“Politics is a blood sport.” — Aneurin Bevan
Should Andrew Scheer resign? The Conservatives won a clear plurality in British Columbia and virtually every seat in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Could they have done better in the Maritimes and the large cities in Central Canada? They won the national popular vote and increased their ridings by 26 seats, but did not win a majority despite the SNC-Lavalin affair, a rising projected deficit and the many broken promises of Justin Trudeau.
This was not just Andrew Scheer’s failure to broaden his base of support by demonstrating greater concern over climate change and modifying his earlier position on abortion and same-sex marriage. In health care and other areas, he missed opportunities to use arguments that would have likely gained many votes.
Justin Trudeau often warned that Scheer was like Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and would balance budgets by “cuts” to health care. Yet when Global TV revealed that the Liberals were slashing health benefits to members of the Canadian Armed Forces (while not doing so to federal prisoners), Scheer did not make use of this discrepancy.
Trudeau criticized Scheer over his U.S. citizenship. However, Trudeau is no better; after all, he failed to volunteer that he had voted in Ottawa in May 2018. At the time, he acknowledged that he had been a legal resident of Ontario since 2013. It follows that he has a fully portable Ontario health card — unlike his Papineau constituents whose non-portable medical coverage he ignores.
Scheer might have garnered votes from many Quebec residents who wished to travel on business or vacation to other provinces by pledging to meet with Premier François Legault after the election, and inducing him after 35 years to at last provide fully portable medical benefits to all Quebecers. Inasmuch as the Quebec surplus for 2018-19 is about $4 billion, it could easily afford to comply with the Canada Health Act and pay “host province” rates for physician services in other provinces.
Scheer proposed a “national energy corridor,” but did not defend it strongly enough against Legault and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet. He should have reminded Quebecers that in 2106, Legault actually favoured the Energy East pipeline proposal and stated, “We’re aiming for zero equalization, and one way to get there would be to receive royalties on the oil transiting through Quebec.” Scheer should have cited a Fraser Institute study that showed that pipelines were four times as safe as rail transport, mentioned that thanks to a reversal of Enbridge Line 9B into Montreal, 53 per cent of the oil used in Quebec now comes from the West, and stressed that 66 per cent of Quebecers prefer to buy Canadian oil.
Health was barely mentioned, except for pharmacare proposals by several other parties. Scheer seemed reluctant to suggest targeted funding, even in areas of health care in which Ottawa does have jurisdiction. These include facilitating access to care across Canada and in other countries. Scheer merely pledged to increase the Canada Health Transfer by at least three per cent and also give additional funds to replace outdated MRI and CT scanning equipment.
Backorders of drugs are worsening and have invalidated many travel insurance policies. This affects “snowbirds,” but also impacts many younger persons with diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Many are Indigenous or come from South Asia, the Philippines, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean. These groups also make up a large percentage of the population of Halifax and other large Canadian cities. They might well have voted for the Conservatives if offered increased government health coverage that would have allowed even those unable to qualify for private travel insurance to visit friends and relatives back home.
Only P.E.I. and the three territories are currently meeting the requirements for hospital costs outside the country. These could likely be met if Ottawa were to pledge a targeted one per cent increase in the Canada Health Transfer.
An Ipsos poll on Oct. 21 found that four out of 10 Conservative voters felt that Andrew Scheer should resign. According to John Ivison (Nov. 6 National Post column), a former Conservative cabinet minister asserted, “I have never seen people so angry.” Scheer met with his caucus in Ottawa on Wednesday. When the next election comes — possibly in a couple of years — if he remains the party leader, he should be much more proactive and incorporate these suggestions into his platform.
Ottawa physician Dr. Charles Shaver was born in Montreal. He graduated from Princeton University and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and returned to Canada in 1970. He is past chair of the section on general internal medicine of the Ontario Medical Association. The views here are his own.
