What Defines Canadians?
Murray Dobbin writes in Be an ‘Intentional Citizen’ :
That is why such an overwhelming majority of citizens consider Medicare — a powerful example of equality in action — as the defining characteristic of our nation.
That’s sadly reinforced by all the partys’ platforms in their current campaigns. There have to be more important things that define us as Canadian than a propensity to queue up for medical treatment. We define ourselves by a healthcare system that guarantees universal access to a waiting list - not a queue, but a list ordered by policy. Try and get a hip replacement if you are 90. The real tragedy is that if you want to procure a medical procedure the government won’t provide, you have the added costs of leaving the country to procure it, pushing the second-tier of care physically and economically out of reach of more Canadians.
Dobbin goes on to write:
Canadians judge democracy not so much by process and institutions, but by outcomes: what does democracy, in the end, provide?
Canadians aren’t as outcome focused as Dobbin thinks; many are process and institution focused. This is apparent in the current election campaign, where the NDP position on healthcare and daycare is not the outcome (volume and quality of service) that matters, what matters is process (that no money spent by the government goes to profits). You can find Jack Layton’s exact words in one of his speeches.
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