Co-developed by Stelios Georgiades and Ryan Voisin, this op-ed was published by The Hill Times in September 2024
The piece explores how the health and well-being of children in Canada are deeply influenced by political decisions, yet politics is often overlooked as a key determinant of health. To create lasting, positive change, we must call on our elected officials to prioritize children’s needs and commit to policies that extend beyond election cycles—ensuring more stable and effective outcomes for young people across the country.
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▶︎ Read the article on The Hill Times website or a copy of the text below.
Politics: the overlooked determinant of children’s health
The commitment of elected officials to prioritize our children’s well-being determines how and if policies will be enacted or sustained beyond a single election cycle.
As Parliament resumes and kids head back to school, it’s a critical time to reflect on how the policies debated in Ottawa affect the future of children across the country. While the Government of Canada’s website lists a broad range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that determine individual and population health, one critical determinant frequently goes unrecognized: politics. Political decisions play a pivotal role in shaping the environment in which our children grow up.
Policies related to income support, education funding, and health care access directly affect the health and well-being of every new generation. Recent decisions on school food programs, child benefit policies, and health-care funding will likely have immediate and long-term impacts on children’s physical and mental health, but a more systemic approach is required. It is time to bring politics into the conversation about determinants of health, and consider their profound impact on children’s health and well-being.
It’s hard to understate how crucial it is for policymakers to ground their decisions in robust evidence, but the reality is that political cycles upend the continuity required to create transformational child health and well-being initiatives. Election cycles often guide the timing of budgetary decisions, which in turn creates discontinuity between the design and implementation of initiatives—often with negative outcomes for children who need them most. Recognizing and addressing these disruptions can lead to more stable and effective policies for children, youth, and families.
It’s not enough to focus solely on the policymakers or the policies they create. Politicians themselves are critical to enacting transformative legislation that can make a real difference in the health and well-being of children in Canada. Tools like UNICEF Canada’s Child Rights Impact Assessment provides critical questions politicians should be asking to better understand the implications every piece of legislation has on children and youth. With political will often being the deciding factor, it is the commitment of elected officials to prioritize our children and their well-being that determines how and if policies will be enacted—and sustained beyond a single election cycle.
It is imperative that politicians at all levels of government not only prioritize children’s health and development as a key issue, but also understand the far-reaching impact their decisions have on each and every child in Canada. While there are several bills awaiting Parliament’s attention this fall, S-282—a national strategy for children and youth in Canada—promises to provide a framework for all federal and provincial/territorial politicians to align policies and legislation across multiple levels. Bills like this are key to holding politicians and governments accountable for improving child well-being over the long term.
Collaboration between politicians, researchers, practitioners, and advocates—including youth themselves—is essential to improve health outcomes. These experts provide the evidence and insights needed to shape effective policies, while politicians have the power to refine, promote, and implement these changes. Recognizing politics as a determinant of health enables us to understand and address the indirect ways in which political decisions impact our children’s health and well-being. We must strive for more consistent and supportive policies that benefit kids throughout their development. A national strategy for child and youth health can serve as a framework for the way forward.
At the end of the day, children’s health and well-being is an issue of great importance to all Canadians, irrespective of political ideology. By recognizing politics as a determinant of health, prioritizing evidence-based policies, and fostering collaboration between all politicians and experts, we can transform the future for kids in Canada. It’s time to work together to leverage the power of politics for the benefit of our children’s health and well-being. After all, children make up 20 per cent of the population of Canada, and 100 per cent of Canada’s future.
Stelios Georgiades is the director of the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University, and McMaster Children’s Hospital. Ryan Voisin is the managing director of the Inspiring Healthy Futures network, hosted by Children’s Healthcare Canada.
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