Silas: It is a great honour to continue to be entrusted to advocate for working nurses
June 6, 2025 (Niagara Falls, ON) – Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) for the past 22 years, has been acclaimed to her 12th two-year term at the national organization’s biennial convention in Niagara Falls today.
“It is a great honour to be able to continue to have the opportunity to serve Canada’s nurses as president of the CFNU, especially as we continue to work toward building a trusted advocacy role for Indigenous Peoples, among our members and throughout Canada,” Silas said today.
“With a new federal government in place in the midst of growing privatization pressure in many provinces, it’s critical to ensure that everyone living in Canada is all in for public health care and understands that health care is a human right, not an opportunity for profit,” Silas added.
Silas is a passionate and engaging spokesperson in both Canada’s official languages for nurses’ issues and the rights of all working people. President of the New Brunswick Nurses Union from 1993 to 2003, at the time she was the youngest nurses’ union president in Canadian history.
Silas was born in Dalhousie, N.B., where her father was a leader of the mill workers’ union at the Abitibi newsprint plant. Today, she is well-known throughout Canada and in many other countries as a fierce champion of public health care, workplace rights and social justice.
Last month, Silas was appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing in the United Kingdom, honoured for her contributions to nursing with the RCN’s highest award.
During more than four decades as a registered nurse, Silas has advocated tirelessly for federal and provincial policies that enhance social equity and the social determinants of health, such as retirement security for all workers, universal childcare, national pharmacare and access to public services for Indigenous communities.
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The CFNU is Canada’s largest nurses’ organization, representing 250,000 frontline unionized nurses and nursing students in every sector of health care – from home care and LTC to community and acute care – and advocating on key priorities to strengthen public health care across the country.
For more information, please contact Adella Khan, media@nursesunions.ca, 613‑807‑2942.