Creation of universal pharmacare program is a condition of Liberal-NDP supply-and-confidence deal
In 2018, the Liberals appointed Dr. Eric Hoskins, a former Ontario Liberal health minister, to chair an advisory council to assess a national pharmacare plan. The council's report, released the following year, recommended the establishment of a universal, single-payer public pharmacare systen
The NDP's health critic says their bill follows the council's recommendations and the principles of the Canada Health Act. He said the proposal allows the government to negotiate with provinces and territories on a pharmacare plan, and would allow Ottawa to withhold funding from provinces if they don't comply with the act.
I find that kind of talk tends to come from conservatives who think they can, I don't know, embarrass us into giving up on a supply and confidence deal that's putting a lot of NDP priorities into legislation. No one serious pays it much mind.
Yeah, and meanwhile their leader won’t even go through the security clearance to be able to read the report that they’re so sure will incriminate Trudeau.
“I wouldn’t be able to talk about it,” he says.
Nah, he just doesn’t want to have to say, “I was wrong.”
The key here is that Mr Singh is pushing forth legislation so important that he's willing to kill the Reds' administration over. And Justin needs to be okay with it as long as he plays the reluctant puppet. It needs to be that "important to NDP" and also "not deal-breaking for Libs" kind of plan that Mr Singh presents.
The NDP can't do that with just anything, and there is a lot of worry about the fringe plans of a federal NDP party without a Mulcair or a well-minded Layton at the helm. Mr Singh has trumpeted his share of causes that look bad in the math, after all.
Having to present the most important of the palatable programmes has worked well as a filter.