Biker Chicks are Great in Theory; however, Bernier's Ideas for Health Care May Actually Work

So former Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Bernier has some radical reform idea for the Canadian Health Care system. He wants the government to actually follow the constitution. Bernier is probably best known for leaving government documents at the house of his then girlfriend Julie Couillard who had past romantic relationships with members of the Hells Angels. He resigned from his cabinet position; however, he was easily re-elected and with all of the issues that the Federal Conservative Party is facing in La belle province Maxime Bernier's seat is one of the few, possibly only sure seats that the Conservatives will be able to count on in the next election.

A couple of weeks ago he was speaking at the Albany Club. Bernier suggested that the federal government leave Health Care completely up to the provinces. Ironically that is what the Canadian Constitution calls for. He believes that the Federal Government should not replace or extend the current agreement that currently exists with the provinces that sees $25-40 billion a year move from Ottawa to the provinces, with an extra $13 billion distributed to the provinces for other purposes.

If Bernier had his way the federal government would stop collecting the $25-40 billion in taxes. Leaving it up to the provinces to raise their taxes to pay for the health and social services that they provide.

The questions that he raised were valid ones " why do we have waiting lines for surgery, overcrowded emergency rooms and not enough family doctors? Is it because of bad provincial management or because of insufficient federal funding?" One of the problems right now is that we as the electorate do not know who is ultimately responsible for the ills of our health care system. If questions are raised the two levels of government just blame each other leaving the voters confused.

Interestingly enough Liberals are not enthralled with Bernier's ideas. Member of Parliament Ujjal Dosanjh told Postmedia that "In my view, the federal government is in a sense the guarantor of certain pan-Canadian standards in health care." So it is quite clear who the Liberals feel are at fault for the shortcomings of the Health Care system.

I cannot accept the premise that Health Care would not be provided for anyone if left up to the provinces. There are examples of the provinces putting together health and social service programs without the federal government looking over their shoulder. As discussed in the editorial piece where I first read about this story "the people of Quebec have developed a their own provincial daycare system, the people of Ontario have a drug plan for those who aren't covered by a work plan, not to mention the fact that it was the proince of Saskatchewan that pioneered public health care" in Canada. The close-minded view expressed by the likes of Dosanjh show that there are many people that would like to keep the nanny state that is in place in Canada, and will attempt to undermine any attempts to break that up. Even if it means going against the Constitution.

I for one am of the opinion that following the constitution in this instance is for the best; I am skeptical about believing that this would ever actually happen though. It seems that the feds and the provinces get too much out of this murky issue to ever clarify it. Even though Bernier's call for change could help some of the problems that are plaguing our Health Care system right now.