Election sparks healthy debate

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

Health care is still the No. 1 priority of the population, and any government that wants to properly take care of its citizens must tend to it, former Sacre-Coeur hospital administrator and Robert Baldwin incumbent Pierre Marsan said last week.

Marsan, who has represented the riding since 1994, said health care remains the Liberal’s No. 1 priority going into a March 26 provincial election.

“First and foremost, it’s our priority. It was then and it is now,” he said, pointing to Liberal achievements in founding family-medicine clinics across the province.

“There were only 17 such groups in 2003, and now there are 124 family-medicine groups in Quebec, and we’ve instituted free medication for 45,000 seniors,” he said.

Regarding recent problems finding anesthesiologists to fill shifts at the Lakeshore General Hospital, Marsan said a shortage of doctors and nurses can be traced back to the PQ regime, which gave 1,500 doctors and 4,000 nurses early retirement to get their salaries off the books.

“It’s very significant. It takes five years for doctors to train to be a general practitioner, and next year, we’ll have 850 new doctors in the province, and we plan to keep on going, we’ll continue to work with immigrants to recognize their credentials,” Marsan said, adding he stands by his party’s record on health care.

Parti Québécois Jacques Cartier candidate Sophia Caporicci saw things a little differently.

“Let’s not kid ourselves,” she said, regarding the Liberals’ health-care promises of 2003. “The situation hasn’t gotten any better. Doctors from Third World countries are being tossed into the fray and two hospitals are on the verge of closing. Doctors at Charles-Lemoyne Hospital (on the South Shore) are getting no support from the government regarding their working conditions. The Liberals haven’t solved any problems since they’ve been in power and they’re just using the same promises all over again.”

Action démocratique du Québec Jacques Cartier candidate Walter Rulli agreed, saying the Liberals have done nothing but throw taxpayers’ money down the drain.

“Their solution is to throw money at the system, and we’ve seen what kind of wastefulness has come about. Progress must be measured by actions taken and decisions made. I think they’ve failed to live up to their promises. Records I have indicate that more than 35,000 people have been waiting for surgery outside of the acceptable delay period. The government was forced into making some decisions, and they haven’t been good ones,” he told The Chronicle.