B.C. NDP leader David Eby is on Vancouver Island today talking about health care and comparing his party's platform with that of the B.C. Conservatives.
At Nanaimo's Loudon Park on Wednesday, Oct. 16, Eby expanded on his party's commitment for a full-service patient tower at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, a promise he made during a visit on Sept. 26.
"Our commitment around cancer care and the cardiac cath lab here in Nanaimo continues," Eby told reporters on Wednesday. "The patient tower, and the cath lab and the cancer care aren't dependent on each other, they're all separate projects that will proceed as separate business plans and they're not depending on each other in terms of sequencing or timing. We need to make sure they all work together in an integrated whole, which is why there will be the business plan for the patient care tower."
Eby said the business plan is ongoing and will involve consultation with health-care workers.
"I think it's important for British Columbians to know we rely on the voices of doctors and nurses, public health officials like [provincial health officer] Bonnie Henry."
In an accompanying press release, Eby said the B.C. Conservatives under leader John Rustad would make "deep cuts" to health care and "import the U.S.-style two-tier system." Eby pointed to his party's plan to hire 45,000 new health-care workers, connect people with family doctors and invest in capital projects such as the NRGH patient tower.
“John Rustad has made it clear he would make you wait longer and pay more for worse health care – by draining doctors and nurses from our public hospitals,” said Eby in the release. “We are winning the global competition for health workers and building new hospitals across the province. If you don’t want to wake up on Sunday morning to Premier John Rustad dismantling our health-care system, I’m asking you to join us.”
The NDP has calculated the Conservative health care cuts based on Rustad's past comments about cutting health-care spending as a percentage of GDP; however, the Conservatives' platform promises $1.4 billion in additional health-care spending over the next two years.
Eby's comments about two-tier health care reference Rustad's past remarks about wanting changes to the Canadian Health Act. The Conservatives' health-care platform points to publicly funded partnerships with non-governmental clinics for certain services and procedures.
Health care wasn't the only topic discussed by the party leader.
Eby argued that a Rustad government would be detrimental to British Columbians' way of life, from auto insurance to human rights – drawing specific attention to some of the comments made by various Conservative candidates.
"I've had to talk about issues I thought, and I think the majority of British Columbians thought, were settled in our province," Eby said. "We don't call people who are gay 'groomers,' we don't tell Indigenous people what they experienced in residential school 'wasn't real,' we don't tell climate scientists, some of the world-leading climate scientists are here in British Columbia – we don't tell them they're 'making it up.'"
Other claims he drew attention to were Conservative candidate Brent Chapman's 2017 Facebook comment that insinuated certain mass shootings were faked, as well as Rustad's comments in relation to being questioned about putting health-care workers on trial in a "Nuremberg 2.0." Rustad replied that under his leadership the province would "certainly be participating with other jurisdictions as we look at those sorts of issues.” Since those comments surfaced, Rustad has apologized and said he misunderstood the question.
"These aren't things I wanted to talk about, that British Columbians wanted to hear about, but it has been put squarely on the ballot by John Rustad and his candidates," Eby said. "I hope we never see another election like this, I hope we all band together and say, 'no, not on our watch do we allow our province to be taken over by a group that wants to promote hate, division and violence.'"
Hilde Schlosar, a Nanaimo resident, was given a chance to speak at the appearance. The longtime B.C. Liberals supporter said she felt "outraged and completely caught off-guard" by B.C. United suspending its campaign.
"Certainly the Liberals are a centre party, some a little left, some a little right, but today's incarnation of Conservatives is nothing close to centre on any level. It's extreme and it's dangerous," Schlosar said, adding that on Tuesday she cast her ballot for the NDP. "Politics is a word we use to describe our system, but it's really about values and my values align much closer with the NDP."
Election day is Saturday, Oct. 19.
