Dear Friend,

My name is Samantha Green and I am seeking the federal NDP nomination in Toronto Centre. I am a family doctor, a mother, and a committed activist and I have decided to run for Parliament because we need courageous voices in government who are willing to stand up for people in our community. That means being willing to take bold action to tackle the housing crisis, fight climate change, and put the interests of working people first. 

I have spent the last decade as a family doctor serving our community out of the St. Michael’s Hospital Family Health Team, Seaton House, and Street Haven, an emergency shelter for women in the heart of Toronto Centre. My partner and I chose to raise our three children in Moss Park. We are so proud to live in the vibrant and diverse core of our city with such tremendous public spaces from Riverdale Farm and Regent Park to the Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre and the St. Lawrence Market.

Yet the skyrocketing cost of living and housing crisis are putting the vibrancy of our community at risk like never before. I see these rising inequities every day at work—so many of my patients’ medical issues are driven by poverty, inadequate housing, and food insecurity. Whether it’s an asthma patient suffering because they are forced to live in a mold-ridden apartment or a patient who can’t afford medication to treat their diabetes, there’s only so much that I can do for patients in my family practice. The institutions that are supposed to protect us are on life support, having been weakened by decades of inattention, austerity budgets, and the unconscionable shift toward privatization. The NDP is the only party working towards immediate solutions for these problems that are truly matters of life and death.

I have been an activist my entire life. I have spent decades supporting the fight against climate change, serving on the Board of the Sierra Club of Canada and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and co-founding Doctors for Safe Cycling. I have worked with Health Providers Against Poverty to improve warming centre conditions. And I have spoken out against the genocide in Gaza by working with solidarity groups, including IfNotNow and Healthworker Alliance for Palestine, and will continue this advocacy until an enduring and just agreement for peace is reached. Never again means never again for anyone. 

Toronto Centre is such an incredible mosaic of people from all walks of life and all parts of the world, and it would be an enormous privilege to carry the NDP banner into the next federal election. I am committed to representing the best of our communities, and to showing true courage in Parliament to build the kind of city and country we all deserve.

In the coming weeks, I hope to connect with every New Democrat in Toronto Centre and I look forward to your advice, support, and friendship.

In hope and solidarity,