Nouvelles et analyses

Mr. Day goes to

Can Stockwell Day win the next federal election? And if he other an opportunity to defeat the hated Grits. Stockwell does, what impact will he have on health care? Day wants to strip Ottawa of powers and responsibilities that Surprise at Day’s runaway victory in the race to head the he thinks would be better exercised provincially. He has en- quickly gave way to speculation about his dorsed a radical proposal to reverse the current fiscal system: impact on federal politics. His youthful looks and penchant he wants the provinces to collect all taxes and then allocate for flexing his biceps at every photo op create the impression funds to the central government. The Bloc wants to transfer that he represents a new generation of Canadians. At 49, powers from Ottawa to an independent Quebec, and will however, the former treasurer is no spring chicken, happily go along with any policies proposed by Day that and his fundamentalist views — he opposes abortion and be- achieve that end by stealth rather than open secession. lieves every word of the Bible is true — are out of step with Such decentralization will destabilize health care, al- those of most Canadians, especially younger ones. In politics, though it is not yet clear exactly how. “Day’s public track however, perception is everything, record on health care is minimal in particularly when the present resi- Alberta,” says Ron Kustra, assistant dent of 24 Sussex Drive is 66 and executive director of public affairs looking every year of it. at the Alberta Medical Association. As soon as Day’s victory was an- “He was never health minister nounced, the tectonic plates of here, in Klein’s government, and Canadian politics began to shift. he wasn’t treasurer when the Public support for the Alliance provincial government cut health jumped, and the Tories slumped to spending in the early ’90s. But he the sad status of rump party. The was a key member of the Klein Liberals maintained a comfortable team and shared the view that there lead nationally, but dissatisfaction is nothing sacred in the status quo. with Jean Chrétien because of his He is open to new ideas and rela- determination to fight a third elec- tionships.” tion was palpable. And if Finance Day didn’t say much about Minister leaves, as has health care during the recent lead- been rumoured, the Liberals will ership race, even though there were be left with an aging leader and plenty of opportunities: the future without their most attractive sell- of the health care system is the ing point. number-one concern of most Cana- So given all the changes on the dians, and Dr. Keith Martin, an- political landscape, can the Day-led Canapress other leadership candidate, tried to Alliance win the next federal elec- Stockwell Day: fishing for votes spark a debate on a two-tier system. tion? Probably not, although the Day wouldn’t bite. party will probably make the breakthrough it lusts However, the Alberta government’s recent battle to pass for. In 1997 the Liberals swept Ontario because the right- Bill 11, which in its original form would have legalized pri- wing vote was split between the Reform Party and Tories, but vate medical clinics, involved mass antigovernment demon- the Tory collapse means the Alliance might take 20 Ontario strations and sit-ins at the legislature. If this can happen in seats. It is unlikely to make any gains east of Ontario, how- the province most sympathetic to free-market economics, ever, and it can’t increase its representation in the West what would happen if Day talked about similar proposals on enough to challenge the Liberals. the national stage? So we will not see Stockwell Day leading the next govern- Day did endorse the 1998 Saskatoon Consensus, in which ment but we will probably see him wielding considerable all provinces supported Quebec’s argument that if Ottawa in- power as party strategists start calculating the odds of a mi- troduces a new social program, any province has the right to nority Liberal government. The Liberals may be reduced to opt out and keep the cash. He does not think Ottawa should 145 seats nationally, with the Alliance winning 105 seats and play the policing role assigned by the Canada Health Act, and the Bloc Québécois holding the balance of power. That his years in the Klein government (and the friends he made means the Alliance and Bloc will seek areas where they can there) have left him sympathetic to two-tier health care. challenge the Liberals, and the most obvious place for their Day’s arrival in federal politics at a time when there has agendas to meet is in areas involving the turnover of federal never been such pressure on medicare can only make its powers to the provinces. preservation in any form more difficult. — Charlotte Gray, Although the parties have different goals, each sees in the Ottawa

596 JAMC • 5 SEPT. 2000; 163 (5)