It could be Ralph Chrétien or Jean Klein. We are talking about two peas in a pod.
I have to say, that is an agenda, from all I have understood and heard recently, which is supported by the Canadian Alliance.
Our biggest worry is that the Liberal government will not be able to stand in the face of the extreme pressure from right wing forces in the country today who want to open up our health care sector to market forces, something which we know will destroy medicare and make the five principles of medicare meaningless. It will put us on a direct path to a system of health care in which, if people have the money, they can get what is needed, when it is needed and at the best quality, versus those who do not have the money, who will have to stand in line and wait for handouts from the government of the day.
Medicare is a model that is worth sharing with the world, not destroying and tearing apart at this critical juncture. The idea of making a system universally accessible to all citizens, regardless of income or where they live in this vast country, is as good today as it was when Tommy Douglas first pioneered the notion.
I would hope that somehow we could convince the Liberal government to address how it has created this situation, with its tremendous cuts to transfer payments to the provinces and its failure to apply the Canada Health Act in the face of the likes of Ralph Klein. Surely it can hear the voices of Canadians from one end of the country to the other crying out for the restoration of funding cuts, for leadership in terms of a new vision of health care and for holding firm to the principles of medicare and upholding the Canada Health Act.
We have a battle ahead of us and I would hope I could convince my colleagues in the Canadian Alliance to rethink their position around private sector involvement in health care and start thinking about how we could creatively develop a public health care system which would be, in the long run, more efficient and more cost effective.