-by Frank MacDonald
Canada’s public health care system did not come in overnight.
It was a series of negotiations carried out by ten provinces, two territories and the federal government six decades ago.
The provinces were represented by a diversity of political parties from Social Credit, Progressive Conservative, Liberal and New Democrat premiers and health ministers. The federal governments of Mike Pearson and Pierre Elliot Trudeau hosted the talks, as the provinces tried to find common ground. Among the federal participants were people such as Tommy Douglas and Allan J. MacEachen.
They met several times, each representing policies and political philosophies that were as diverse as the nation itself. But each time they met, each province’s representative brought with him or her the will to get this done, a Canada-wide public health care system.
Since Confederation Canada’s success as a nation has been grounded in our ability to cooperate and to compromise. That approach helped the nation reach a final stage. Not as broad as some provincial leaders had wanted, not as narrow as some other wanted, but with a series of compromises acceptable to every province and territory, Canada’s health care system came into being.
Our health care system has been in place for sixty plus years now. It is a system that is strained because over that time much has changed. The nation’s population had doubled since the mid-60s, medical research, medicinal improvements, and an explosion of technological aides keep improving our chances as Canadians of living healthier, longer lives.
But those improvements are costly, and need to be revisited. For example, the federal contribution to the provinces for health care has dwindled down from near 50 percent to less than 6 percent. Clearly, to avoid a deepening crisis in our public health care system, it needs to be revisited, reevaluated, and reinforced.
Of all the nation’s accomplishments, our public health care system is the flagship of our national pride in ourselves. When I suggest a reassessment, it is not necessary to search for alternatives, but to find way to improve funding and delivery of what already exists. There are additions, expansions, to our public health care system that could be considered, provided the system itself remains intact, a system accessible to every Canadian regardless of his or her financial circumstances.
Last week, the ultra-conservative Alberta government of Danielle Smith has taken the first steps to undermine and destroy Canada’s public health care system by introducing a two-tier system than will ensure that the wealthiest of Albertans will be able to buy-pass that province’s most needy patients. It was an act that abandons the original vision this country created for itself.
In doing so, Premier Smith undermines the vision of one of Alberta’s greatest premiers, Peter Lougheed, whose contribution to these original talks, and whose acceptance of its vision gave the Progressive Conservative Premier confidence that we, as a nation, could make this work. And we did.
In creating a two-tier system, Smith is challenging the federal Health Care Act that protects our public health care system from such threats. It is saddening to see the federal government of Mark Carney, who leads the party that led the original creation of public health care in Canada, show what appears to be a virtual indifference to this national threat.
Granted, Carney has his hands full trying to fend off that dumb Dunce down in Washington, but the prime minister should look closer at the Dunce’s influence in Canada, for the Dunce has an admirer among us. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, has taken a trip to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and made the trip to Washington to attend his inauguration. Her conservatism is more Republican than Canadian.
That this provincial legislation came in despite protests from citizens’ organizations, other provinces, notably Manitoba, people drawn together in fear and anger over Alberta’s efforts to undermine our national health care system. Instead of Alberta tackling its cracks and fissures head-on to keep our universal system intact and accessible to all Canadians, it has chosen to lead Alberta towards an American-style of health care, a style that abandons its most impoverished, most vulnerable.
While voices are being raised in protest, Danielle Smith is closing the barn door.
It may not be too late for a nation of Canadians themselves to become alarmed, loud and aggressive in acting to protect something that belongs to all Canadian, Albertans included. There are people and organizations that have worked and are working to prevent the privatization of our health care system such as Canadian Doctors for Medicare, but these efforts need broad public and financial support.
A health care system such as ours requires the Canadian practice of co-operation and compromise to deal with its challenges. It is a system that if infiltrated by one province that identifies more strongly with the American system of corporate doctors, massive insurance rates and profits that remove billions from Canada’s health care system, they may eventually succeed in doing their US masters’ bidding.