On unifying principles

Since the Charest government first introduced user fees for health care earlier this year, there's been plenty of question as to who would lead the charge to preserve and improve health care on the federal level - with the NDP taking up the cause last month. Now, Chantal Hebert points out just how significant the opportunity looks to be for a party which focuses on substantial policy results rather than taking the word of the likes of Charest that the federal government shouldn't try to enforce national standards:

(In the latest Angus Reid polling,) there was no regional fault line in the increase of the public attachment to medicare.

In its last budget, the Quebec government took steps to refinance the province’s health-care system. It introduced a universal health levy and it floated the idea of imposing user fees on medical visits.

The result was a massive backlash with at least one poll showing that a majority of Quebecers would favour a federal intervention to nip the user fee plan in the bud; even it meant that Ottawa would trample on an otherwise exclusive provincial jurisdiction to do so.

Now, I'd be particularly interested to see whether that same conclusion would apply in other areas where even the NDP has gone out of its way to allow Quebec to opt out of what are intended to be national standards.

But when it comes to health care at least, there looks to be plenty of voter demand for meaningful enforcement of the Canada Health Act which both the Libs and Cons have ruled out. And with citizens in all parts of Canada seemingly in agreement that our health care system is worth preserving and reinforcing, this looks to be a rare issue where there are few tradeoffs to be made in taking a strong stand.