Mr. Speaker, we are nearing the one year anniversary of the introduction of Alberta's bill 11, a bill that has since been passed, received royal assent and, only 11 days ago, had standards approved that will allow private hospitals to treat patients overnight.
We are all one year older but this Liberal government is clearly no wiser. As Ralph Klein goes to the hustings he will surely defend his attacks on medicare by pointing to this federal government's silence on bill 11.
Canadians watched the Liberals run an election on being the defenders of medicare. Since then they have done nothing to protect medicare. This weekend we saw a real defence of medicare. We saw the Manitoba NDP government stand up against private hospitals. It did not just express grave concern. That government slammed the door on two tier health care in that province. That is how it is done.
When will our federal government show the same courage and prohibit private for profit hospitals?