Canadian Health Coalition mourns loss of long-time chair and nurse activist Kathleen Connors

Nurses and health care advocates are mourning the loss of a ‘fierce and kind’ leader. Kathleen Connors died on April 3, 2025, at the age of 73, in St. John’s.

Connors grew up on a farm in Darlingford, Manitoba where she went to a school named after a suffragist, the Nellie McClung Collegiate. She got acquainted with public speaking at an early age through the 4-H Club. She became a nurse and went on to be one of Canada’s most successful labour organizers.

As president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU), from 1983 to 2003, Connors oversaw the growth of that union from 20,000 to 125,000 members. Passionate about public health care, Connors was also the chair of the Canadian Health Coalition from 1991 to 2003.

Former chair of the Canadian Health Coalition Pauline Worsfold, RN, says she looked up to Connors:  “The way she challenged MPs is historic. She was fierce and yet kind at the same time. An incredible person with great integrity and a wicked sense of humour, too.”

“The way she challenged MPs is historic. She was fierce and yet kind at the same time. An incredible person with great integrity and a wicked sense of humour, too.”

Pauline Worsfold, RN

Worsfold says Connors was fearless in her dealings with politicians and used to say, “Politicians don’t change their mind because they see the light, they change their minds because they feel the heat!”

“Politicians don’t change their mind because they see the light, they change their minds because they feel the heat!”

Kathleen Connors

Michael McBane, former National Coordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition from 1995-2014, says “Kathleen Connors had a big heart, warm smile, a generous spirit and was a generational leader in the struggle to protect and expand universal access to public health care across Canada. She mentored women and men who have taken up the cause.”

“Kathleen Connors had a big heart, warm smile, a generous spirit and was a generational leader in the struggle to protect and expand universal access to public health care across Canada. She mentored women and men who have taken up the cause.”  

Michael McBane, former National Coordinator of the Canadian Health Coalition

Current CFNU president Linda Silas said in a statement that in 1979 Connors helped develop the constitution of the National Federation of Nurses Unions and was a delegate at the 1981 founding convention of what would later become the CFNU.

On a more personal note, Silas said, “Some would call Kathleen a pioneer, some a rock who was always ready to speak up! For me, Kathleen Connors was a femtor, a friend and the nicest person you could ever meet. Today, is not about saying goodbye because Kathleen is, and will always be within us, as nursing leaders.”

Today, the CFNU is Canada’s largest nurses’ organization, with 250,000 members in every sector of health care, with nurses’ unions in nine provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador), and counts 40,000 student nurses of the Canadian Nursing Students Association as associate members.

In 2003, when Connors retired at age 51, she said, “My goal for CFNU was to make it truly national. Now we have nine of Canadaʼs ten major nurses unions as members, from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia. We are also seen by the Federal Health Minister and her deputies as a critically important constituency—one that must be consulted.”

On her watch, the stereotype of the meek handmaiden was replaced by that of the self-assured militant, said André Picard in a tribute to Connors in the Globe and Mail.

“The motto of the first nursing school was: ‘I see and I am silent.” Well, that never really worked for me.”

Kathleen Connors

“The motto of the first nursing school was: ‘I see and I am silent,'” Connors told Picard. “Well, that never really worked for me,” she added with a laugh.

Connors grew up at a time when feminism was transforming society. Nursing became a profession not simply a low-wage vocation for women.

Connors was part of the first nursing class to pay tuition and not live in residence. Until that time, nurses paid for their training in service to their hospital and lived in convent-like residences. Pay was abysmal. If nurses married or became pregnant, they were fired. Her first job was in Thompson, Manitoba, where, coincidentally, the first nursing union was certified.

In 1999, Connors was diagnosed with uterine and bowel cancer.

Becoming a patient after so many years as a nurse reinforced her commitment to Medicare and her belief that the publicly funded health care system needed to be shored up, beginning with improving nurse staffing levels.

“The quality of the care I received was great. The nurses were great. But it’s plain to see the system is under great strain,” Connors told Picard.

While ‘retired,’ Connors was the President of Newfoundland and Labrador’s New Democratic Party from 2011 to 2016, and ran for the party twice in provincial elections. She also volunteered with seniors’ groups and helped to create a home share program.

“Kathleen was a true social democrat, feminist and advocate for good health care everywhere in Canada. She brought untold energy and vision to the Party and what we stand for,” said Lorraine Michael, former Newfoundland and Labrador NDP Leader.

In 2019, Connors presented to CFNU members at their conference in Calgary about her career and her mentors.

The Canadian Health Coalition and proponents of public universal health care across Canada offer our condolences to her family. Kathleen Connors will be missed and remembered as one of Canada’s most dedicated activists.

Connors was predeceased by her husband of 32 years, Cyril, parents, Gordon and Ruth Ching, sister Bev Martens, and mother and father-in-law, Daniel and Eileen Connors. She is survived by her daughter, Kara (Robin Vaters), two granddaughters, Kyleigh and Gracie, siblings, nieces and nephews, her special friend, Doreen, the St. Boniface class of ‘72, and countless sisters and brothers of the union movement.

Visitation will occur at Caul’s Funeral Home, Torbay, Newfoundland, on Sunday, April 6, 12:00-8:00 PM.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Kathleen’s memory to Northeast Avalon Memorial Gardens Inc. E-transfers can be sent to: neamgi22@gmail.com. The family plans to create a scholarship in Kathleen Connors’ memory to support rural Newfoundland and Labrador students wanting to pursue nursing.

Anne Lagacé Dowson is the Media Director of the Canadian Health Coalition