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Supply management and private health in the race for the Conservative leadership

OTTAWA — Two thorny issues have erupted in the race for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada this week: supply management in the agricultural sector and the use of private health care.

These questions were raised this week by two contenders in the race and bear the imprint of recent election campaigns.

Former Quebec Premier Jean Charest promised Thursday that to avoid the use of lockdowns in the fight against COVID-19, he would reform the country’s public health system.

He promised to do so through a series of measures, including allowing the provinces “to innovate in collaboration with the private sector, while maintaining our universal model of public health care”.

Former leader Erin O’Toole had been attacked by the Liberals seven months earlier for suggesting the same thing during the federal election campaign. The Conservative leader then expressed his support for the provinces that use the “innovation” of the private sector to improve the delivery of health care.

The suggestion to scrap supply management came from MP Scott Aitchison, who represents a rural riding in Ontario. Mr. Aitchison is still struggling to raise the $300,000 fee required to officially enter the Conservative leadership race.

He suggested that abandoning supply management in Canada would lower the prices of agricultural products, at a time when families are seeing their grocery bills rise due to runaway inflation.

The end of supply management had been presented as an election promise by Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada.

While he was the Conservative MP for Beauce, Mr. Bernier was beaten by Andrew Scheer in the 2017 leadership race. His position against the supply management system prompted several Quebec agricultural producers to buy a card. as a member of the Conservative Party to vote against him in the leadership race.

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