Thursday, August 04, 2005

Stocking stuffer

Ujjal Dosanjh may be doing little to nothing as Minister of Health. But full credit to him for giving the NDP an early Christmas present:
In an interview Thursday, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh welcomed the stay of the court's ruling, but gave no indication that he will take action to prevent the introduction of two-tier care in Quebec during the interval.

Dosanjh declined to offer a view on whether the Supreme Court judgment conflicts with the Canada Health Act, which requires that health care be provided to all on the same terms and conditions...

Asked whether he hoped to preserve the single-tier system, he said: "Our first priority is to strengthen the public health care system and I believe we shouldn't be ideological about these issues," he said...

Mike McBane of the Canadian Health Coalition said he interprets the comment about "rigid ideological positions" as referring to defenders of single-tier health care.

"I would say that's extremely disturbing to hear that coming from the minister of health who up until now has told Canadians he thinks private delivery is not in the public interest," said McBane.

A Dosanjh spokesman later tried to take back the gift, saying that the "ideological" comment referred only to advocates of private health care. But Dosanjh has brought the health-care issue back to the front pages, and also made it clear that he and his party don't stand for much when it comes to health care.

I just hope the NDP unwraps this one and starts showing it off in a hurry.

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