Listening to the Public, Professionals and the Provinces

Equally important, the commission toured Canada from coast to coast to coast to ensure that citizens could present their views. It received 385 briefs from individuals, farmer, labour and women’s organizations, hospital associations, chambers of commerce, nursing, dental and medical associations, insurance companies, representatives of doctor-sponsored medical plans, and each of the provincial governments. Alberta’s brief, for example, opposed state medical insurance, “which removes all direct individual financial responsibility; so-called socialized health and medical services are incompatible with the rights and responsibilities inherent in a free and democratic society.” But did this rhetoric reflect the reality of Canadian society?

“... palpitation? Heart flutter? ... ever feel a pounding in the chest? ... heart ever skip a beat? Erratic pulse ...?”

In the Toronto Star, Sid Barron captured the mood in 1964. For some physicians, state health insurance spelled the end of a society based on the principles of free enterprise.
Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1989-151-14, e008440947. © Estate of Sid Barron.

Transcription:
MEDICARE
Another step down the path to a weak-willed, socialistic, panty-waist, defeatist society