Alberta centennial: the other distinct society turns 100

A look back at key moments in wild rose country's healthcare history

By Abe Konigsberg

Take the 1915 provincial election, when temperance activist Louise McKinney won a seat in the assembly making her the first Canadian woman elected to a legislative assembly. Women would have to wait another two years for the mere right to vote in federal elections. It's also the lone province to consistently elect governments that hold publicly funded healthcare to be less than sacrosanct.

THE FIGHT OVER MEDICARE
Alberta has had a reputation as the bad boy of medicare compliance from the get go. Albertans haven't elected a government ideologically smitten by publicly-funded health programs since the Great Depression. But that's not to say there was never a desire to treat people who couldn't afford private healthcare.

For example, as far back as in the 1931 inaugural issue of the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons' journal former president Dr R B Francis wrote, "It is to be regretted that so far few municipalities have assumed their obligations to render medical care to their indigent residents." Under the old system untold numbers of Alberta doctors would treat uninsured patients with little hope of getting paid anything more than vegetables for services rendered.

The Alberta government's opposition to Prime Minister Pearson's National Medicare Insurance Act of 1967 probably didn't take anyone by surprise. Social Credit Alberta Premier Ernest Manning (former Reform leader Preston's dad) vigorously defended the province's healthcare status quo of the time, which left about 10% of the population without medical insurance.

The clash between Mr Pearson and Mr Manning was partly an old-fashioned federal-provincial jurisdiction tussle but ideological differences were very real. Take this Manning quotation from the Edmonton Sun: "The arbitrary, compulsory idea of the plan forces total dependence on the state.... It is a complete violation of freedom of choice."

Despite Mr Manning's pleas for a scaled back 'needy-care' program for the poor, Alberta was forced to begrudgingly respect the law of the land. In the first election after Ernest Manning's retirement, Peter Lougheed led the Progressive Conservatives to victory in 1971 ending 36 years of Social Credit dominance, and establishing a new dynasty in the province. The Conservatives haven't been seriously challenged since.

The Tories carried on the Social Credit tradition of challenging medicare. During the 1970s, Premier Lougheed's policy of allowing extra billing by doctors was flagged for review in the 1980 report by Justice Emmett Hall. The second Hall Report described extra-billing as a threat to a single-tiered system. The revised 1984 Canada Health Act banned the practice. Since then Edmonton-Ottawa friction over healthcare has sporadically revisited the political landscape — most recently with Premier Ralph Klein's hinting that he might introduce reforms that would violate the Canada Health Act.

WILD ROSES SPEAK OUT
Before medicare was even a glimmer in anyone's eye, there was a strong though little known movement among Alberta rural women to improve the Albertans' healthcare lot. A key mover and shaker in this push was Irene Parlby, one of the 'Famous 5' Albertan women suffragettes (along with Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney and Nellie McClung). Ms Parlby was involved in the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) movement and helped establish its sister group, the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA).

Driven by their desire to curb the province's then-high rates of maternal and infant mortality, the UFWA pushed for a number of big changes in healthcare delivery. And change they got — in 1918 the province's Department of Health was first established, partly in response to the UFWA urging, and within a year the ruling Liberals were compelled to fund rural hospitals and pass the Municipal Hospital Act, which Ms Parlby helped to draft. The UFWA also created the Alberta District Nursing Service in 1919, which gave rural folk at least basic emergency services where physician access was lacking.

In 1921 Ms Parlby ran for office on the UFA ticket and she and her party won a sweeping victory. New premier Robert Greenfield named her "minister without portfolio" and she had his ear on healthcare issues.

The UFA continued to govern Alberta until 'Bible' Bill Aberhart's Social Credit party won a landslide victory in 1935 in the context of the Great Depression. The legacy of the UFA, the UFWA and the 'Famous 5' (and the reputations of many other prominent Albertans) is sadly tainted by their enthusiastic support for eugenics programs which culminated in the 1928 Sexual Sterilization Act. The Act wasn't repealed until 1972.