Months before Ontario voted for a change of political leadership earlier this year, the opportunity opened up to run for political office in RN Natalia Kusendova’s home riding of Mississauga Centre. “This is where I’ve grown up. I’ve been here 16 years, and I have strong connections to the Polish community,” she says about her desire to become a Conservative candidate and potentially run for election in June.  

Just two years out of nursing school, Kusendova is also fired up about the state of health care. 

“I was literally working in hospital hallways. I saw the crisis in health care first-hand,” she says. “I studied the health-care budget closely to figure out what’s going on.”
According to the province’s 2018 budget, there’s just over $61 billion – 39 per cent of the entire provincial budget – going to health care. “I thought…how could we be in such a crisis?” Kusendova says.

After digging deeper, she discovered “…the money wasn’t being spent well. It really upset me. Instead of complaining about it, I decided I wanted to do something about it. I decided to get involved and be a voice in the system,” she says, and entered the race for the PC nomination in Mississauga Centre. 

Kusendova had competition, but worked flat out – with the help of a strong network of friends and supporters. In the end, she came close, but not quite close enough. She accepted that her competitor won “…and a week later invited her to the hospital where I work…to give her a tour and ask her to advocate for (better) health care.” 

The dust had barely settled when Kusendova would get her first lesson in politics. 

Shortly after the nomination process was complete, she was asked to meet with Premier Doug Ford. Her competitor stepped down, and Kusendova, who was runner up, was asked if she wanted to accept the position of candidate. “I had worked so hard. It goes to show you, you just need to have courage, persistence and a little luck. That’s politics.” In June, Kusendova won the election and is now representing her constituents at Queen’s Park. 

Of course, luck is not all it takes to have a successful political career according to the RNs featured here, who, for one reason or another, have exchanged their nursing roles for political ones. Not one of them regrets the decision, and in fact, they have found tremendously beneficial alignments between the professions, not to mention automatic credibility with the public. “It’s a real bonus to have been a nurse,” says Ross Sutherland, retired RN, municipal councillor for South Frontenac, and former president and party candidate for the local South Frontenac NDP riding association. “Everyone knows a nurse, and has a ton of respect for the profession.”

“Nurses are superbly skilled at relationship-building,” says Kathryn McGarry, a former critical care RN who became mayor of Cambridge in October, winning 47 per cent of the vote against the incumbent who had been in the role for five terms. She says “…politics is about relationships, integrity and ethics.” She ought to know having recently completed a four-year term as Liberal MPP for Cambridge and North Dumfries. During her time at Queen’s Park, she was a parliamentary assistant in the minister of transportation (2014-16), then minister of natural resources and forestry (2016-18). She was defeated in the June election, but not before holding the post of minister of transportation for 2018. 

Burning in the heart of every nurse is a passion for advocacy, if not politics, according to these RNs. So many nurses have wondered whether they should, as Kusendova puts it, “…quit complaining and get involved.” For those who have, here are a few enlightened thoughts that may nudge you toward a more active political life…