Advocacy Takeaways from Right-Sizing Health Systems for Kids
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Advocacy Takeaways from Right-Sizing Health Systems for Kids: Creating the Future Together, Children’s Healthcare Canada’s 2025 Annual Conference
During our 2025 Conference, Right-Sizing Health Systems for Kids: Creating the Future Together, we brought together child health advocates, political experts, and advocacy champions to explore how to effectively position children’s health as a national policy priority. One particular session, What Unites Us: Prioritizing the Health of Kids in Canada focused on practical strategies to elevate children’s health in the federal government’s policy agenda.
Power Play host Vassy Kapelos led a timely and dynamic conversation with political strategists Kathleen Monk, Scott Reid, and Kory Teneycke. The panel explored how advocates can position children’s health in a crowded policy landscape and drive meaningful federal/provincial/territorial collaboration to improve outcomes for children and youth across Canada.
The panelists outlined a fairly clear path forward: anchor child health issues in economic and national interest narratives, keep policy solutions simple and bring expert voices to the table. These takeaways are designed to support the child health sector in aligning around shared priorities and elevating the conversation in political, public, and media conversations.
1. Frame Children’s Health as an Economic Issue
- Frame children’s health as a cost-saving investment for the economy and something that impacts everyone.
- Economic narratives resonate widely with policymakers and the public. Investing in children’s health results in long-term savings across the healthcare system and boosts the overall economy. This is a shared issue that impacts all Canadians.
2. Create a National Narrative around a Single, Relatable Issue
- “Pick one issue and get around it”.
- The two issues that have the broadest appeal are mental health and access to care. Those issues are bi-partisan and can resonate with all segments of the population.
- Investing in children’s health isn’t just a localized issue it is a matter of national interest that impacts the future of Canada. This messaging will help position the issue as a priority for every Canadian family, community and province.
3. Simplify the Ask and Make it Scalable
- Policymakers are more likely to act on easily understandable, outcome-focused, and scalable solutions.
- Develop one or two concrete models that can work across jurisdictions and push for solutions that are easily understandable and scalable to ensure a cohesive national framework that is adaptable to local needs.
4. Fill the Expertise Gap with External Voices
- Policymakers lack expertise in children’s health so filling this expertise gap with credible, expert voices can lead to informed, evidence-based policy decisions.
- Advocate for roles like a Chief Children’s Health Officer to advise on national strategies, coordinate policy, and provide expert testimony in parliamentary hearings. This role needs to be a permanent position, with a funded budget envelope, and operating at a Assist and Deputy Minister level.
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