In the 1960s, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress forged a bond and came together to form a new political party—the NDP. Both organizations need to rediscover that fighting spirit to become a political force once again. Otherwise, they will wither and fade into irrelevance and oblivion.
Did we collectively forget that the NDP brought dental care to those who couldn’t otherwise afford it? Kinda a big difference, no? The Liberals certainly wouldn’t have done it themselves.
It seems more just that the optics of confidence and supply is confusing to some.
It’s such a liberal thing to do it based on income instead of it being universal. I still haven’t heard a good reason.
While I agree universal would’ve been better, the cutoff is 90k. That’s something like 80% of the population who qualify, and the top 20% can probably afford it.
In practice, is it really that different than universal with a raise in taxes on the wealthiest 20%?
90k isn’t the wealthiest 20%…
EDIT I stand corrected https://www.statista.com/statistics/484838/income-distribution-in-canada-by-income-level/
But still waiting for an actual good reason.
And not to mention the drug plan only covers 2 types of drugs.
Dental care that only a fraction of the population even qualify for? Meanwhile the rest of us are still dependent on our employers to provide us with private insurance that covers less and less every year.
I’m old enough to remember when the NDP was Canada’s workers party. They barely even pay that legacy lip-service now.
While yes it’s technically a fraction, and universal would’ve been better, the 4 in 5 people that make under 90k is a pretty darn big fraction.
Lol! You also can’t have access to any other form of dental care. And since most employers offer a bare minimum of coverage, that eliminates nearly everyone who is currently employed.
OK, and now that a system is in place, they have a financial incentive to drop that coverage because it A) costs them money, and B) costs their workers money, so it makes no sense to keep it there.
If they funded it with taxes I would give them props. Future austerity with interest is an unsustainable program used only to drive short term votes, and is nothing like our universal healthcare, which was fully funded from the start so that it lasts.