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The Liberal Party and the Achievement of National Medicare
P. E. BRYDEN

Barbara Messamore
Wildcard Précis: Medicare
Brittany Hatten
April, 15th 2013

In the article, "The Liberal Party and the Achievement of National Medicare", P. E. Bryden argues that the achievement of a full national health care system in Canada was difficult and faced many obstacles and drawbacks in the process. Bryden narrows in on the complicated, yet significant accomplishment and discusses three major steps taken to achieve national health care. First, the Federal Liberal party had to reconstruct their aim and goals to make health insurance their focus, they then had to come up with new strategies when dealing with provinces that already had jurisdiction over health care, and finally the Liberals had to deal with parties and cabinet that doubted whether Canada was financially capable of maintaining Medicare. ¹

Reconstructing the Liberal party was not easy, yet it had everything to do with Medicare being established in 1968. When the Liberals faced defeat in the 1957 election, a commitment to national health insurance ignited and new ideas were discussed at The Kingston Conference in 1965.¹ Bryden explains that the conference lead to the Liberals new health care strategies when Pearson released an offer to pass laws for an insurance plan that had "universal coverage, was publicly administered, portable, and promised that the federal government would provide half of the national cost for programs"¹. According to Bryden, without the period of defeat, it is unlikely health insurance would ever have become a Liberal party focus.

The Liberals faced a difficult challenge when dealing with regions that already had jurisdiction over their own health insurance program. Provinces clashed and reaching a consensus proved to be difficult. Saskatchewan was the first province to have their own health care plan and in 1963 and 1964 Ontario and Quebec were in conflict when they each created their own pensions plans. Bryden credits Saskatchewan for their influence on the ideas and advancement towards Medicare, however he suggests that in order to fully understand the difficulty of reaching a nationwide consensus, all provinces must be considered. ¹

Parties and Cabinet doubted whether Canada could afford to have a government funded health care system and it was postponed for years until the reconstruction of pension plans in 1965. Bryden stresses that timing was everything and that unexpected shifts in power from less to more conservative Liberals delayed the process. Despite many delays, the aftermath of WW2 forced the government to take health insurance more seriously and when Liberals were forced to change their pension plans the decision of how to finance Medicare was resolved. Pension plans were self funded and eased government cost of implementing Medicare substantially.¹

Medicare is an important accomplishment in Canadian history because it signifies cooperation amongst provinces and the struggle to