A close read of Poilievre’s record suggests plenty of support for private health providers
MACLEAN'S
By Emily Landau
April 7, 2025
Pierre Poilievre can’t shut up. He’s a proud and pugnacious loudmouth, promising to eliminate red tape restricting new housing, slash government spending and cut taxes. He has an opinion on everything—except, it seems, for private health care. Poilievre has kept bizarrely mum on the subject.
It’s a weird time to stay silent. Canada’s ERs are packed like pickle jars. Patients are paying for care in other countries, rather than waiting for specialists and appointments. Towns in B.C. and Ontario are offering six-figure cash incentives to draw new doctors. At the same time, private healthcare providers are popping up to fill the gaps in the system—virtual care companies, nurse practitioner clinics, and private imaging labs provide care to desperate Canadians.
Despite Poilievre’s uncharacteristic reticence on the subject, there’s reason to believe he will eliminate some of the restrictions on private healthcare operators. For one thing, he’s vowed to get rid of the federal deficit—something that can only happen with massive cuts to health care. His voting record also demonstrates a willingness to cut funding to the system. As an MP in 2012, he voted to cut some $43.5 billion in healthcare transfers to the provinces. He’s also voted against expansion to public care, including the Liberals’ pharmacare program. In the House last fall, he claimed that the Liberals’ pharmacare plan would require all private plans to be banned: “They want to ban you from having a private drug plan with the hope and the promise that one day you might get a government plan.” (He later backtracked on his opposition, promising to preserve Liberal social programs.)
Poilievre’s goal, according to the NDP, is to gut the public system so private operators can step up and strike gold. The businesses are circling: last May, Poilievre attended a fundraiser at the home of Aaron Stern, a Montreal magnate who owns for-profit hospitals in the U.S.
If Poilievre paves the path for private care, he’ll be following the lead of his provincial counterparts. In Ontario, Doug Ford’s Your Health Act allowed more private clinics to perform surgeries and diagnostic testing, and in Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith has transferred ownership of some hospitals to private operators.
For decades, Canada’s public healthcare system has been a hallowed institution—as much an embodiment of our national values as a means of delivering medical care. We brag about it to our American friends. But as a pandemic raged and our population aged, it just stopped working. If anyone in federal politics is willing to rattle healthcare chains, it’s going to be Poilievre.
April 7, 2025
Pierre Poilievre can’t shut up. He’s a proud and pugnacious loudmouth, promising to eliminate red tape restricting new housing, slash government spending and cut taxes. He has an opinion on everything—except, it seems, for private health care. Poilievre has kept bizarrely mum on the subject.
It’s a weird time to stay silent. Canada’s ERs are packed like pickle jars. Patients are paying for care in other countries, rather than waiting for specialists and appointments. Towns in B.C. and Ontario are offering six-figure cash incentives to draw new doctors. At the same time, private healthcare providers are popping up to fill the gaps in the system—virtual care companies, nurse practitioner clinics, and private imaging labs provide care to desperate Canadians.
Despite Poilievre’s uncharacteristic reticence on the subject, there’s reason to believe he will eliminate some of the restrictions on private healthcare operators. For one thing, he’s vowed to get rid of the federal deficit—something that can only happen with massive cuts to health care. His voting record also demonstrates a willingness to cut funding to the system. As an MP in 2012, he voted to cut some $43.5 billion in healthcare transfers to the provinces. He’s also voted against expansion to public care, including the Liberals’ pharmacare program. In the House last fall, he claimed that the Liberals’ pharmacare plan would require all private plans to be banned: “They want to ban you from having a private drug plan with the hope and the promise that one day you might get a government plan.” (He later backtracked on his opposition, promising to preserve Liberal social programs.)
Poilievre’s goal, according to the NDP, is to gut the public system so private operators can step up and strike gold. The businesses are circling: last May, Poilievre attended a fundraiser at the home of Aaron Stern, a Montreal magnate who owns for-profit hospitals in the U.S.
If Poilievre paves the path for private care, he’ll be following the lead of his provincial counterparts. In Ontario, Doug Ford’s Your Health Act allowed more private clinics to perform surgeries and diagnostic testing, and in Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith has transferred ownership of some hospitals to private operators.
For decades, Canada’s public healthcare system has been a hallowed institution—as much an embodiment of our national values as a means of delivering medical care. We brag about it to our American friends. But as a pandemic raged and our population aged, it just stopped working. If anyone in federal politics is willing to rattle healthcare chains, it’s going to be Poilievre.
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