By Klaus Rohrich
Thursday, September 27, 2007
So far the Ontario election campaign has been fairly blas. The platforms of the two major parties running have not differed to any large degree, save and except for the Liberal/Conservative clash over public funding for parochial schools (excuse me I'm trying to stay awake, here). Then there's the usual blather about how much money each party leader is prepared to pony up to buy the voters' favor. At one point John Tory made some remark about getting tough on crime until I remembered that what he was talking about wasn't something that he could actually do anything about, as the Criminal Code is the responsibility of the federal government (ho hum).
However, when John Tory mentioned his bit about allowing private, for profit healthcare providers to open for business in Ontario, that caused me to sit up and take notice. While Dalton McGuilty ...er McGuinty was going on about how he and curious George Smitherman had managed to reduce wait times for healthcare in Ontario and promised to magically produce more doctors (21 new doctors in my riding alone), Tory said something that actually made sense. And the context of his proposal is such that all the left wingnuts can't seriously take issue with, as the proposed changes will keep the system 100% government funded.
Finally, we have what amounts to serious clash of ideas between the two parties, with Tory offering something other than a whopping plate of warmed over status quo. Everyone in Canada agrees that our vaunted healthcare system is broken, but no one has had the cojones to actually do something other than what they're now doing. McSquinty is attempting to convince voters that the system is improving using the age-old smoke-and-mirrors visual aid. His claim that wait times for medical treatment in Ontario have actually been reduced could be considered true if a 15-minute reduction in an 18-week wait counts. But somehow I think the poor shlub waiting for bypass surgery or a knee replacement wouldn't consider this a significant reduction.
No one has actually asked McQuirky where all these new doctors he has promised might come from, given that enrollment in Ontario's medical schools hasn't significantly increased in the past decade. Are we going to take raw graduates from the University of Botswana and grant them Hospital privileges at Mt. Sinai? Will they even be medical doctors, as opposed to Shamans imported from the Third World?
For my taste, Tory isn't nearly conservative enough, but his proposal to allow private clinics to treat Ontarians is the first good idea that I've heard emanating from this otherwise sorry campaign. God knows, there may even be others, but for now suffice it to say that it's a step in the right direction. It's also one of those promises that's actually deliverable, given that we could attract doctors with sterling credentials from the United States or elsewhere in Canada who would relish the idea of being paid by one of North America's largest health insurance companies, OHIP, where the bottom line does not dictate what a patient's plan of treatment might be.
It would also allay the fears of all the sob sisters who want to make sure that no rich person jumps the cue. Who knows, it may even shorten wait times, as it's one of those things that never been tried.
Given the fact that McSquishy has promised more of the same, which if he can be believed, means a continued pursuit of a system that even the Supreme Court of Canada claims is broken, John Tory's idea comes through as a breath of fresh air.
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