October 25, 2005

This time around we need to reinforce the NDP’s effort to flush out the Liberals on medicare privatization. Those concerned about partisanship shouldn’t be - keeping the Liberals in a minority government with the NDP holding the balance of power is simply the best, if not the only, way to preserve the country in the short term.

The next election will feature Paul Martin in one of his most hypocritical roles - the champion of Medicare. Pushed by the public, health coalitions and the provinces, and vulnerable in a minority government situation, Martin’s Liberals were forced to put billions more into medicare. They are now characterizing themselves as virtually identical to the NDP on this issue.

This is an obvious strategy - trying to scoop NDP voters critical of the Liberals by appearing to be left - but it can also be very effective and dangerous. The Liberals have governed for most of the past 100 years by running from the left and governing from the right. Why would they change now? It is critically important that activists and their organizations not allow this to happen.

CORPORATE BOONDOGGLE

This is especially true on the issue of privatization. And it may be the biggest issue facing the country. This is true because corporate Canada and its political flunkies in the Conservative and Liberal parties have shifted ground. They now support increased spending on Medicare - so long as they can funnel the dollars into the corporate pockets of their friends.

We are on the verge of a massive privatization initiative - and the only barrier is a minority government.

THE HOOK

The ‘hook’ on which to hang this letter-to-the-editor is the meeting which took place today between Paul Martin and Jack Layton on conditions for NDP support of the Liberal government.[See Toronto Star story below.]

Layton chose the creeping privatization of Medicare as his principal ‘deal breaker’ issue. He chose smartly. Martin cannot come out against privatization because he is clearly committed to it and has almost certainly made back-room promises to allow it to happen.

After the meeting martin said virtually nothing - only that it was a “good meeting.” Not a word on the substantive issue. Layton blasted Martin for failing even to admit that privatization was a problem or that it was even happening.

Write a letter to the editor - remember,

• just use a couple of the bullet points below;

• write in your own words if you have the time - by changing a few words in the paragraphs;

• letters editors are often sexist in their choices. I know women writers who have had letters repeatedly rejected - until they use just the first letter of their first names.

• copy the G&M [letters at globeandmail.ca] and if you are in Ontario, the Toronto Star [lettertoed at thestar.ca], in BC the Vancouver Sun [sunletters at png.canwest.com], etc. - that is, forward your letter to the largest daily in your area if your paper is a local one.

THE MESSAGE

The message: Paul Martin continues to expose his and his government’s support for the increased privatization of Medicare.

• Paul Martin’s response to NDP leader Jack Layton’s appeal on ending the privatization makes crystal clear that he has something to hide: he and his government support the increased privatization of Medicare

• The cat is out of the bag - Paul martin, consistent with everything this former CEO stands for, supports the a parallel private medical insurance system. Why else would he refuse to agree with Jack Layton that Medicare privatization is a problem in Canada?

• There are signs everywhere in Canada that corporations and other private operators have targeted Medicare. In Ontario the Liberal McGuinty government has announced that 14 new hospitals will be public private partnerships - that is private, for-profit hospitals that will cost more, give poorer service and be beyond public control. Paul Martin has said nothing about this massive privatization plan

• There are signs everywhere in Canada that corporations and other private operators have targeted Medicare. Private clinics are opening everywhere across Canada and Paul Martin and his health minister Ujjal Dosanjh remain strangely silent.

• There are signs everywhere in Canada that corporations and other private operators have targeted Medicare. The Canadian Medical Association in August passed resolutions supporting a parallel, for-profit medicare system. Paul martin said nothing about this historic and frightening decision to abandon public medicare

• There are signs everywhere in Canada that corporations and other private operators have targeted Medicare. The Supreme Court of Canada struck down a ban on private health insurance in Quebec because patients were not ensured timely access to care. Where was Paul Martin? There was no repudiation of this decision - because it lets the federal government off the hook.

• McMaster University studies published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal show why we should be terrified of for-profit health care. “Canadian governments would pay an extra $7.2 billion in annual health care costs if Canada switched to investor-owned private for-profit hospitals,” reported the study. (full study)

• According to Dr. P.J. Devereaux, the lead author of the study: "With for-profit care, you end up paying with your money, and your life." He based his statement on a previous study by the McMaster group that showed the switch to for-profit hospitals would result in an additional 2,200 unnecessary deaths every year.

• Paul Martin has not changed his position in ten years. He does not believe in robust public services. In his 1995 budget speech he boasted of downsizing government telling the House of Commons that his budget would take public spending as a percentage of GDP back to 1951 levels.

• Paul Martin has not changed his position in ten years. In his 1995 budget he cut federal contributions to social programs - including Medicare - by 40 per cent.

• Paul Martin’s massive cuts to Medicare in 1995 - 40 % of federal dollars - are coming home to roost just as he planned. He created a “crisis” - and now the private health care corporations/insurance companies offer to solve the crisis by making a profit.

• Paul Martin’s refusal to support Jack Layton’s call for a reversal to the privatization of Medicare is consistent with his support for Bay Street’s “deep integration” initiative which aims to “harmonize” our social programs with the US. That means two tier medicare.

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