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Ralph Klein's last stand?
Alberta's premier has always been a political survivor, but his proposal for private hospitals has damaged his popularity and unleashed massive discontent among voters
By: Penney Kome
"Why did he pick this hill to die on?" CBC host Jeff Collins asked his political panel on the Calgary Eyeopener radio program when Bill 11 was introduced on March 2. The question resonates in the angry voices at every Town Hall meeting on health care in Alberta. Why on earth would Ralph Klein use the Tory majority in the legislature to ram through the Protection of Health Care Act, which would authorize private "approved surgical facilities", in the face of formidable, well-organized and vociferous public protest which defeated the last two attempts?
Even as Jeff Collins spoke, 100,000 mailboxes in Calgary and 50,000 in Red Deer received a 13-page booklet from the Friends of Medicare, exhorting them to, "Keep Medicare Public!" The night before, in Calgary, the Parkland Institute officially launched the book version of its report, CLEAR ANSWERS: The Economics and Politics of For-Profit Medicine, co-authored by Kevin Taft and Gillian Steward. Friends of Medicare had already taken Taft on a nine-city tour of the province, drawing standing-room-only crowds through word-of-mouth advertising.
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Public derision forced Klein to recall the "truth squad" he sent out to sell health care reform. Even attempts to whip up anti-Ottawa sentiment have fallen flat. |
To be sure, there are Albertans who support Klein's initiative on ideological grounds, as a free market initiative. There are many more Albertans who embrace the idea of private health care as a way to eliminate waiting periods and promote more efficient services. But any widespread belief in Alberta that private care can improve health care services, has been undermined by research showing that the opposite is true.
"Economists typically describe health care as an example of 'market failure,'" according to CLEAR ANSWERS, "meaning that the rules of supply, demand, and price do not - and probably cannot - function in the usual ways." A review of medical journal reports leads the authors to conclude:
"...health care is not a commodity like others. It does not benefit from market-based reforms. For-profit competition increases costs, can threaten quality, drives up administrative inefficiencies, and creates barriers to equal access."
Taft and Steward started working on CLEAR ANSWERS last December. "We worked hard to get it out," said Steward. "Klein made his television announcement in November, so we figured that the whole thing would be heating up." CLEAR ANSWERS has had exactly the intended effect. "The media have used our report as a catalyst for their own reports and investigations, and then the public read it and use it to write their letters. And of course the Liberals and the NDs (New Democrats) are using it as well, and the Friends of Medicare, so it's like a background document for all of these."
Friends of Medicare (FOM), a coalition formed three years ago to fight Klein's previous attempt, Bill 37, was also quick off the mark. Although the campaign was officially launched on February 4, FOM had already commissioned a public opinion poll of six hundred Albertans, which was conducted Dec 15 to 19.
The results of the poll showed that, "Sixty-nine percent of Albertans oppose spending public dollars on services delivered by for-profit health care companies," and, "Eighty percent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the argument that the best way to reduce waiting lists would be to open more beds and hire more staff in existing public hospitals ."
Every chance she gets, FOM spokesperson Christine Burdett dares the Tories to hold a referendum on the question of privatizing medical care. FOM's poll found ninety percent of Albertans agreed or strongly agreed with the idea of a referendum, and 71 percent said they would forego tax cuts to keep public health care. What worries people most is the ad hoc approach, reeling from the so-called deficit crisis to the real bed-shortage crisis, said Burdett.
FOM's position is simple: "We want a plan."
| This time, Klein's heart doesn't seem to be in the battle |
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Klein tries to dismiss FOM as a front for "unions" and indeed FOM's membership includes United Nurses of Alberta, the Alberta Federation of Labour, and the Alberta Union of Public Employeees, as well as the Council of Canadians, church groups, and seniors groups. Television commercials paid for by the Canadian Union of Public Employees replay the spectacular implosion of Calgary General Hospital in October 1998 over and over, to remind Albertans that the bed shortage could easily have been avoided. But Albertans overwhelmingly supported the laundry workers' union in 1995. And the Alberta Medical Association has spoken out against Bill 11 too.
Further fueling speculation about Klein's political future is the defection of his heir apparent, Stockwell Day, who has announced his intention to seek leadership of the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. Klein's longtime campaign manager, Rod Love, departed last year -- to work in the private sector, he said, but recently he also has surfaced in the CRCA. Usually faithful Klein lieutenant Jim Dinning bowed out of a raucous Calgary CBC-sponsored forum on health care, although he was the headliner, and arranged a much smaller "consultation" with community association leaders that same night.
More and more attention is focusing on Alberta Liberal leader Nancy MacBeth, who has been heading up the Opposition since 1998. MacBeth served in Klein's Cabinet in various portfolios, including as Minister of Health from 1988 to 1992, and ran against him for leadership of the Conservative party. Her presence as Leader, and her credible performance in the health debate, make the unthinkable almost speakable: Albertans could vote Liberal, even if only as protest.
Finally, there's the curious behaviour of the Premier himself. Public derision has forced him to recall the "truth squad" that he sent out to sell health care reform. A $300,000 plan to distribute copies of Bill 11 copies to all Alberta households backfired when opponents pointed out a serious typographical error in the text. Even his attempts to whip up anti-Ottawa sentiment as a diversion seem to be falling flat.
Indeed, a new Angus Reid poll shows that health care, not fed-bashing, remains the top political concern of Albertans. The same poll notes a drop of seven per cent in Klein's personal popularity over the past three months.
No wise observer would underestimate Klein. He saved the Tories from what seemed like certain defeat when he succeeded Don Getty, and even won a second term. But this time, perhaps for personal reasons (his wife, Colleen, is rumoured to be ill), his heart doesn't seem to be in the battle.
"People keep asking me if I think Ralph Klein is losing it," federal NDP leader Alexa McDonough said March 16, at a rally on the steps of the Alberta Legislature. "That, I can't say. But I can say that he is going to lose this fight."
Penney Kome is an award-winning journalist and author based in Calgary.
Get More/Do More
Read CLEAR ANSWERS: The Economics and Politics of For-Profit Medicine, paperback, by: Gillian Steward, Kevin Taft, $9.95, University Of Alberta Press | Published in 2000
Visit Friends of Medicare at www.savemedicare.org.
Send a message to Ralph Klein at www.gov.ab.ca/comments.cfm.
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