11.19.2019 07:35 AM

A tale of two countries

From Angus Reid. Apart from the top finding (which seems wrong), and the deficit finding (which seems odd), the rest of it strongly suggests we are two nations within one.

Good luck, Mr. Trudeau. You’re going to need it.

11 Comments

  1. Steve T says:

    The top one, re: tax cuts, is a bit surprising. I thought the west (ie – Conservatives) were always painted as the group wanting tax cuts and smaller government, whereas easterners (ie – Liberals) were the pro-government pro-tax bunch. Seems that’s not the case.
    I understand the question is related to lower and middle income Canadians, but “middle income” is a pretty wide swath of people.

    I also note that a large majority of Canadians do not see national pharmacare as a major issue. This not only shows how out-of-touch the NDP has become, but also how the media takes a niche issue and pretends it is mainstream.

    Finally, note the disparity between east and west on healthcare access. Note also that Alberta and Saskatchewan (and BC, to some extent) have private providers of certain healthcare services like diagnostic tests. Wow, what do you know? The private/public parallel system used by nearly every other developed country in the world ain’t so bad after all!

    • The Doctor says:

      Re Healthcare, that Brian Day/Cambie Surgery case going on in BC is very interesting. I’m biased, but I think Day’s arguments are compelling and logical. The BC government’s arguments are like a Trump defence: scattershot incoherence mixed with inflammatory, scare-mongering rhetoric and dog whistles. The depressing thing is, the BC government will probably win.

      • Jim R says:

        The BC NDP government’s position on this case is driven by sheer dogma. As noted above, every other liberal democracy in the world with a public health care system also has a functioning private health care system.

        In fact, the only countries other than Canada that ban the purchase of health care services from private providers are Cuba and North Korea. That alone speaks volumes about the situation in this country.

        If the government were actually able to provide quality, *timely* health care, private providers would not exist. As such, their existence is an indictment of the public system, and is perhaps one (the?) reason the government wants to shut them down.

        • Since we have the means, several family members have been part of private-for-profit doctor clinics here in Quebec. I can tell you that they should change the name on the door to Repeatedly Dropped The Ball. In short, they weren’t worth two-shits, despite the considerable cost per plan.

          (But our dogmatic free enterprise capitalists will conveniently ignore that stark reality.)

          • Jim Keegan says:

            Just as you conveniently ignore the stark reality of the ridiculous wait times in the public system? And why would you label supporters of a parallel private pay system as “dogmatic free enterprise capitalists”? As noted by other posters, Canada is the only free-world country that makes a private system illegal; every European country has a joint public-private system. Does that make the French, Germans and Swedes, or for that matter, your family members who are actually using private-pay, “dogmatic free enterprise capitalists”?

          • Mike says:

            If Doctors have the time and facilities for private care then they also should have it for government care. Doctors promoting this are strictly doing it for the money.

          • Jim,

            There is an innate presumption out there that just because it’s private, that it’s automatically better than the public system, with better outcomes. Sure, it’s more timely but that’s where the advantage ends in many private clinics.

          • The Doctor says:

            Well, I had major knee surgery (a complete ACL reconstruction) from Cambie Surgery via Brian Day, and the result was phenomenally good. Had I waited for the public system, I would have missed an entire ski season. By going private with Mr. Day, I did not miss a single day of the subsequent season. So there you go.

          • Peter says:

            Sure, it’s more timely…

            That is the issue, Ronald. Nobody has ever seriously argued that medicare doctors and support staff are less competent than those in private clinics. The problem with the monopoly is the access to timely care, something easy to predict by looking at other systems. Of course, in many cases timely access can become a quality of care matter.

  2. Nick M. says:

    You could only check 3 answers. If pipeline politics was removed from the survey, than tax cuts and deficits would rank higher in Western Canada.

  3. Terence O'Hanlon says:

    Absurd survey. So more people in “Western Canada” think the transmountain pipeline is a top priority than in the East. But even then 59% of Westerners DON’T appear to think it’s a priority. Trudeau should ignore the bellyaching and get on with returning us to social democracy with the help of the NDP.

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