Loyalty to the Alberta Liberal Party and the public health-care system were tested at a leadership candidate’s debate in Red Deer on Sunday afternoon.
Former Progressive Conservative MLA Dr. Raj Sherman was asked direct questions from the audience about his switch to the Liberals, and took jabs from his opponents.
Sherman calls himself a fiscal conservative and social humanitarian — still.
“The same values that I took to the Alberta PC party are the same values I bring here,” he said to a crowd of about 60 people at the Golden Circle.
The MLA for Edmonton-Meadowlark was ousted last November from the Tory caucus for chastising the government for breaking its promise to improve health care.
“Government is there for the people. (Tories) are actually there just for a few people. This government has lost its way,” said the new Liberal Party member.
But he said Liberals do need to move to the right of centre to speak to a wider range of Albertans.
With a 10 per cent drop in Liberal popularity, according to a recent Environics poll, candidate Bruce Payne questioned the leadership of Liberal MLA candidates Laurie Blakeman and Hugh MacDonald and said new vision is needed for the party.
MacDonald, a Liberal MLA since 1997, responded by pointing to a hole in the sole of his shoe.
“This hole was put in this shoe because I have worked very, very hard for this party and I resent people suggesting Laurie Blakeman and I have not been doing work over the last number of years for this party,” MacDonald said to cheers and laughter.
Edmonton-Centre MLA Laurie Blakeman also set her record straight.
“I was courted, frankly, by people in the Alberta Liberal party and the Alberta Party to consider running for leader this past winter, and I did consider it, and in the end I chose the Alberta Liberals. I chose you and I choose to still be here,” said Blakeman who has served as a Liberal in the legislature since 1997.
After declaring support for both the public and private health care during the forum, candidate Bill Harvey, a financial services manager, said he understood that he isn’t what people expect to see in a Liberal in Alberta.
He said he wants to give Albertans options in health care.
“I would not do anything to public health care to make it not available to my family. I’m not one of the rich ones who can go and buy it on different tier. I support it. But we have to look at opportunities to make it better,” said Harvey.
Health care should be run like a business and the better it is run, the more benefits there will be for Albertans, he said.
Blakeman earned a round of applause when she rejected the expansion of private health care and said it’s time to buy back some of the health care services that have been privatized.
“(Private health care) costs us more money and erodes the public system,” she said.
Sherman said the business model in health care doesn’t work and believes in the public health system which has strong cost controls as a single body.
“The reason the health care system is broken is because of the over-specialization of health care because of the over-privatization that we have. We’re the third most privatized system on the planet,” said Sherman who has worked part-time at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandria Hospital emergency department for about 20 years.
Payne, who has worked in construction, the labour movement and as a pastor, said private health care is not an option. While running health care like a business, the PCs have added layers of administration to insulate themselves from the real problems in health care and bogged down the delivery of service.
MacDonald said if money was managed effectively and efficiently by government, health care wouldn’t be short-changed.
He took aim at Extendicare Canada Michener Hill, a publicly funded, privately operated long-term care facility in Red Deer that has been criticized for its lack of staff.
“An investor-owned company, they should not be getting millions of dollars in grants from the taxpayers,” MacDonald said.
“We need public dollars going into public facilities so long-term care can be provided in a caring environment where they know that they’re going to be looked after.”
And all nursing home inspections reports should be made public just like restaurant inspections, he added.
The Liberal leadership vote on Sept. 10 is open to members as well as supporters who do not have to pay a fee or join the party.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com