Hidden gem in Brown’s cynical platform
I admit it, I’ll no longer be able to call Patrick Brown the “man with no plan.”
That’s the tag Brown so richly deserved for his failure over the first 30 months of his leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives to outline a set of policies he would pursue if elected premier.
But last weekend, Brown finally stiff-armed critics such as myself who had focused on his lack of policies, by unveiling an election platform jammed with 147 promises in a document he calls the “People’s Guarantee.”
The platform covers everything from taxes and subways to education, jobs and winter tires. What’s more, it comes with a “guarantee” that if Brown fails to deliver on key promises by the end of his first term as premier, he will quit.
Shamelessly, Brown has stolen many of his ideas from the Liberals and NDP. It’s a cynical, calculated platform aimed at convincing centrist voters to believe the Conservatives are no longer the hardright party once dominated by Mike Harris and his acolytes.
It’s a strategy that might just work, but it’s one that is being savagely attacked even by commentators in conservative-leaning publications.
Andrew Coyne, a National Post columnist, calls it a platform “of such iridescent vapidity it might have better been titled Nothing to See Here,” dismissing Brown an “impenetrably vacant leader.”
The Toronto Sun said in an editorial that parts of Brown’s platform “could almost have been written by (Premier Kathleen) Wynne.” And Ben Eisen, director of the right-wing Fraser Institute’s Ontario Prosperity Initiative, laments that Brown’s tax plan “falls short” on boosting the province’s long-term growth prospects.
But buried deep in the 78-page document is a hidden gem.
It’s Brown’s welcome promise to spend an extra $1.9 billion over the next 10 years to build a comprehensive mental-health system. He describes the pledge as the largest mental-health commitment in Canadian provincial history.
Called a “sleeper issue,” mental-health problems affect millions of Ontarians.
In the past decade, there has been a 40-per-cent jump in the number of children seeking psychiatric help, with one child in five experiencing some form of a mental-health problem at any given time, but with barely one in six getting any specialized treatment.
These problems include depression, eating disorders, drug overdoses, attempted suicides and more.
As well, it’s estimated that 50 per cent of Ontario residents will have experienced some form of mental illness by the time they are 40 years old.
Currently, Ontario spends about 6 per cent of its overall $54-billion health-care budget on mental health. That’s down from 11 per cent in the early 1980s. Under Brown’s plan, a Conservative government would increase spending by $151 million in the 2018-19 fiscal year, by $190 million in 2019-20 and by more than $200 million in each subsequent fiscal year.
Ottawa has already committed to spend another $1.9 billion over the next decade for mental-health services in Ontario.
Brown’s proposals would be aimed, among other things, at reducing wait times for mental-health services for children and youths: increasing suicide prevention counselling, especially for Indigenous communities; expanding crisis outreach programs; and adding supports in schools to improve mentalhealth awareness programs and investing in programs to help Ontarians diagnosed with dementia.
Importantly, polling has found that more than 90 per cent of Ontario residents support more funding for mental health, with 89 per cent rating mental health as a “hot-button issue” in health care.
Beyond mental-health issues, Brown promises to “reduce hospital and emergency room wait times.” He promises to “work with the home care sector to ensure resources go towards high quality patient care.” He promises to “treat doctors with respect by consulting them on future reforms to the healthcare system.”
All are good — and all have similarly been promised by the Liberals and NDP.
A word of caution for Brown: Be careful of some of those doctors with whom you consult.
Lately, he has been cosying up with hardline doctors, some of whom have attended private fundraising events for Brown. Also, his campaign manager, Walied Soliman, a Bay Street lawyer who was been co-counsel for the Coalition of Ontario Doctors, a hard-nosed group of physicians that has fought both the Ontario Medical Association and the Wynne government over doctors fees.
Brown must still outline how he would pay for his health-care platform. But these promises are a good start toward a comprehensive program.
They also put an end to the notion that Brown’s a man with no plan.