About Lee
Lee Fairclough is a 22-year resident of Etobicoke—Lakeshore, where she and her husband are raising their two boys. Their family appreciates the public schools, outdoor trails, and the strong sense of community of the area.
Lee cares deeply about serving people, communities, and patients. She has passionately dedicated the first 25 years of her career to working in health care. Lee started at Princess Margaret Hospital delivering cancer treatment to patients, and has worked in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility, including leading a team through the COVID19 pandemic as President of St. Mary’s General hospital.
For the last 18 years, she has held executive roles in several health care organizations at both the provincial and federal level. As Vice President of Quality Improvement at Health Quality Ontario, she led province-wide initiatives with health care organizations to examine what our publicly funded health system does well, and where it could be even better. She has seen first-hand the impact of both good and bad policy decisions on people’s lives.
During the pandemic, in addition to serving as President of the hospital, she was also the regional lead for hospitals and steered efforts across the region with public health and the community in a constant effort to respond to a challenging and changing virus. She and her team were also called upon to step in to manage long term care homes and other settings during severe COVID outbreaks. She worked closely with municipal leaders, local business, and the tech sector to not only support the response but to understand how decisions might affect the local economy.
This experience and the societal impact of the policy choices made through the pandemic and beyond led Lee to contribute to public service in a new way as the Ontario Liberal Party candidate in Etobicoke—Lakeshore.
For Lee, teams are the key to success in most parts of life. A former competitive athlete in rugby, swimming, and water polo, she represented Canada as a member of the Canadian Women’s Rugby Team at the 1998 World Cup.
Her sporting experiences have heavily influenced her approach to teamwork and leadership throughout her career, and Lee brings commitment and resilience to every aspect of her professional and personal life.
Her education includes a master’s in health policy, management and evaluation and an undergraduate degree in science from McMaster University. Lee is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto with the Institute for Health Policy Management and Evaluation. During her career she has received several awards for leadership and team accomplishments.
Family is important to Lee, and her favourite time is spent in the outdoors hiking trails in the area, canoe tripping, and skiing. This love for the outdoors developed early growing up on the shores of Lake Huron in Southampton, Ontario. Her children participate in sports and activities in Etobicoke, and she has volunteered in roles such as board member of their swim team or the co-op nursery school.
As a daughter to aging parents, she also now has a front-row view of the needs in communities across generations. Whether its education, health care, businesses, or community services, she believes in the role of strong public services to create healthy, equitable, and thriving communities.