Sunblogging

Ah... Toronto is in the middle of a delightful heat wave at the moment, and so I've actually been outside acquainting myself with this season other, more southern people call "summer", but which we Torontonians have been sorely lacking until the last few weeks. So apologies for the light blogging, in case anyone's missed me. No promises for regular blogging so long as the sun lasts. (The astute will note this post is being written late in the evening.)

The big news of the last few days is that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that, in light of the long waiting times in the public health care system, a blanket prohibition of private services is unconstitutional. The NDP has already started sounding alarm bells, and I can't say for sure that I blame them. On the other hand, I can't say for sure I agree, either.

For the last 20 years or so, Canada has been ruled by right-wing parties of differing shades. While no party can come right out and say that they oppose universal health care (said party would cease to exist in milliseconds) the effect of decades of fiscal conservatism has been pretty predictable - no government has been willing to spend the money required to maintain a public health care system that would reduce waiting times. Shockingly, this leads to a system that is still excellent in an absolute sense, but that also has major flaws - including the aforementioned waiting times.

This is further complicated by Canada's federal system, in which both sides are complicit, but come election time it's somehow always the other side's fault - either the national government isn't providing enough money, or the provinces are simply wasting the additional funds on tax cuts. Like some kind of weird quantum property, both statements are true.

Anyway, I haven't yet really made up my mind on this decision. I can see it going both ways - maybe it finally slaps the Liberals upside the head, and makes them (or the electorate) that you don't get something from nothing, and quality health care has to be paid for, shockingly enough. On the other hand, it might in fact be the beginning of the end - though it should be said that the ruling in no way affects the single-payer nature of the payment of services. I'd be surprised if provincial governments didn't find ways to negotiate with private providers, the way they currently negotiate with doctors' unions.

I will go out on a limb and say that this will be remembered as a crucial moment in Canadian politics. This will certainly define the terms of the next election, whenever that happens. The NDP has a real opportunity to capitalize on this moment. On that note, I'd like to point out Wonderdog's excellent post on the travails of the NDP - a collapsing Conservative party leaves the NDP within shouting distance of 2nd place nationally, and actually in 2nd place in Ontario. Yet somehow, the NDP can't break out of 20%. I'll have more to write about this later, but Wonderdog has some interesting points. Of course, this wouldn't be a blog if I agreed with all of them...