Canadians are fed up with the private sector’s encroachment on health care as much as they are with backroom corporate deals that would negatively affect their rights as consumers. It took less than one week to kill what may have been an incredibly lucrative financial agreement. Progressives would be mindful to remember the power of sustained direct action and bad publicity.
The Liberals do not want to expand the state. People need to understand this: they’re small-L neoliberals to their craven, money-grubbing core that differ from the Conservatives in that they don’t care who you fuck. They like taxes low, regulations light and the public->private money faucet turned up real high.
Once you understand this, most Liberal (and Conservative) policy makes sense: they want to stay in office, and what services they’re forced to provide have to be “market-based” and involve some way for your taxes to fund some rich dude. This is why “pharmacare” won’t be national and single-payer, it’ll be “market based” and involve some way for existing insurers to make a buck.