Dr. Hanley refutes statement made by Yukon Party leader, says the job of Chief Medical Officer of Health is "sacred"

Monday, 30 August 2021 13:59

By Dylan MacNeil

Dr. Hanley announcing his candidacy in the federal election (file photo).

"There's no room for partisan politics in public service," Dr. Brendan Hanley tells CHONFM.

The Yukon’s federal Liberal candidate Dr. Brendan Hanley spoke to CHONFM this morning.

He says his decisions as the territory’s Chief Medical Officer of Health throughout the pandemic haven’t always pleased everyone, but that has made his skin thicker and prepared him for the political world.

“People thought we were opening too early, people thought that we were being way too conservative and staying too closed,” says Hanley.

He reacted to an open letter written by Yukon Party leader Currie Dixon last week, criticizing him for being partisan.

Dixon’s letter says Hanley’s “own personal political ambitions casts a shadow on the office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and calls into question the motivations behind his actions and behaviour over the past year and a half.”

Hanley refuted the statement, saying the job of Chief Medical Officer of Health is not a political one.

“That office is like a sacred place. There is no room for partisan politics in public service and particularly in the Chief Medical Officer of Health. We are trained, professional physicians, and everything that I do as a Chief Medical Officer of Health, and did, and my colleagues do, is grounded in the interest of the public. Everything is about the interest of the Yukon people, and that is really, as I say, a sacred role,” says Hanley.

The Yukon Party says in a statement, “We are happy to see the Liberal candidate admit that “there is no room for partisanship in the role of the Chief Medical Officer of Health.”

“Now that he has revealed himself as a Liberal partisan politician we are calling on him to take his own advice and do the right thing and resign from his position immediately.”

Earlier this month, Dixon told CHONFM that Hanley’s decision to throw his hat in the ring to be the territory’s next member of parliament, “doesn’t sit right” with him.

Canada heads to the polls on September 20^th.

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