“The posters are up, ballots are being filled, people have all the information about the campaign and they are definitely talking about it,” Connie says. “I haven’t noticed that people are supporting a particular set of priorities,” she says.

“We have been encouraging people to make their own choices and keep it a private ballot.”

Connie spoke to the residents’ council Monday about the Ontario Long Term Care
Association (OLTCA) campaign and will be explaining the campaign at a staff and family meeting Wednesday, she says.

“I think it is a very positive campaign and people here are interested in getting their voices heard,” Connie says. Response to past OLTCA campaigns has been very enthusiastic at Pleasant Meadow, she points out.

In the 2003 OLTCA campaign, Pleasant Meadow delivered 777 signed postcards calling for more funding, twice the targeted goal. That province-wide campaign resulted in 76,000 signed postcards, with OMNI, representing 3.5 per cent of OLTCA beds contributing 20 per cent of the signed cards.

All staff at OMNI home office have already filled out ballots in this year’s campaign, says Executive Assistant Marie Murphy.

OLTCA’s goal this year is to collect 50,000 ballots from residents, families and caregivers before the campaign ends Apr. 16 and present the results to the government.

The McGuinty government has been consulting on the development of a long-term-care action plan and OLTCA believes “the voice to whom the solutions matter the most should also be heard,” according to an explanation of the campaign on the OLTCA Web site

The ballot lists 12 potential priorities in long-term care and asks people to choose their top five priorities and rank them from one to five.