Canada

Current Events
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our southern friends.

With friends like you…

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  • Over 2/3rds of the country is pro-private services in health care, yet Harper became a zealot for the public system.  This is despite the fact that he’s argued (and apparently quite well) to introduce privatization in the past.

  • Harper’s entire campaign was about “accountability” – i.e. was a polemic agains the liberals.  Rather then stressing tax cuts as the essence of the difference between his party and the liberals, he rarely mentioned them.

I’m curious as to where you got the 2/3 statistic - it sounds too high too me. I recall seeing numbers much lower a while ago (…it was in the National Post when the private/public hospital opened up).

Re: polemic

Isn’t that how all elections are run these days? when was the last time you saw a conservative defeat that wasn’t a result of a pragmatic platform?

I remember reading line by an Objectivist intellectual (Tracinsky?) that was about the Microsoft anti-trust trials: “when they loose in court they conclude that it isn’t a result of compromising on their principles, but that it is because they don’t compromise fast enough”

Sums it up nicely. Pragmatists never learn.

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I’m curious as to where you got the 2/3 statistic - it sounds too high too me. I recall seeing numbers much lower a while ago (…it was in the National Post when the private/public hospital opened up).

Although I remembered the correct number, I did make the point seem stronger than it is. Here is the statement on the website of Environics, the company conducting the poll:

“Two-thirds support private sector delivery of health care, as long as it is publicly financed. One-half think they should have the right to buy private health care out of their own pocket to obtain timely access.”

The National Post adds that support for private sector delivery (but still public funding) is “highest in Quebec, at 68%, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the birthplace of medicare, at 57%”. That sounds strange to me – I would have thought that Alberta would have had the strongest results and Quebec the weakest.

Here is the wording of the two questions:

Question #1: “Would you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose having health care services provided by the private sector, if patients did not have to pay out of their own pockets for these services and the services were covered by tax dollars exactly the same way they are now?” 31% of Canadians said they strongly supported it, and 35% said they somewhat supported it.

Question #2: “Do you agree or disagree that individual Canadians should be given the right to buy private health care within Canada if they do not receive timely access to services in the public system, even if this might weaken the principle of universal access to health care for all Canadians by making it possible for some people to have quicker access to services?” 50% of Canadians said they agreed.

Details from the survey: “The above results are based on an omnibus survey conducted by Environics by telephone between June 16 and 21, 2004 among a probability sample of 1,500 adult Canadians (aged 18 or older). The sample is estimated to be accurate within plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.”

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In response to another question asked in the current survey, one-half (50%) say they agree that individual Canadians should be given the right to buy private health care within Canada if they do not receive timely access to services in the public system, even if this might weaken the principle of universal access to health care for all Canadians by making it possible for some people to have quicker access to services. Although opinion is divided on the subject - 46 percent oppose the idea - it is significant that the survey finds such a high level of agreement even when the spectre of two-tier health care is raised.

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Thanks for the warning…although i can see now this forum is not imparcial. So i can’t feel free to speak my mind because i might offend some of our southern friends. What about free speach? That’s in your constitution isn’t it?

So if i have a problem with the US shouldn’t i be allowed to voice it, so that smart intellectual americans may post their thoughts..who knows maybe they’ll explain something i’ve misunderstood about americans. And then maybe i’ll stand up during thier national anthem next time.

Also thanks to everyone replied positive or negative your opinion matters to me.

You did a great job my friend summing up our stereotypes, silly american thinking he know’s everything…cheer brotha eh!

Canuck, you have spent loads of time to say the square root of sod all. :yarr:

You have favoured nothing except for Canada for no reason and you have merely bashed America in typical leftist fashion.

If you are a typical Canadian then you deserve all you get. Or maybe you should come and live in the socialist republic of Glasgow :confused: .