National Post (National Edition)
PRIME MINISTER ACTING A LOT LIKE HIS PREDECESSOR. MCPARLAND,
I’m beginning to think Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government would be nowhere without former prime minister Stephen Harper: the Liberals have already adopted so many of the Conservative government’s positions, a suspicious mind might suspect last year’s election was all part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to repackage Tory policies with a much friendlier face.
Like the Tories, the Liberals have concluded that greater transparency is not such a great thing: at the moment, they’re being criticized for holding just three technical briefings on Canada’s fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) since the election last year. The Tories held 12 in their last year in power.
The Liberals have likewise decided that a three per cent annual increase in health-care transfers to the provinces is plenty, just as the Tories decreed; that the Conservative target on emission reductions was perfectly fine; that the UN’s declaration on the rights of aboriginals is “unworkable” in Canada; that welcoming refugees involves more than just turning up at the airport for a photo op; that developing Canada’s resources is necessary, even if it offends activists and some native communities; that regional claims on Supreme Court seats need to be honoured; and that repairing the centuries-old relations with aboriginal communities will take a lot more than a few well-meaning speeches.
OK, so … live and learn. The latest evidence that the Liberals have devoted extensive study to the Conservative playbook has been on display this week as Trudeau discovered that he had a completely full agenda and couldn’t possibly confer with health ministers from the 10 provinces and three territories in Toronto, so they could press their demand for more money.
The ministers were ostensibly gathering to discuss important issues related to health care. But really what they wanted was to complain as loud and long as possible about the Liberals’ refusal to extend a 13-year-old agreement, under which they get six per cent annual funding increases.
Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott offered them the same three per cent increase the Conservatives had promised. She also noted that health spending has been rising at a rate of zero to two per cent a year, while the provinces have been getting six per cent, which is a pretty good deal. No one wants to say out loud where the extra money has been going, but we all know the answer: the provinces use it to finance their other pet projects, while continuing to blame systemic problems with the healthcare system on a lack of federal funding.
Philpott upset the ministers on Tuesday when one of her social media posts alluded to this awkward reality. “Canadians expect that any new investment for health care ought to go to health care,” she wrote.
This statement might seem reasonable enough, but Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins, as host of the gathering, was quick to express his vexation. “Frankly, I think that that’s the one element of what’s come out in the last 24 hours that most disappoints me,” he confided. It suggested Ottawa thinks the provinces and territories “aren’t acting with the same good faith and fairness and insuring that every health-care dollar is invested that way.”
B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake joined in to renew the demand for direct intervention by Trudeau, as if Philpott wasn’t good enough for so important a matter. “The Canada health transfer last year to B.C. was about $4.2 billion, and (the province’s health) budget is over $18 billion, so you know that every single penny that comes from the federal government is going into health-care services. So I don’t buy that argument at all,” he said.
Lake might want to be careful where he goes with that argument, Philpott is Trudeau’s chosen minister for the health file and is merely repeating the prime minister’s message. Trudeau’s continuing inability to find an opening in his calendar to spend being badgered by the provinces suggests he’s on to their game and no more willing to play it than Harper was. The PM has already informed the premiers that he will impose a carbon tax on them if they don’t impose one on themselves, showing the same unwillingness to bend to prolonged bleating that was a hallmark of the Tory regime.
What must really upset the provinces is the knowledge that Trudeau is better placed than Harper to win a battle of wills. The premiers found it easy to demonize the former prime minister, accuse him of dictatorial tendencies and a callous indifference to the pressures they face. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne once managed to make an issue of the fact that Harper hadn’t personally returned her phone calls with the alacrity she expected.
With the Liberals still high in the public standing, it’s much harder to make that case against Trudeau. It hasn’t really registered with Canadians yet that Liberal policies look a lot like Tory policies. Maybe that’s because Tory policies were never that bad to begin with. It was largely in the optics and Trudeau has shown himself to be nothing if not a master of optics.