Trudeau pushes misinformation about Canada’s health care system
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Summary
Candace Malan explains why the Trudeau campaign is so bad, and why it's worth spending more time to fix it than it is spending on a superficial debate based on semantics, fear-mongering, and a three-decade-old partisan attack.
Transcript
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Canada's healthcare system is broken, but rather than trying to fix it, the Liberals are pushing
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a superficial debate based on semantics, fear-mongering, and a three-decades-old
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partisan attack. I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.
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The Liberals have been running a shockingly bad campaign. Almost two weeks in, and we have seen
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nothing but spectacular gaffe after spectacular gaffe. First, true to flip-flop on recognizing
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the Taliban as a legitimate government of Afghanistan, and then, to make matters so much
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worse, his pathetic minister for the status of women called the Taliban our brothers. Unbelievable.
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And as the country is reeling with sky-high inflation and unfathomable debt levels, Trudeau just sort of
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casually admits that he doesn't really think much about the government's money policy. Well, this week
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the Trudeau government had the opportunity to get his campaign back on track, but instead, Trudeau's
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Deputy Prime Minister and the country's Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, released a patently
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misleading video alleging that Conservative leader Erin O'Toole wants to privatize Canada's Medicare
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system. It was so misleading that the social media giant Twitter slapped a label on the video warning
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viewers that the content had been manipulated and was therefore false and misleading. I've mentioned it
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on the show before, but it bears repeating. This is peak liberal hypocrisy and, I'll have to say,
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top-notch irony. The Liberals have spent years warning us about the dangers of fake news online
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and the need for the government to go in and crack down on it. They've introduced legislation pushing
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for more censorship of what you can see and what you can share online. They want more power and more
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control over the internet and they want Canadians to believe them and to trust them to say that they
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are more trustworthy with this power than the Silicon Valley tech censors. So it was all just
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too perfect that it was the Liberals themselves, it was Trudeau and Freeland, who were caught red-handed
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pushing fake news, pushing falsehoods and misinformation, and that they were punished for this during the
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campaign. That one will come back to haunt them should they ever form government again and try to push
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their censorship agenda again. But rather than acknowledge that they went over their skis on
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this one, they've instead decided to double down and continue to push the storyline behind this
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disingenuous video. These guys have no sense of self-awareness and no sense of decency. So instead,
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this is what we see this week. And so it really, really matters and it matters for the future.
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Um, we put out, I think we put this out already. If not, you guys are going to get the scoop on the
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rest of the country. But we tweeted out some video of Aaron O'Toole during the conservative
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leadership campaign, where he talks about privatizing Medicare. Can you believe that?
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No, Christia Freeland, O'Toole did not talk about privatizing Medicare. That's not what he said,
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and that's not his position. In the clip that Freeland shared, the one that got slapped with the
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manipulated media tag on Twitter, O'Toole talked about utilizing more private delivery options
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of healthcare within the public universal system. There is a difference, a huge difference. But
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rather than having a thoughtful and nuanced debate about healthcare, where we look at our system and
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we try to figure out how we can improve upon it, how we as Canadians can have the best delivery and the
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best healthcare possible, these liberal politicians are instead determined to take the conservative
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position out of context to manipulate the truth, to spin it into partisan talking points, and to use those
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talking points to bludgeon conservatives over the head while fear-mongering Canadians. So right on cue,
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liberal leader Justin Trudeau dumbs down this message even more and releases this astonishingly stupid video.
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So after days of avoiding it, Aaron O'Toole confirmed he wants to bring private, for-profit healthcare to
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Canada. He said he supports choice in healthcare, which means letting the wealthiest pay to jump ahead
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in line. We believe in strengthening universal public healthcare for everyone. That's why we're
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investing in more doctors and nurses, shorter wait times, and better healthcare. Conservative cuts would
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take us backwards. Let's keep moving forward for everyone. Now I want to spend some time on the
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podcast breaking this down, explaining how superficial and how bad it is, and I know it's obvious to anyone
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who watches it just how bad and superficial it is, but I think it's worth spending time to go through
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line by line, because I think Canadians deserve better than this trite and partisan debate on healthcare,
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and almost everything that Justin Trudeau says in this video is either wrong, it's missing context,
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or it's just plain bizarre in terms of its messaging and strategy. And I will apologize in advance,
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because I know the audience, and I know that this is a little more Trudeau than most Canadians can
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handle, but we're going to do it anyway, so here we go. So first he starts off by saying this.
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So after days of avoiding it. What do you mean avoiding it? The very first five words out of
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Justin Trudeau's mouth are just not true. So let's just go to the timeline very quickly.
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Christia Freeland released her misleading video on Sunday, and by Monday Twitter had slapped that
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warning label on it. Now Trudeau recorded this little selfie video on Tuesday, so it wasn't
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days of O'Toole avoiding it. And besides, O'Toole didn't avoid it. He was asked quickly about his
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position by the media, and he answered it. He answered it in the same way he had in the past,
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in the same way as it appeared in the conservative platform. So no, O'Toole wasn't avoiding it,
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and no, it's not like he changed his position. Now next, Trudeau contends this.
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Aaron O'Toole confirmed he wants to bring private, for-profit healthcare to Canada.
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Now first, I do find it a little amusing that Trudeau uses words like private and for-profit
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as if they're taboo. I have a newsflash to Trudeau. We live in a market economy here in Canada.
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Basically everything that we buy, everything that we have, all those services, are based on private
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and for-profit service. That's how markets work. That's how you get everything from food to housing
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to clothing. Even schools have private options. So it's so weird, just on the surface, that we
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scaremonger around terms like private and for-profit. And I have another newsflash for Justin Trudeau,
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and that is that the majority of healthcare services in Canada, in this country, are already private and
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for-profit. That's right. We already do private care. We already do for-profit care in Canada.
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That now makes up the majority of our healthcare system. I'm going to read from Sean Spear's recent
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piece in The Hub. It's really good. If you don't know about The Hub, you should go check it out.
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Sean Spear is very, very good at this sort of policy breakdown. So this is what he has to say
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about healthcare. And again, he's talking about this controversy. So he says,
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O'Toole was quickly asked about it by journalists, and he reiterated his position, which remains that
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he wants to partner with private sector delivery companies to improve the universal public system.
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Canada's Medicare model of compulsory single-payer insurance is already a hybrid model. Single-payer
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insurance only covers medically necessary services that are narrowly defined as those provided by a
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physician or in a hospital. It doesn't extend to other parts of Canadian's healthcare, including
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prescription drugs, long-term care, or home services. For those non-insured services, we have a
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combination of public subsidies, employer-provided insurance, or out-of-pocket spending. What portion of
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overall healthcare is covered by single-payer insurance? Less than half. The parts of the
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healthcare system not subject to Medicare now represent 55% of all healthcare spending in Canada.
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So yeah, the weird notion that Canada has this pure 100% public system isn't true. It just doesn't. We
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don't have that. We have a hybrid model that is weirdly restrictive when it comes to mixing. So we
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can't have private money or private delivery in the narrowly defined public areas, and there's
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insufficient public support for everything else. Except, of course, it's not even the case because
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we're seeing increasing private alternatives, places like the Canby Clinic in Vancouver that offer
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private competition, as well as private clinics popping up all over Quebec because of a 2005 Supreme Court
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case called the Chewy case, which ruled in favor of private delivery. That's a topic for another day, but
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still, it shows how misleading Trudeau is being, or perhaps how ignorant he is of Canada's healthcare
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system, and how he sort of goes back to these very basic, very banal talking points when he's talking
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about healthcare. Platitudes, really, not even talking points. Anyway, so first he evoked fear over
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generally uncontroversial words like private and pro-profit, and then he goes even worse and goes even
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deeper down this rabbit hole. Let's play the next part here. This is really something.
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He said he supports choice in healthcare, which means letting the wealthiest pay to jump ahead in line.
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So now we're trying to hear a liberal politician fearmonger over the word choice? Are we supposed
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to believe that choice is a bad thing, that we don't want to have choice in our healthcare? Again,
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Trudeau, free people like choice. In fact, when it comes to the liberals' own position on abortion,
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they lean heavily on the euphemism pro-choice. So why are they all of a sudden anti-choice when it
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comes to the broader healthcare issue and the broader healthcare system in Canada? I really don't
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understand this language here. And also this line about the wealthiest would pay to get ahead. Well,
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that's not even true because if you're talking about a private alternative, it's not the same
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queue. It's a separate queue. They're going into a totally different line, which makes the original
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line shorter. So think about it. Imagine just for instance that you're in Soviet Russia and you want
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to buy a loaf of bread. You have to wait two hours in line for that bread. Say there's a hundred people
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in front of you. But then someone comes along and says, hey, I have the same bread, but I'm going to
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charge you twice as much for the bread. And so all of a sudden you have a separate option. Say 25 people
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decide to go and pay double to get their bread faster. And you decide that you don't want to
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leave. You don't want to pay more. You're going to stay in the original line. Well, when the 25 people
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leave, your line just got 25% shorter. So in this example, instead of waiting two hours, you would now
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wait an hour and a half. So the people who wanted to pay more for bread got their bread faster. They
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had to pay more. The people who didn't had to wait less. So it really is a win-win situation. That's
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what we're talking about here. Even Canadians who don't want to have to pay out of pocket or don't
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want to have to pay more should still welcome the idea that other people who want to pay more can
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leave the public queues and make those shorter. It's worth noting this is already the case in Saskatchewan
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with their new program that allows providers to charge Canadians who want to get an MRI faster.
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But again, Trudeau is just simply not being honest. Next, he says this.
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We believe in strengthening universal public health care for everyone. That's why we're investing in
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more doctors and nurses, shorter wait times and better health care.
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And now again, sure, liberals may believe in strengthening public universal health care,
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but that's also Aaron O'Toole's position. I'll read you a little bit from the Conservative platform
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because this is really the same thing that he's talking about. So first, he says he wants to
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partner with private sector rather than over-rely on the government. We know there are some things
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best done by the private sector and it will be faster to reach out for help. He also says that
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Canada's Conservatives will meet with the premiers within the first 100 days of forming a government
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to propose a new health agreement with the provinces and territories that boosts the annual growth
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rate of the Canada health transfer to at least 6%. This will inject nearly $60 billion
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into our health care system over the next 10 years. It's worth noting that that is the largest
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ticket item in the Conservative platform. So the biggest thing that they want to spend money on
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is increasing the amount of public health care that goes to the provinces. And so what they're
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calling for is an increase over what the Liberals are calling for. So the Conservatives are actually
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calling for more money to go into the public health care system. Next, O'Toole says that he will
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create a pilot program to provide $150 million over three years in grants to non-profits and charities
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delivering mental health and well-being programs. So again, back to what Sean Spear was talking about,
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O'Toole wants to broaden what is considered public health care. So bring in more things that right
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now are privately delivered and allow more money to go from the public side. So in some ways what
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O'Toole is calling for is broader, more comprehensive public health care than what Trudeau says.
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But again, Trudeau just isn't being honest, which is why it's even more absurd that Trudeau says this.
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Conservative cuts would take us backwards. Let's keep moving forward for everyone.
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So again, there are no cuts. O'Toole is talking about increasing public money in universal health
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care as well as increasing private investment so there's more money on two fronts and yet somehow
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the Liberals still call it cuts with a straight face. Only a Liberal could circle that square.
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And this is the problem. Trudeau's video smacked of desperation. You can see how desperate he is in
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that video. He's panicking and that's why he's resorting to these half-truths and this partisan
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spin. But it's also remarkably out of touch and dated. I couldn't help but thinking about how it's
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2021 and Trudeau and the Liberals are resorting and relying on the exact same line of attack that
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they've been using for over 20 years. It's like a throwback to the 2000 election campaign.
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So back in that 2000 election campaign, Liberal leader Jean-Claude Chen released a misleading attack
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ad against Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day, alleging that Day would bring in private
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two-tier health care. Day was so desperate to refute that mischaracterization that he held up
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a sign during the debate insisting that it wasn't true. But really, Craig, why people are concerned
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about the Canadian health care system and the Canadian Alliance position, something very serious
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has happened here. I have said consistently and our policy is very clear and I'll say it again and
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the whole country has seen our briefing notes. You may as well look at them too. No two-tier health
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care. Now I've said that very clearly. So back 21 years ago, that seemed to work for the Liberals and
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the Liberals formed a government after that election. But again, that was 21 years ago and it's almost like
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the Liberals are stuck in a time warp. Canadians know that our health care system is failing. We know that
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there are ridiculous cues and intense rationing happening in our health care. We know that going into a
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hospital and seeing a doctor is a slow and painful experience, especially if you're living with
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chronic pain or chronic illness, or if you're going in for a routine procedure, or even if you're going
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in for a checkup, for instance, during pregnancy. I know women who literally don't know the doctor
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who delivered their baby because it was such a rush. The doctor was in and out so quickly,
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they don't even know who it was. And that's especially the case in the big cities. Can you imagine?
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That's not the kind of care that Canadians deserve. And we also know that COVID has stretched your
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health care system to its limits. And that even compared to other rich and developed countries,
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Canada routinely ranks at or near the bottom of those ranking lists. And Canadians know that we
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already pay out of pocket and that there already is private and for-profit health care here in Canada.
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We see private clinics all over cities like Montreal and Vancouver. And we know, for instance,
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that you can now get that MRI in Saskatchewan by paying. We also know that we pay out of pocket
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for most of our health care services, including dental, physio, optometry, long-term care,
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and prescription drugs. Those are all already private. So seeing Trudeau dumb down the message
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and making these absurd statements and pushing this partisan spin, well, it just doesn't come across
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very well. It comes across as desperate, condescending, misleading, and just plain wrong.
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The liberals are stuck in the past. That's especially the case when it comes to health care.
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And it's becoming more and more obvious that we just really need a change here in Canada.
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I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.