Slow course correction is definitely an issue, but it’s not the whole problem, and privitization is certainly not the solution to Canada’s healthcare woes.

There’s two points I want to make about this: 1. The belief that absolutely everything should be made a commodity and put up for sale because absolutely free market capitalism make everything better is not a conservative position. Conservative ideals are permanence, reliability, and not fixing things when they ain’t broke, as the Americans say. Conservatism is about maintaining the practices and institutions that have proven over time to serve the common good. A lot of people conflate neoliberalism with conservative ideas but they are not the same. Neoliberalism and it’s deranged stepchild libertarianism can fuck right off.

2. Privitization of natural monopolies has been shown over and over to not work. I assert healthcare is a natural monopoly in the same way as water. When you need water, there is no choice but to bargain with whomever has control of the water pipes. Similarly, If you have a burst appendix, you can not shop around for the best priced surgery. The similarity between hospitals and woterworks doesn’t stop there. The both require a lot of infrastructure to build, maintain and operate.

So keeping water as our example, the world bank through the IFC has pushed for water privitization all over the world since the 80’s. In Africa, in Asia, in Europe and south America, it has been bad news everywhere.I challenge anyone to come up with a successful example. You can’t.

In Canada, another kind of water service has not benefited from privatisation: BC ferries. The results have been 50% higher fares with reduced service. Imagine: a reliable service at a fair price that operates for years, until 2003 when it is decided to transform the crown corporation into a private one for higher cost and less reliability. Same story with Atlantic ferries. There are plenty more examples. If you know any American Servicemen, ask them about private corporate contracts servicing military bases. You will hear some stories of the absurd.

My conclusion: “The private system” is great for a lot of things, but not for the things that people rely on to keep society as a whole going; Like roads and ferries, like police and fire service, like our armed forces, like healthcare.

The private system for its faults is not constrained by a monolithic bureaucratic system.

Corporations are just as bureaucratic. But it’s worse because a corporation’s only goal is profit, at the cost of your health.

Government is not bound by such a flaw.