Ontario Tories rescind pledge to keep health-care premium

Published Monday, Feb. 07, 2011 12:56PM ESTLast updated Monday, Feb. 07, 2011 1:20PM EST23 comments

The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party has flip-flopped on a key plank in its campaign platform for the upcoming provincial election, and retracted a pledge to keep the health-care premium.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak repeated his mantra that “all tax options” are on the table when asked by reporters on Monday about the controversial measure that costs Ontario taxpayers up to $900 each per year.

“We are considering all tax options and how to give families a break,” Mr. Hudak said. “We will be discussing in the time ahead what’s going to make the most sense for Ontario families.”

His vague pronouncements were at odds with a statement released by his own party last Thursday, a statement that was reinforced by Tory MPP Sylvia Jones.

“Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak has been very clear,” the statement said. “If elected premier, he would not cut the health tax or Ontario’s health care budget.”

The Tories issued the statement, titled “Minister of Health Lies to Nurses,” in response to a senior Liberal cabinet minister’s campaign-style speech on Thursday morning. Health Minister Deb Matthews insisted in her speech to nurses that Mr. Hudak has every intention of eliminating the health-care premium if he gets elected. Abolishing the premium, she said, would slash the province’s $46-billion health budget by $3-billion and lead to massive cuts in front-line care.

For a brief time last Thursday, it appeared that Ms. Matthews’ speech had the effect of forcing Mr. Hudak to give Ontarians a peek at his campaign platform.

He does not plan to release to document until late April and has been vague about what kind of tax-relief measures he has in mind, including his plans for the health premium introduced by Premier Dalton McGuinty in 2004.

“It is just nothing short of astonishing that they clearly don’t have a plan,” Ms. Matthews said on Monday.

Ms. Jones, the Tory MPP, was initially just a coy as Mr. Hudak during a media scrum last Thursday, where she refused to discuss the fate of the health premium if her party wins the election on Oct. 6.

But 45 minutes after her media scrum ended, officials in Mr. Hudak’s office had Ms. Jones make a series of telephone calls to media outlets, including The Globe and Mail.

“Getting rid of the health-care premium is not an option,” Ms. Jones declared in an interview. “We have no intention of getting rid of the health-care premium.”

Mr. Hudak would not comment on what appeared to be an unequivocal pronouncement sanctioned by his office. The policy flip-flop marks a rare misstep for the Tories under his disciplined leadership. Mr. Hudak is renowned for staying on message.

“When you’ve got the sandbox politics of McGuinty and Hudak,” said New Democratic MPP Peter Kormos, “increasingly Ontarians are saying a pox on both their houses.”

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Tories tread carefully on immigration policy

The federal Conservatives are bringing in record numbers of immigrants, while clamping down on illegal refugees and the wearing of the veil, in an effort to placate their socially conservative base and yet still woo immigrant voters.

The key, for the government, is to inject a socially conservative tone into the multicultural debate, while not tampering with the fundamentals.

David Cameron in Britain, Angela Merkel in Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy in France have all declared that multiculturalism is a failure in their country, leading to large, estranged, racially and religiously defined subcultures.

But in Canada, which has been able to control who comes into the country more successfully than its European counterparts, support for immigration and multiculturalism remains robust, according to recent polls. The Harper government, which has embraced immigration as a driver of the Canadian economy, has announced that 280,636 immigrants came to Canada in 2010, the most in 57 years.

“This government is focused on the priorities of Canadians, which are economic growth and prosperity,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told the House of Commons on Monday. “We need more newcomers working and paying taxes and contributing to our health-care system.”

Afzal Syed, a Pakistani-born accountant who lives in Mississauga, says he generally votes Liberal. But the Tories’ emphasis on bringing in more economic-class immigrants might be enough to make him change his mind.

“[Mr.] Kenney is steering the wheel the right way and trying to meet the country’s economic needs,” he said.

But Sharry Aiken, an associate dean at Queen’s University’s law faculty, is concerned that this economic emphasis comes at the expense of family-class immigrants, whose numbers have been reduced.

Being able to bring over family members “is the underpinning of successful integration” of immigrants into Canadian society, she maintained.

The Conservatives are also supporting a private member’s bill that would force voters to show their faces when casting ballots in federal elections.

Mr. Kenney said it is “entirely reasonable” to ask people to show their faces at a polling booth. But Justin Trudeau, Liberal Immigration critic, pointed out that Elections Canada does not require voters to produce photo identification.

“All they’re doing is further ramping up division and fear and inciting mistrust around a problem that honestly doesn’t exist,” he said.

The move has upset Rajini Tarcicius, a Toronto immigration settlement worker, who says the prospect of such a policy has created a great deal of sadness and confusion in at least one family she works with. She is also concerned about recently announced cuts to settlement agencies tasked with helping immigrants integrate into Canadian society.

“Stephen Harper’s party is not immigrant-friendly,” Ms. Tarcicius said.

But it is of a piece with previous Conservative policies of encouraging immigration but on the government’s terms. Mr. Kenney brought out a citizenship guide that promoted a more forceful approach to the responsibilities of new Canadians.

And while the Conservatives have kept government-sponsored refugee levels steady, they have already passed a bill that would accelerate the process for expelling false claimants, and have introduced legislation to intern claimants who arrive en masse.

Arash Abizadeh, who teaches political science at McGill University, considers the proposed refugee law “outrageous,” because it punishes people who have already been victimized by human smugglers. “It’s a violation of the standards of a liberal democratic society,” he maintains.

But Mr. Kenney insists immigrants themselves are the first to complain about refugees claimants who jump the queues they waited in.

How successfully the Conservatives calibrate their policy of maintaining a high migration intake while circumscribing but not undermining the fundamentals of multiculturalism could well determine their success in an election in which new Canadians dominate many of the suburban ridings where parties' fates are decided.

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