CKNW Editorial
for November 16, 2000

Yesterday’s editorial on Jean Chretien using the elitist of elite second tiers for his own operation brought mostly responses of anger.

There were some defences, though, which I’ll deal with now.

One man said that Mr Chretien was the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and must be kept healthy on that account. In fact he is not the commander-in-chief and certainly wasn’t in 1991.

One or two others have declared that since he is Prime Minister it is important to the nation that he get medical treatment without delay. Well, the fact is he wasn’t Prime Minister at the time he was the Leader of the Opposition. Moreover, under our system, despite the mauling it’s had in past years, the Prime Minister is simply the first amongst equals.

The point has been raised that Mr Chretien broke no law. No he didn’t – he was just one of the little porkers from the elite at the public trough back in those days. However that’s not the point.

The point is really elementary. Mr Chretien has single-handedly made health care the single most important issue in the election. That it probably is anyway is only relevant because Canadians have seen their system deteriorate under the Chretien/Martin regime of clawing back provincial transfer payments. Now Mr Chretien has not only defended medicare, he has accused Stockwell Day of wanting a two tiered system. This clearly means that in Mr Chretien’s eyes, a two tiered system is a bad one.

And what is two tiered in Mr Chretien’s mind?

Why premiums … even though most, if not all, provinces have had premiums at one point or other.

Private clinics, even though they must operate within medicare and take patients for nothing. That’s a bad two tiered system.

Having a private diagnostic tool such as a MRI is a bad two tiered system. The list goes on. It is clear, then, that Mr Chretien has a deep-seated commitment to a one tiered healthcare system. How then can he justify taking advantage of an exclusive, elite health care tier for his own surgery?

No one, least of all me, says that Mr Chretien broke the law. What I do say is that here is a man who wants to lead, and presumably lead by example, who is saying to us that two tiered health care is a bad thing except for him.

There is another side to this story that is worth a look. The politics of all this is terrible and is so unlike the Liberal Party and their usually well oiled machine.

If you are going to make health care your number one issue and you are going to dump all over your opponent for what you say is the sin of favouring two tiered health care, surely you examine your own record before doing so. Surely your campaign aides would be expected to make sure that you were fighting from high ground.

Before yesterday, despite some recent setbacks, Jean Chretien was able to take the position that he cared for Medicare and its five principles and Mr Day did not. Now, instead of having the health care of the country as his issue it’s become Mr Day’s, if he is able to press his advantage.

What this all really tells us that Mr Chretien is incapable of belief. He was not to be believed over the GST …he was not to be believed over NAFTA …he was not to be believed over proportional representation … he was not to be believed over the APEC affair … he certainly can’t be believed over the scandalous goings on with lolly going into his ridings, even to companies in which he had an interest … and now he cannot be believed over health care.

Whatever the shortcomings of Mr Day – and he has them – they amount to very little when stacked alongside the untruths and deceptions practiced by a man that has obviously lost it. Mr Chretien is long overdue for retirement.