Interesting news in Canadian politics has surfaced late yesterday. According to excerpts from the upcoming book “Worth Fighting For” received anonymously by Broadcast News, Prime Minister Paul Martin apparently wanted to scrap the Canada Health Act when he was a deficit-fighting finance minister.
What is the Canada Health Act? According to the Canadian Government’s website, “the Canada Health Act is Canada’s federal health insurance legislation. The Canada Health Act establishes criteria and conditions related to insured health care services and extended health care services that the provinces and territories must meet in order to receive the full federal cash contribution under the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST).”
The book, which is to be released on October 26th, is written by Sheila Copps, who was dropped from government when Martin became leader of the Liberals. Apparently the book reveals that Martin wanted to replace the health act with something more flexible. Copps on the other hand, felt that it was political dynamite to breach what she calls the sanctity of medicare.
Unfortunately, as I have not read the book, I don’t know any other details. What I do know is that every story has two sides, and perhaps Martin had a plan for something more flexible that would still retain the “sanctity of medicare”. I don’t think any politician in Canada would dare get rid of medicare altogether.
So that makes me wonder. If Copps really has something that would destroy Martin, why not get it out there during the campaigning for the last election? Why would she wait until now? And if she doesn’t have anything that damning, why mention it at all?
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