Is Doug Ford ready for Dr. Jane Philpott?
Dr. Jane Philpott started her latest project this week leading a new Ontario government-commissioned primary care action team with a mandate to connect every person in the province to primary health care within the next five years.
Sylvia Jones, Ontario Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, said, “There’s no one I trust more than Dr. Philpott with her considerable experience to keep moving us forward.”
Talk around the “office water cooler” following her appointment back in October revolved around the question: Why would a Conservative provincial government choose a former Liberal federal health minister for such a high-profile role? And why would Dr. Jane Philpott accept Doug Ford’s invitation?
I think the answers can be found in Jane Philpott’s excellent book released earlier this year, titled Health for all: A prescription for a healthier Canada (McClelland and Stewart 2024).
In my review of Health for All for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s The Monitor, I described the book as exactly what the nation needs right now, but not everyone is going to like her proposals to save Medicare.
In my 30 years working on federal policy issues, I have met plenty of politicians of all stripes. I can tell you that Jane Philpott is among those who place their calling working for social change in social movements above all else, pursuing electoral politics as a means to that end.
“Nothing drives me forward more than the realization that the world is far from equitable—and the belief it could be fairer,” she writes.
There are at least five controversial lessons to cure health care from Jane Philpott. Here they are:
- The federal government has a role in public health care, despite complaints from the provinces.
- Don’t change the Canada Health Act, pass complementary legislation focused on access to primary care instead.
- Phase out fee-for-service payments and put doctors on salary.
- Indigenous governments should be able to exercise their authority over health care.
- Address the social determinants of health by providing primary care for everyone—including refugees.
To learn more and read my review of Jane Philpott’s Health for all: A prescription for a healthier Canada, please read the CCPA’s latest issue of The Monitor (page 50).
Dr. Philpott and I have shared a platform on two occasions to champion universal public health care. I’m pretty confident that she is not going to bend her principles to fit Doug Ford’s government’s political agenda.
In fact, by asking Dr. Philpott to help connect everyone in Ontario to a primary health care in five years, Doug Ford may have taken on more than he bargained for. I certainly hope so.
