the House’s top women leaders as the Chairwoman of the Second Floor Division, a key post in the Speaker’s leadership team. She has also served as the Vice Chair of the legislature’s Health Care committee, and continues to serve as a member of the Special Legislative Committees on Foster Care and Cervical Cancer, and the House Libraries Caucus.

On Beacon Hill, Christine has distinguished herself as a true champion for the communities of Brockton, Easton & West Bridgewater. In each year’s budget, she prioritizes funding for local aid and does her best to ensure that worthy programs and organizations within her district receive the state funding that is critical to their work. Securing funding for the YouthBuild program, a program that serves out-of-school youth in search of a path to economic success; ensuring 90% state funding for Brockton’s two new schools; and advocating for funding to build and maintain parks, athletic fields and open space, and fund state police patrols, fire prevention grants and cultural programs have all been top priorities for the Representative.

As the Dean of the Brockton House Delegation and West Bridgewater’s State Representative, Canavan has played a significant role in the grassroots effort by area residents and state and local officials to vocally oppose Brockton Power’s proposal to construct a 350-megawatt power plant in Brockton’s Ward 4. At public meetings and hearings held on this project, the Representative has consistently advocated on behalf of her constituents to make sure that those living next to – and around – the proposed power plant have a voice in the local permitting process for such a project that could very well change the region’s quality of life for years to come.

A Registered Nurse, Representative Canavan has also been a leader in determining many of the Commonwealth’s health care policies, and has earned the respect of her colleagues on these
	issues. In 2002, she was successful in establishing a Special Commission of Nursing and Nursing Practice and served as the House Chair of that Commission. She has authored legislation, now law, which set patient/staff ratio requirements for Out-of-Hospital Dialysis Clinics to ensure maximum patient safety, and expanded the scope of duties for nurse practitioners. The Representative has also successfully championed legislation that now provides newborn hearing tests to infants; better-assists those with metabolic disorders and their families; and has continued to be the chief-sponsor of the landmark Patient Safety Bill, which
many hope will go a long way in improving patient safety in acute care hospitals and addressing the nurse shortage crisis currently plaguing the Commonwealth.

The Representative is often asked if she misses nursing and is amazed that people think bedside nursing is all that nursing is about. In fact, she tells us that she considers herself having never left nursing; rather, she has only moved into a specialty area!

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