‘What’s a cancer treatment centre?’

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Note: The following are experts from chapter six of Jim Gordon’s memoir, titled At Queen’s Park and Cancer Centre, 1981-1991.

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Jim Gordon

In the fall of 2010, I received a telephone call from Dan Lessard, who at the time was a communications specialist at Health Sciences North, inviting me to the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Northeast Cancer Centre.

I accepted the invitation. I was quite pleased I had been invited. Despite my long tenure as a mayor, member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly for Sudbury and cabinet minister, once I left these roles, the number of invitations diminished.

In passing, Lessard said, “By the way, I have a photo of you I think you will like.”

I remembered it well. It was a photograph taken Sept. 11, 1984, when Premier Bill Davis came to Sudbury to turn the sod for the cancer treatment centre. I stood there with other individuals who had played key roles in pursuing the dream. The expression on my face mirrors the surreal lottery quality of the event.

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There were a number of photos taken that day but in this one you can actually see the elation on my face. 

For me, that day was the culmination of a political journey that had more twists and turns than a game of Snakes and Ladders.

In February 1981, I was campaigning to be MPP when my campaign manager, Gary Ross, asked me to sit down with two community leaders, Maurice Lacerte and Maureen Lacroix. I kept putting him off.  

I had told Ross one of his jobs was to keep lobby groups at arms’ length. My task was to spend as much time as possible talking to voters at the doorstep, not in meetings.

“I don’t have time for those people. I have an election campaign to win. It can wait.”

But he kept after me and the meeting took place at my campaign headquarters. The old Loblaws store, located at the corner of Elm and Frood, was an unusual place for a campaign office. The building shook periodically as the trains rumbled through the centre of the city.

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Lacerte, executive director of the Sudbury-Manitoulin District Health Council, and Lacroix, a member of the health council, told me they wanted to talk to me because they believed I was going to win the provincial election.

“We want to talk about a project we and a lot of other people have been pushing and working for that will make a huge difference for Sudbury and northeastern Ontario. We think it is the most important thing you could do for Sudbury long term,” they said.

I looked at the both of them and wondered what could they possibly be pitching. I had been mayor of Sudbury for six years and thought I was well aware of the community’s needs.

Lacroix said, “If you get a cancer treatment centre for Sudbury, it will be the most important thing you can ever do as an MPP.” 

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At the time I was not well versed on the curse of cancer. No one in my family had ever been touched by the disease. To me, and a lot of other people in those days, cancer was something that happened to other people. 

So I said, “What’s a cancer treatment centre?”

That is where it all began. That meeting was a turning point for me both as a person and a politician.

The experience made me a better politician, and it opened the door to my achieving goals later in life that I would not have dreamed possible.

The next month I was elected the Progressive Conservative MPP for Sudbury riding, but to say I understood how an MPP does their job at that time would have been a total misrepresentation. I was green.

My first real opportunity to begin working on the cancer treatment centre file came one evening while I was on house duty at the Legislature. After listening to one of the Opposition members going on and on about the lack of sufficient low-rent housing in Toronto, I decided it was time to get a coffee and stretch my legs in the Government Members’ lounge.  

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I ran into the Minister of Health’s executive assistant, Joanne Boluk, ironically a former Sudburian. I approached her and said I would like an opportunity to sit down with the Minister of Health Dennis Timbrell to talk about getting a cancer treatment centre in Sudbury. 

Her reply bowled me over. “The ministry just spent millions of dollars upgrading Princess Margaret Hospital (in Toronto) to provide the best possible care for northern patients. Dennis is not going to want to talk about a treatment centre for Sudbury. It is not a priority …”

How was it possible to ignore the wishes expressed by so many northerners who had to face the distances getting to Toronto, the expense of waiting around in a big city for treatment, and the loneliness without the comfort of family or friends to support?

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These thoughts rushed through my head as I watched her lips moving. It was like she had hauled off and hit me right in the stomach. 

I was getting an instant education in centralization versus decentralization. It was a cardinal rule in politics. Place the best services and the most expert people where the greatest population and votes can be found…

In years past, whenever a delegation from Sudbury turned up in Premier Bill Davis’s office, he would listen politely to the delegation and always say he would take it under advisement. If he really was pressed by the spokesperson, he would say, “Well, send me a member.” Plain and simple. Elect a Progressive Conservative MPP in your riding and things will really start to happen.

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In the spring of 1981, the premier appointed me parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health. I viewed this as a vote of confidence from Davis since Health was the largest government ministry and was viewed as a good stepping stone for other promotions.

He knew too I had already begun lobbying for a cancer treatment centre during the election campaign. 

Being the parliamentary assistant  – one step away from potentially the next Minister of Health – gave me the edge I needed to focus the attention of the ministry on Sudbury and the northeast.

I was excited by the prospect of having an office right next door to the man who I thought could provide a cancer treatment centre for my riding. 

But in our first meeting, Timbrell gave me the same message his assistant had: millions had been spent on Princess Margaret Hospital. It was where the best doctors were, the best radiation machines. Centralizing cancer care in Toronto made sure the people of northeastern Ontario were getting the best all in one place. 

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My arguments about treating people as close as possible to home, the distances, the costs and the lack of support services were like water running off a duck’s back. 

Was I disappointed? Sure. But I had no intention of giving up.

I decided to take it one step at a time. I was the parliamentary assistant and I would use my influence in that role. I made enquires in the ministry and found out the two kingpins in cancer care in the province were Dr. James Meakin from the Ontario Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation (OCTRF) and Dr. Ray Bush, medical director of Princess Margaret Hospital.

I sent the message on through deputy health minister Allan Dyer that I wanted to meet them. A few days later, my assistant, Vicki Leblanc, got a call saying that both doctors would be available to see me at my office at a convenient time.

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At that time, I was living in a small one-bedroom apartment in the Sutton Place Hotel, a rather convenient location since it was only one block away from the Legislature. It had a really posh dining room. One that was above my pay scale. I’d let them pick up lunch. I had my assistant set a luncheon date. I felt that a more relaxed format would give me an advantage in the coming conversation. 

Meakin was a small, slight man who oversaw cancer activities and generated policies for the activities taken throughout the province. Bush was the Princess Margaret medical czar. 

On the appointed day, I found both of them waiting at the entrance to the dining room. Meakin had piercing blue eyes and a genial manner. Bush, on first glance, gave off the aura of a stern individual who wasn’t going to put up with any nonsense. 

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My first impressions of them soon revealed through conversation that they were exactly as I had perceived them. Who says you can’t tell a book by its cover?

I had spent a good amount of time preparing for the meeting. I knew these two held the reins of cancer politics firmly in their hands. 

The government, and especially the Ministry of Health, listened to what these men recommended when it came to the delivery of cancer services in Ontario. These were the so-called experts …

As the lunch progressed I made my case. They listened attentively. Maybe this was going to be the breakthrough I had been looking for. Go through the bureaucracy and ambush the political side. Work from the bottom up. Wrong!

All the way through my pitch I thought I was getting somewhere, especially with Meakin. He appeared to really understand the narrative I was relating. The questions he asked were cast in an empathetic tone.

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I wasn’t so sure about Bush. He seemed to have a surly look on his face.

Meakin was first out the gate. “Surely Jim, you want the very best cancer doctors for your people.” 

That first statement said it all. Not patients, but “your people.”

Bush followed up with, “The most specialized and costly equipment and procedures have been established at Princess Margaret to handle northeastern Ontario. Surely you wouldn’t want Sudburians to have less than the very best.” 

The doctors’ view was that the government, the Ministry of Health, has just finished spending millions to make sure the northeast is well serviced. 

“You wouldn’t want your people to have less than the best, would you, Jim? After all, this is cancer we are talking about.”

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On and on it went … I could taste the bile rising up in my throat, listening to one of the most condescending brush-offs I had ever been given. 

Meaken gave me the most sincere look that could ever cross an honest man’s face, and said, “Jim, what do you say we give you a tumour registry office in Sudbury for now?”

A registry office would provide a means of identifying the number of tumours, types, incidences, fatalities and lives returned to health across the northeast.

“It would help in tracing the disease, we will establish an office in Sudbury.”

For a few moments I was bowled over, shocked, totally shocked, and angered. They hadn’t come to talk with me. They had come to show me that they were in charge. 

We were at more than an impasse. I politely thanked them for the meeting …

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Later that fall I found out through my contacts in the ministry that an opportunity would be coming up for an appointment to the OCTRF board. I went to the minister and asked him to recommend a Sudbury surgeon, Dr. George Walker, as his nominee. It was the least Timbrell could do considering that the doors had been slammed shut.

I approached Walker to be a board member. He wasn’t particularly enthused with the idea due to his heavy medical and community schedule, coupled with a busy practice.

But Walker’s strong local advocacy for a cancer centre made it hard for him to say no. Being a well-respected surgeon and a strong no-nonsense individual would give Meaken someone to contend with and an advocate at the very top of the cancer food chain. It didn’t hurt to have a window into the heart of the cancer establishment.

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Of course, the other half of the equation was the community representatives, who either at their request or at my calculated urgings, came to Toronto to advocate. These included Dr. Robert Corringham, an oncologist working with cancer patients at Laurentian Hospital, Maureen Lacroix, as well as Helen Ghent, a citizen deeply involved with the Canadian Cancer Society through her leadership on the Cancer Society of Ontario, along with Jean Gagnon representing the Steelworkers …

As the next two years rolled by, it seemed like our dream of a full-fledged cancer treatment centre for Sudbury was exactly that, a dream …

In the political world, there are tectonic shifts analogous to those found in the geologic world that, after long periods of time, the ground shifts. When that happens, windows of opportunity that normally are virtually nailed shut come open. One of those windows began to edge open in the fall of 1983. 

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Rumours began seeping out of the Premier’s Office that Davis was giving some thought to running for leadership of the federal Progressive Conservatives. 

Personally, I viewed Davis’s musings as more smoke than substance. Why would an accomplished premier who had the province in the palm of his hand want to exchange that to lead the federal party that had been out of power for two decades?

I figured there was more to this than some were saying. Davis was thinking of retiring at the top of his game. He was just having the fun of posturing about being potentially the prime minister of Canada. 

After a couple of months of teasing the press and anyone else who would listen, Davis announced his retirement.

The earthquake had begun. Windows of opportunity were being flung open all over the place … It didn’t take long for the media to begin talking about potential contenders for Davis’s job. 

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These included Timbrell … Larry Grossman, the only Jewish cabinet minister and a man who knew his portfolio like the back of his hand. He was reputed to being such a hard worker that he often knew his fellow cabinet colleagues’ dossiers better than they did.

Grossman replaced Timbrell as Minister of Health in 1982, and as his parliamentary assistant, I worked closely with him. He was a key decision-maker regarding establishing a treatment centre in Sudbury. 

I was in a position to help him become the next PC leader and premier …

For the first time since I had come to Queen’s Park, I felt I was in the political driver’s seat. Grossman was not well known in Northern Ontario. 

I first got to know Grossman in 1980. The youngest member of cabinet, he was touring Northern Ontario promoting his new ministerial appointment as the Minister of Tourism. I was mayor and he had asked to see me while he was in the city to make an announcement about an initiative that was supposed to help the north in attracting more tourists.  

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It was an opportunity for me to find out what kind of a man he was. As well, I still was very interested in some day running again for the PCs in Ontario. Having a relationship with a Tory cabinet minister meant being able to turn to a person when you really wanted something to happen in your community that only the province and his ministry could do … 

Some people hit it off almost from the first moment they meet. Grossman and I had that kind of experience … 

When Grossman became Minister of Health, I knew I finally had someone who would take my quest for a cancer treatment centre in Sudbury seriously. Davis had left me as PA to the new minister. That encouraged me to think that the cancer treatment centre was still alive in his mind. Now, it was up to me, to somehow, make it happen.

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Grossman already knew I was pursuing it. I felt that at our first meeting as minister and parliamentary assistant, it was important to make it clear that he could count on me to pursue his agenda with the talents I had to offer him. 

He had already been thinking about how he could begin moving the ball along. He had talked with a prominent Toronto lawyer, Michael Meehan, about accepting an appointment to the OCTRF.

“Michael being on board will give us an open window on what is going on at the OCTRF,” he said. “He will help to get some focus new cancer programs focused on Sudbury and the northeast.” 

But a complete U-turn in the delivery of treatment would require a political decision by the premier if it was to ever happen … The top decision maker in Ontario and the Minister of Health would have to say they believed there was a better way to treat cancer in Sudbury and northeastern Ontario.

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In my three years in the Legislature and time spent in caucus, if I had learned anything at all, it was that any province-wide policy or major project always had the final stamp of the premier. Getting Grossman’s nod was one thing, but getting the premier’s, well, that was another matter …

Grossman, if he was ever going to stand a chance of winning the party’s leadership, needed to raise a lot of money for a campaign. He also needed delegates …

I knew my brother John and I could help him win the Tory nomination to become the winning candidate and become the next premier of Ontario … John Gordon was an organizer for the PC party in Northern Ontario …

My brother’s influence gave him a special status and stature with the association and its members. They would be interested in his opinions and recommendations for a new leader. 

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I wish I had had a camera with me when I told Grossman that John agreed to work for his campaign team and that we both promised our support to deliver northern delegates. The smile that blossomed on Grossman’s face said it all. 

“Jim, I accept your offer of support. It will play a significant part in the outcome. You know that the key to this race absolutely revolves around numbers. The speeches, the news stories all fade in comparison, it’s about fundraising and delegates.”

With that I turned, took two steps towards the door, turned back and said, “Oh, Larry, one more thing, I want that cancer treatment centre for Sudbury and the rest of the northeast, more than a half a million people …need that type of treatment. This highly centralized system creates more misery. It’s just not working for us.”

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That small little man … reached out with his hand to grip mine and said, “You’ve got it!” 

(Grossman had to wait to 1985 to become the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives but he was never premier.)

True to his word, Grossman presented Davis with a proposal for a cancer treatment centre to be located in Sudbury … Davis said he would take it under advisement. 

My daybook for Sept. 11, 1984, says it all:

“8:45 a.m. Premier arrives at airport. At 10:10 Premier William Davis, Minister of Health Larry Grossman and I, along with other dignitaries, Maureen Lacroix  Jean Gagnon, Dr. J. N. Desmarais  and others turned the sod for Sudbury’s Cancer Treatment Centre.”

Davis, when he arrived in Sudbury and stood on the stairs of the King aircraft at Sudbury Airport, looked down at the two smiling men waiting to meet him. He acknowledged John and my contribution. He said, “If it isn’t the Gordon boys. What are you working on now?”

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Finally, we had what we had all worked diligently towards over the years: a way for our people in the northeast and Sudbury to have the opportunity of at least fighting cancer in our own backyard, getting treatment, surrounded by friends and relatives, instead of sitting in lonely hotel rooms in a cold big city like Toronto.  

The Northeast Cancer Centre (NECC) opened Nov. 5, 1991 … There were numerous dedicated citizens on the ground across the north who over the years kept the flame burning for better cancer treatment. Maureen Lacroix and Helen Ghent were citizens who never stopped pushing and were truly selfless in all the time they gave over the years.

Jean Gagnon kept the tragedy of Inco’s cintering plant before the provincial government over the years and was essential in my pressing the government to bring in even more and better health and safety laws.

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Of course, MPPs such as Ellie Martel and Floyd Laughren were true masters in keeping the health and safety of workers before the Government. Their efforts and true success have to be acknowledged.

Finally, Gerry Loughheed Jr.’s fundraising was instrumental in the bricks-and-mortar that followed the cancer treatment centre’s announcement.

I’ll leave it up to Steve Paikin, host of TVO ‘s program The Agenda and former chancellor of Laurentian University, to sum up those years of my life at Queen’s Park.

He writes in his book Bill Davis, Nation Builder and Not So Bland After All, on Page 256, “James K. Gordon, the former and future mayor of Sudbury, would serve six years at Queen’s Park, which was enough time to leave an important legacy – securing for the Nickel City a cancer treatment centre serving all of northeastern Ontario.”

Today the NECC works with partner hospitals to provide care for more than 3,000 new cancer patients each year and conducts approximately 15,000 chemotherapy visits and 38,000 radiation treatment visits.

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