Private Klein
This blog’s top newsmaker of 2004 is off and running in 2005, grabbing headlines with new talk about private health care.
He didn’t reveal the details but he’s said it will push the bounds of the Canada Health Act (well, duh…if we’re talking private health care, that’s a given). This raises a few questions:
1. What are the specifics of this plan?
2. When will the plan be revealed?
3. Will Albertans be consulted about this first, as Klein promised during the provincial election?
4. If the plan is judged to violate the CHA, will Klein still go ahead with it?
5. Will Martin “stand up to Ralph” as he promised during the federal election?
There’s a lot of talk that Ralph is sticking around to enjoy the Centennial parties and will coast this year. I don’t buy that for a second. Chretien’s last year in office was his best, in my opinion. We saw Kyoto, marijuana decriminalization, no to Iraq, campaign finance reforms and same sex marriage. If 2005 is Klein’s final year, we’re going to see his attempt at a legacy agenda. What will this legacy agenda have in it? Apart from private health care, it’s hard to say. But my prediction is that it will be true blue, the Alberta media is going to love it, and I’m going to hate it. As will most left of centre Canadians.