The clear choice

As if the difference between Canada's political parties wasn't stark enough already, nobody should be surprised by the affiliation of the provincial government which just announced its refusal to be a party to private health care:

A showdown over private health care is looming in Manitoba, where the NDP government is threatening to impose sanctions against the Maples Surgical Centre over its plans for a private magnetic resonance imaging machine.

Health Minister Tim Sale, who said Tuesday he would wait for federal direction on the issue, changed his mind Wednesday and said the clinic will contravene the Canada Health Act if it charges patients for medically necessary diagnostic scans...

Sale said the province is willing to enforce the Canada Health Act with fines of up to $5,000 and more serious sanctions for subsequent offences.

Now, nobody should be unsympathetic to the people currently on Manitoba's waiting lists - and hopefully the government will back up today's action with added resources to put a dent in those. But Sale's action helps to emphasize that the NDP is the sole party standing up to fix the public system, rather than encouraging people to buy their way around it or simply refusing to take a meaningful stand in either direction. And that's exactly the contrast that Layton and company need to highlight when the writ drops.