Just when things looked like they were turning around, Dalton McGuinty is at it again. For awhile it appeared that the number of lies, deceptions and broken promises that emanated from the Ontario premier and his government was on the wane. Sure, Dalton got a little silly a couple of weeks ago when he wanted to talk to the american ambassador to tell him that all of the shooting deaths of Canadians by other Canadians on Canadian streets was somehow the fault of the United States, but there was a marked decrease in the Liberal government’s lies and broken promises. Now it seems that the road to a return to at least partial honesty was a mere summer break; a brief respite during Ontario’s recent heat wave. It must have been too hot to lie.
But now the head of the Promise Breakers is at it again. and this time Dalton McGuinty is breaking promises about, of all things, health care.
Health care, Dalton? In Canada, lying and breaking promises about health care is worse than lying to your mother.
McGuinty campaigned hard during the last election in 2003 against private health care; arguing that bad Ernie Eves, who followed really bad Mike Harris, would hand over Ontario’s health and hospital system to the Tories’ rich friends. But now, quicker than you can say "taxes won’t cost a penny more under a McGuinty government", Dalton is all for allowing more involvement in the province’s health care system by the evil profit-driven private sector.
The Ontario government has allowed a private cancer clinic to open in Toronto. The new clinic uses expensive drugs that have been approved by Health Canada but are not covered under any Ontario drug plans. as a result of this Mcguinty move, in Ontario, where all residents are expected to get equal access to health care, those with upwards of $70,000 (or private insurance) to spend, have access to this new clinic that other Ontarians do not have.
Now the Dalton McGuinty that we all know and love would never ever allow this journey towards two-tiered medicine unless he could somehow rationalize it. and rationalize it he did. according to the provincial government what goes on at the clinic really isn’t treatment. The clinic simply dispenses different types of drugs and drugs, as we know are not always covered by the government. So Joe, I hear that you have cancer. are you getting treatment for it? Joe: No I’m not, but I am going to a clinic and getting drugs for it. according to the spin, this clinic is not really providing medical treatment; they are simply supplying drugs. That might be true of course, depending upon what "is" is. The distinction between drugs and treatment that the spin doctors are making is one not likely to be made by real doctors or for that matter, the public.
In other medical moves, Ontario has announced that there will be expansions at the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga and at Belleville’s Quite Hospital. The expansion of these two medical facilities will be undertaken by, ye gads, the private sector. This sounds an awful lot like the P3 partnerships that the previous Tory government talked about; the ones that McGuinty and his Liberals constantly trashed while they were in opposition. The current government brags that their plan is different because the private sector will only do the physical expansion and then the hospital will revert to the province. Under proposals that were made by the previous government, treatment and health care would still have been delivered by the public sector. and delivery of services is what really matters; not who constructs or owns the bricks and mortar. The Liberals are doing exactly what they railed against while they were in opposition.
It is almost trite to say that health care in Canada is a sacred cow. But Dalton McGuinty will even break promises that he made concerning what defines not only this province but the country. Dalton and his Minister of Health can rationalize all they want about "drugs" and "cancer treatment"; the fact remains that the Toronto cancer clinic is a further step on the road to two-tiered health care. and that might not be such a bad thing.