Long Day in Ottawa...

The Stop Cuts Student Tour brought us to Canada’s capital. After a very long 5-hour drive from Toronto, we had arrived to another Pharmasave that has a compounding facility. We had met the pharmacist owner, who, like the pharmacists at Hamilton, was extremely enthusiastic about advocating against funding cuts to pharmacies. She had also kind enough to show us around it in the pharmacy. It was extremely fascinating, as it was the first compounding pharmacy that I have ever visited and she also had a clean room for sterile compounding.

After the brief tour, we rallied on the street and waited for the media to get in touch with us and our story. Because it was on a main street in the Ottawa suburban area, we attracted quite a bit of attention from the public and were able to make our voices heard easily. Getting people to stop and listen to us was a little more difficult, as people seemed to be in a hurry to go and did not want to stay for a minute to listen to us.

Nevertheless, we had media coverage from CTV and the Ottawa Citizen from the attention that we were attracting in the community. I bumped into the reporter from Ottawa Citizen quite accidentally by handing him a flyer and trying to spread awareness of the issues of decreased pharmacy funding to him. My friend and I were then interviewed at the side of the road, mainly us trying to get our message across about the pharmacy profession, as well as sharing the student perspective on the issue. This interview was much less aggressive than what was asked of me in Barrie, and I also felt more comfortable answering his questions. Why can’t all interviews be like that? But then again, I also have to see precisely how the article portrays our words.

Canvassing was less successful for a number of reasons. One was that we did not spend enough time on the area. This was completely understandable, as we did not have much time left in Ottawa before we had to make our way back with another 5 hour drive back to Toronto. Another reason may have been because of the time – who, other than only a few sick, elderly people, unemployed or people on a day off, would be at home for us to talk to them at 2 or 3 in the afternoon?

On top of that, it may have been because people were again not completely aware of these issues and may have already formed opinions that prevent them from opening themselves to other viewpoints. My personal goal was simply to spread awareness about the pharmacy profession and allow them to understand the profession’s role in building a healthier population so that they can make their own conclusions about what is happening. While the tour does attack the McGuinty government for not caring about pharmacy's ability to provide patient care, I personally will not demonize the government or get involved in battling in politics at this stage. Any non-naive person will understand that they have the ultimate power of decision that will never been influenced by the public if they choose not to listen. If all fails, I can only go back to my own personal goals and practice pharmacy as my conscience allows: represent the pharmacy profession as well as possible by providing optimal patient care.