Trudeau starts another battle with Ford
The Trudeau government is opening up another front in their war with Ontario’s Ford government — all as part of their re-election strategy.
After starting battles over infrastructure spending and legal aid funding, the feds are now taking aim at abortion and health-care funding in Ontario.
Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor sent a letter on Wednesday to her provincial counterpart, Christine Elliott, claiming Ontario was in violation of the Canada Health Act over changes to the funding for out-of-province health care.
Under the changes, the province is ending the Out-ofCountry Travellers Program, something Petitpas Taylor called, “an action which would be inconsistent with the portability criterion of the Canada Health Act.”
The program covered Ontario residents who were out of country with up to $400 a day for the most acute care such as surgery or the intensive care unit. Other services, such as outpatient services, were capped at $50 per day.
Earlier this year, the Ford government announced they were ending program, noting that it cost $2.8 million a year to reimburse $9 million in claims, 90 per cent of which went to private health insurers.
In her report last December, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk noted that over the previous five years, the average claim was just $127.
The province doesn’t agree with the federal minister’s interpretation of the Canada Health Act.
In her letter, Petitpas Taylor also cited unspecified media reports claiming abortion clinics are charging extra fees.
“I trust that the ministry will investigate these latest claims,” the minister wrote.
Elliott’s office stated plainly that abortion remains funded under OHIP.
“We are disappointed that Ms. Petipas Taylor would seek to play politics with such a sensitive issue. She knows what she is saying is false and we will not dignify her misleading claims by engaging in this debate,” said spokesman Travis Kann.
The Trudeau Liberals have been raising the abortion issue consistently in an attempt to link the topic to federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.
Recently, they raised the spectre of a pro-life movie being shown in theatres across Canada, claiming this was part of a push by Conservative politicians to change the status quo. Now they are raising the abortion issue with the Ford PC government.
It’s been clear to anyone that has watched the Trudeau Liberals that a big part of their campaign strategy to win, or retain, seats in Ontario is to campaign against Doug Ford and his government.
The PM has taken shots at Ford’s handling of education while speaking to a teacher’s group, he and his ministers have attacked the province on climate change and a whole series of other issues.
It isn’t so much to raise the level of debate as to whip up Liberal and NDP voters to rally behind Trudeau come voting day in October.
I’ve been covering politics for a long time and haven’t seen animosity like this between a federal government and any province in quite some time. In fact, I lived in Quebec during the PQ government of premiers Bouchard and Landry and I don’t think there was as much open friction as there is between Trudeau and Ford.
I’ll grant that Ford takes shots at Trudeau on a regular basis, including telling the Calgary Sun, “God help us if Trudeau gets reelected.”
That said, the ongoing nitpicking fight on all fronts mentality is mostly coming from Trudeau in Ottawa.
I’m sure the two men don’t like each other very much and their politics are vastly different, but the real reason for all this back and forth is much more basic.
Trudeau needs a villain to win seats in Ontario and he’s picked Doug Ford to play that part.