Ontario Nurses’ Association launches its renewed brand identity, celebrating 50 years with a focus on local activism

TORONTO, ON., November 9, 2023 – Canada’s largest nurses’ union is celebrating its 50^th anniversary with a renewed sense of commitment and purpose, and a new brand identity to go with it, unveiled today to more than 900 members attending the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) Biennial Convention.

“We are part of noble professions, but our government and health-care administrators have too often tried to strip away our power by disrespecting us, undervaluing us and trying to silence us,” says ONA President Erin Ariss, RN. “ONA’s new brand expresses our future as a union and as a grassroots movement across Ontario. We are reclaiming our voices and our power so we can tell the brutal truth about how our government and employers are creating the crisis in our public health-care system.”

The renewed brand (ona.org/fightlocal) comes as nurses and health-care professionals are fighting back like never before against a provincial government that is underfunding public health care while expanding privatization to benefit wealthy investors at the expense of everyone else.

“ONA was born from grassroots activism, and we are growing through local action,” says Ariss. “The heart of this new direction is giving our members the tools to reclaim their voices and take action at the local level, in their workplaces and communities.” Ariss says ONA’s new brand follows three principles: tell the brutal truth; rekindle the sisterhood of nursing; and restore the nobility of our professions. "Ontarians can count on nurses and health-care professionals to tell them the honest and unvarnished truth, always,” she says. “The brave nurses who took the step of creating our union all those years ago inspire me today, and our new way forward honours that past.”

ONA’s renewed focus on local action comes with a warning for employers and government. “No matter how much our bosses or our government try to silence us, we know we have the real power. We are a union family, and the source of our strength is each other. Administrations and the Ford government should know: the nurses and health-care professionals are coming,” says Ariss.

ONA is the union representing 68,000 ONA registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

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To arrange an interview, contact:

ONA Media Relations, media@ona.org