Speaker: Ms. May
Time: 30/01/2023 13:59:28
Context: Statements
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP): Madam Speaker, we all know we are in a fight to save our health care system. Public health care, single payer, universal health care is at risk and it is important we revisit our history. I know this history first hand, not from books but because a dear friend of mine, the late Jim MacNeill, was part of the Saskatchewan CCF government that brought in that health care.
We forget that the profiteering doctors of Saskatchewan went out on strike to block health care. We forget that foreign doctors came in so the people of Saskatchewan would have medical care, mostly doctors from the U.K. I do not know how many Canadians know this, but Jim told me that when they got to Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan doctors blocked access to hospitals for all the foreign doctors and U.K. doctors were operating on kitchen tables.
Members of the Saskatchewan cabinet had family members who needed medical care. They were up against it and they were brave. They held the line. We owe it to them to do the same and protect our public health care system from profiteering privatization.