charity McGrath, was disqualified by the PC Party's provincial nomination committee (PNC) amid complaints that she'd signed up riding association members without their knowledge. On March 15, the PNC voted unanimously to bar McGrath from standing for the party in any riding for the 2018 election.^[34] Elliott won the election on June 7, 2018, and her party formed a majority government during the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. Premier Ford appointed Elliot appointed to be Deputy Premier and Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in the Executive Council of Ontario.

On July 26, 2018, under Premier Ford, Elliott increased the provincial mental health budget from $3.8 billion annually by an additional $3.8 billion over a ten-year period (with half of the increase in funds coming from the federal government).^[35]

As Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, Elliott sponsored The People's Health Care Act which, in addition to repealing the Lung Health Act, enacted the Connecting Care Act to create a new Crown agency titled Ontario Health intended to merge the 14 Local Health Integration Network and several crown agencies such as Cancer Care Ontario, the Gift of Life Network, eHealth Ontario, HealthForceOntario, and provide the ability for the Minister to create Integrated Care Delivery Systems (or Health Teams) to deliver health care services.^[36]

Elliott oversaw the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario.^[37] Elliot was an active member of Doug Ford's Cabinet who provided front line health care workers with financial relief and recognition through pandemic pay.^[38]

On March 4, 2022, Elliott announced that she would not seek re-election in the upcoming provincial election.^[39][40]

Private Clinic Controversy

In November 2023, former health minister Christine Elliott registered to lobby the Ford government on behalf of Clearpoint Health Network, the largest chain of private surgical clinics in Canada.^[41] A CBC Toronto investigation revealed that a private clinic, Don Mills Surgical Unit, which is owned by Clearpoint Health Network, received more funding from Christine Elliot's government to perform certain OHIP-covered surgeries than public hospitals performing the same operations did. Freedom of information documents show that during her time as minister, the clinic's annual funding from the province quadrupled.^[42]

Adil Shamji, doctor and liberal health critic, complained, "We have a private, for-profit company that is performing the easiest surgeries on the least-complex patients during the most convenient times of the day with the least oversight, yet they get to charge the most to the health-care system (...) And we have the immediate past health minister lobbying the current health minister on behalf of a company that is already profiteering in our health care to allow that company to profiteer even more."^[42]

Cabinet posts