Canada 150: Sacred Cows and Do-Overs

I like the Canada 150 concept. Moreover, I like how it is being billed as a "Thinkers Conference" because I'm a believer in ideas and I think that Canada 150 is exactly the kind of place the Liberal Party of Canada needs to get back in the game to start breaking the 31% watermark they reached at the height of prorogation madness. However, today the MSM brought some interesting news to the Canadian public.

CBC News chose to highlight the event by writing a piece on retirement, savings and the future of health care in a post-Baby Boomer Canada.

CTV News chose to focus on a different part of the speech given by David Dodge: two-tiered health care. Yeah, you read that right. Doesn't it just roll off the tongue? Two-Tiered health care, brought to you by David Dodge and entertained by the Liberal Party of Canada.
Wha?

First of all, while the idea of two-tiered health care in Canada is nothing new to Canadian households, the idea being amused by the Liberals is.

Dodge, a former deputy finance minister, told the Montreal conference it's time to re-think the program, the cost of which is increasing at seven per cent a year -- twice the rate of growth in the economy.

He told delegates there are "really only four" options to rein in health spending:

• Impose or increase dedicated health-care taxes or levies.
• Reduce the scope of medical procedures covered by public health insurance, forcing people to buy private health insurance for services not covered.
• Introduce "significant" co-payments.
• Continually reduce the quality of services provided -- letting wait times increase and limiting drug coverage, for instance -- and allow people to buy upgraded, private health care. In other words, "so-called two-tier medicine."

"These are stark and unpalatable choices we face with respect to health care," Dodge said.

Ah ha. I love how behind the Deficit Smokescreen anything goes. We're used to politicians mulling over cuts to health care - but it takes a rare and confused moment in every politicians life when they actually speak about making significant structural changes as to the way health care is delivered in this country.

This is our Sacred Cow. Some countries have obscure and abstract sacred cows like "freedom" which can mean anything under the sun; and others have institutions which define them. Whether you're a Conservative, Liberal, Dipper or Green; you've got to admit that Universal Health Care is a defining institution in this country and it has become an untouchable part of our socio-political fabric.

That does not mean that changes to the system are not necessary or that Canadians are not willing to engage the health care "debate." When prorogation, the ballooning deficit, and joblessness was at its peak, Canadians wanted reassurance in one area of policy and budget spending: Health Care. And it seems that for people like Dodge, that doesn't matter. Worse yet, for people like Ignatieff these ideas supposedly "need to be heard." Others, like Kennedy take them for what they are worth and throw them away immediately. I wonder what the hell they're talking about in Montreal and if they all have collective amnesia regarding what's been happening in Washington these last, I dunno, 16 months.

Speaking of 16 months ago... it was around that time that the Harper Party had their minority strengthened through the inept leadership of the Dion Liberals. But that has not stopped the Canada 150 conference from feeling out the crowd on the issue of Carbon taxation. That's right. They're asking for a mulligan. A do-over.

"I'm happy that there are so many people here who are willing to talk about this because at the end of the day it's one of the most efficient measures you can use if you actually want to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions," [Steven Guilbeault of Equiterre] said in an interview.

Ignatieff, who first proposed a carbon tax during the 2006 Liberal leadership, has since said he won't revive an idea that's been so decisively rejected by voters. He now advocates a cap and trade system instead.

But panelist Michael Phelps, board chairman of the GLOBE Foundation, said a carbon tax is a much simpler and more effective way to influence consumer behaviour.

"I'd be standing on a soapbox saying, 'Use less carbon, you're going to pay for it,"' he said.

It's interesting. Ignatieff thinks that the voters have "decisively rejected" the idea of a Carbon Tax but have not decisively rejected the idea of broadening Canadian health care to include a pay-as-you-go private option. If this is so, he should be referred to the success of the Canadian Alliance and the elections of 2000 and 2004. Finally, it was only amid controversy and some back-stabbery, the Liberals were defeated.

On policy, the case of health care is open and shut: do not touch. Moreover, it wasn't the idea of the Carbon Tax that reduced the Liberals to 77 seats. It was Dion. Case in point: the CPC didn't even have an official platform until a week before the election because they didn't need one with Dion leading the Liberals. But that's not going to be the case for Election Twenty-Ten.

Policy needs to be at the heart of the Liberal's attack and this conference is where those policy ideas need to start. The Liberals need to be mindful of not only the voters, but what they can - as a party - offer with courage. That's what the Dion campaign lacked. It wasn't void of good ideas but rather a bold vision for the country that was embraced by Liberals from the caucus to the candidates to the grassroots. Let's hope Canada 150 is the start of that.