Caring for care: Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong talk about ‘the conditions of work are the conditions of care’

Two of Canada’s foremost thinkers on health care, Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong, joined the Canadian Health Coalition’s Anne Lagacé Dowson to talk about their life’s work on December 15. The webinar is now available for viewing here:

The pair discussed their sociological investigations of hospitals, home care and long-term care in Canada and other countries, answering questions from the audience about today’s most pressing health care challenges. They repeated their often quoted slogan, “the conditions of work really are the conditions of care.”

Pat Armstrong is Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology at York University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. A feminist political economist, her research, writing and activism focus primarily on women’s work, women health and health services. Most of this work has been done in partnership with unions, governments and community organizations and has been the basis of her testimony in more than twenty cases heard by tribunals and courts. She has served for many years on the Boards of the Canadian Health Coalition and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. She was a member of the Health Standards Organization’s Technical Committee that developed standards for long-term care and of the Ontario Science Council’s Sub Committee on Congregate Care.

Hugh Armstrong is a distinguished research professor and professor emeritus of social work and political economy in the School of Social Work at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is a co-author (with Pat Armstrong) of Universal Health Care: What the United States Can Learn from the Canadian Experience (The New Press). Hugh’s major research interests include long-term care, the political economy of health care, unions and public policy, the organization of work and family and household structures. He is a member of the board of the Ontario Health Coalition.

Stay tuned for more webinars by the Canadian Health Coalition in 2026.