Tears before bedtime

The election kept us up later than the Stanley Cup final and proved just as disappointing to Albertans who hosted Stephen Harper's faltering finale. Voters in Ontario just couldn't stomach the newly-minted Conservative party, with its Reform/Alliance vestiges. They swerved back to the tried and true -- if mistrusted -- Paul Martin Liberals, leaving Mr Harper just shy of any real influence in Parliament.

The healthcare card, played by all the candidates, may have sealed the Conservative defeat. While Mr Martin promised to make the system work and decrease waiting times and Jack Layton waved the Romanow 25% banner, Mr Harper's pledges to uphold medicare were tainted by the actions of that other high-profile Conservative, Ralph Klein. Why on earth did Mr Klein choose the campaign as a time to announce significant changes, including greater private sector involvement, in healthcare in Alberta? While many Albertans appear to support the idea of more personal choice and responsibility for health, Mr Klein (and even Harper?) appears to have forgotten he was now dealing with a national conservative party rather than a Western-based reform party. The outcome on election night should wake them all up to the fact that Albertan conservatives and Ontario conservatives have about as much in common as Joe Clark and Stockwell Day -- especially when it comes to healthcare.
-- Susan Usher, Health Policy Editor