Photos
of Mr Smitherman: Mark Coatsworth |
You
earned the nickname Furious George early in your Queen's Park career. Does the
shoe fit? I think I'm doing better all the
time — I'm a work in progress. I've got a lot of things I gotta make happen
and sometimes in my desire to do that, the force of my personality outmatches
the ability of other people to handle it. Why'd
you say optometrists are "a bunch of terrorists, and I don't negotiate with terrorists"
during a fee dispute? It was bred out of a moment of frustration. My relationship
with the optometrists is pretty good now. But of course it was a stupid thing
to say. Stephen Colbert [the host of
the satirical Colbert Report] was sure impressed. He saluted you, saying
"Bravo, sir. Optometrists are a menace. You have to be careful with a group that
gets their kicks blowing air into our eyeballs." I figured 'As long as they
are using your name...' If it'd been Jon Stewart, I would've felt worse. I like
him miles better. In another passionate
outburst, you publicly wept over the neglect of the elderly at nursing homes.
Was that a put on? No, not at all. I was shown pictures by a journalist in
my office actually. A special part of working in healthcare as a politician is
it is an emotional exercise. You're
Ontario's first openly gay MPP. How's that working for you? It's a fantastic
expression of Ontario, because it's kind of irrelevant now. I'm very lucky —
unfortunately I know others who haven't been so lucky. Here, on the 25th anniversary
of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, I cherish Canada all the more. Hey, I almost
cried there again. Really? No, just
kidding. Do you feel bad about publicly
making fun of Opposition leader John Tory's diet regime? That's not what happened
at all. The guy loses all that weight in a month, then tells the media he was
on some 800 calorie-a-day diet. They asked me what I thought. Well, I'm not a
clinician, so I just said it explains why he doesn't have the energy to come up
with new ideas.
|  Wedding
bells for Mr Smitherman
You proposed to your boyfriend
[Lindt exec] Christopher Peloso at Christmas. Will you be a jittery bridegroom?
Nervous isn't my thing. I'm really pumped up for it. You've
threatened to wear a thong to the wedding. Have you picked one out yet? You
know, I caused a few sleepless nights for people who had that image come to mind. You
and Christopher are planning to adopt a kid. Won't being a dad cramp your Furious
George style? First I'm going to make a long term commitment with Christopher,
then negotiate a commitment with my constituents, then make a life long commitment
to a kid to complete the trifecta. What does your mum
think about all this? My mother adores Christopher and, like me, she feels
very, very fortunate that he's willing to put up with my bullshit. |
You don't sound too busted up about it...
I thought that was one of the better responses I've had to the media in three
and a half years. You called incoming
CMA prez Dr Brian Day "a grave threat" to medicare. Is he the Darth Vader of Canadian
healthcare? Yeah, sure. I think that there are some seducers out there who
are prepared to poach and cherry-pick here and there, with their own benefit in
mind. Ontario's emerged as a bit of
a defender of medicare. Do you see yourself as Mr Medicare? Yes, I think it's
our role to play. I don't think that privatization of healthcare is about doctors
— it is about investors and Bay Street. Ontario is well-poised, because of
our scale, to play a positive role across the country. Do
you resent it when the feds try to bribe you, such as with the recent wait times
windfall? No, on the contrary. I'm very pumped up about it. I do have to use
my bully pulpit though. You're pretty
long in the tooth as health ministers go. Any fallen comrades you miss from the
old days? When I first became a health minister, there were three health ministers
from the west — Dave Chomiak from Manitoba, John Nilson from Saskatchewan
and Gary Marr from Alberta. Two New Democrats and a Conservative, of all things.
They really made me feel welcome, they helped me a lot. You've
suggested the smoking ban should be extended into people's homes. Doesn't that
strike you as a little Big Brother-ish? I don't think we all want to live
in a place where every third person is a bylaw enforcement officer, but we have
to work hard to find a balance there. When I pull up beside a car — and it
doesn't happen often, but I am observant — and see someone is smoking with
a kid in the car, I'm inclined to draw awareness. You
mean you yell at them to butt out? If I can get their attention, yeah. How
did your fellow Grits react to your drug addiction bombshell? Some appreciated
my candour, and some sure as hell don't want to hear another word about it.
| The
best of George Smitherman "Optometrists are a bunch
of terrorists, and I don't negotiate with terrorists" "Taj
Ma-hospitals" — his term for lavish building plans dreamed up by Ontario's
hospital boards "I'm the Harry Truman of the ministry
of health — 'The buck stops here'" — on criticism over the new LHIN
structure "Well, we don't have grade 13 anymore, so
I like to think I was just ahead of my time" — on dropping out of high
school in grade 13. | Were
you irked when Stephen Harper was a no-show at last year's Toronto AIDS conference?
You know what, I just felt like a proud local host. I am a gay man, I'm involved
in the fundraising side of AIDS work. I've lost friends and have friends affected
currently. At the conference I got to sit near Gates, and I saw him and Clinton
together. I loved it — it was awesome. You
had to eat crow after all your tough talk to the OMA during the 2004 physician
contract negotiations. Did you patch things up? We were pretty forceful, our
approach was brash and caused some challenges, but the agreement we negotiated
with these doctors has produced very, very fantastic results. We're in the preliminaries
now of feeling each other out for the next agreement — there's a modest amount
of money for existing inequities from our previous agreement. We had our tough
days of course, but I take it all in stride. There
are rumours that doctor billing has spiralled out of control since the cap was
scrapped. 'Out of control' is the freedom of the writer. The story I heard
was ophthalmologists were finishing for the weekend at noon on Thursdays because
the billing cap didn't make it worth staying. So we said why cap doctors who have
a service to offer when there's a patient who wants that service? Getting rid
of the cap was not a gesture, it was a very serious stepping up to the plate. Be
honest — are greedy docs taking advantage of the demise of the hated Medical
Review Committee to cheat on their billings? I'll stand before Ontario doctors
and tell them that trust and respect is the foundation of our relationship. Do
you think solo FPs should go the way of the dodo? The view I've taken as Minister
is, if there's a doctor, we love them, we need them and if they prefer to practice
in the way they always have, we'll support that because we know patients will
be well cared for. Interview conducted
by Sam Solomon | 
