Scheer, Trudeau skirmish over health care
OTTAWA• Ontario leaders — old and current — were in the crossfire of Justin Trudeau and Andrew Scheer’s battle Monday for the voterich province that’s the gateway to federal victory.
Their fight focused in large part on whether a Liberal or a Conservative government would be best suited to work with the provinces to protect Canada’s public health- care system. Over in Atlantic Canada, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Leader Elizabeth May also jockeyed over their party’s health-care policies.
Trudeau fired the first shot, telling Ontario voters not to “double down” on Conservatives after they elected Doug Ford premier in 2018. Trudeau used a new promise of a national pharmacare program to portray Scheer as a faithful Ford follower who won’t defend people’s interests in fighting for better access to doctors, drugs or mental-health counsellors.
Scheer, meanwhile, evoked former Liberal premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton Mcguinty, linking Wynne’s political demise to a federal leader he branded corrupt and incapable of telling the truth. Scheer promised to make it cheaper for Canadians to buy homes.
In Hamilton, Trudeau positioned himself as a defender of public health who will stand against Conservative cost- cutting, mentioning Ford at least a dozen times, along with former prime minister Stephen Harper.
“The question becomes for Canadians: who do you want negotiating with Doug Ford when it comes to your health?” Trudeau said.
The Liberal leader repeated that line, using it as a mantra to frame himself as the best defender of Canada’s public health-care system.
“That is the choice people are facing: whether we continue to move forward, or we go back to the Harper years by doubling down on Conservatives who believe in cuts,” Trudeau said.
In the Toronto suburb of Vaughan, Scheer deflected questions about his affiliation with Ford by lampooning Trudeau’s focus on other Conservative leaders.
“The real question is: What’s the difference between Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau? The very same people who are the architects of the failed Kathleen Wynne- Dalton Mcguinty government that raised taxes, ran massive deficits, mired in scandal and corruption, are now working for Justin Trudeau, and they’re following the same playbook,” said Scheer.
“So voters in Ontario know that they can limit the damage from Justin Trudeau to one term.”
Scheer said he is committed to increasing transfer payments to the provinces for health care and education by three per cent.
In Halifax, Singh criticized both his front- running opponents, saying only a New Democrat government could help deliver the health care Canadians need.
“Justin Trudeau attacked Harper so viciously but he actually implemented his cuts to health care. And Mr. Scheer is going to keep it going,” Singh said, sparking applause at a town-hall meeting.