A bold vision on health care won Wab Kinew the election

Much has been written about the fact that Manitoba premier-designate Wab Kinew will soon become the first First Nations provincial premier.

While his race/heritage matters, particularly in an era of reconciliation, what has not garnered nearly enough attention is just how bold and risky a campaign the New Democrat leader ran.

Mr. Kinew’s first promise on the campaign trail was about health care, and so was his last. And not a day went by that he and his party did not hammer away on the health theme.

Normally, in Canadian election campaigns – provincial, federal and territorial – there’s a bit of vague, nervous chatter about health care in the opening days and then we move on to other things.

That’s because talking health is seen as too risky. No matter how much you promise it’s never enough. And then there are the sacred cows, each of them potential landmines.

It’s a lose-lose proposition. But Mr. Kinew and his party defied the accepted wisdom among political strategists in spectacular fashion.

There is not enough room here to repeat all the health care promises in the Manitoba NDP’s platform, but here are some highlights:

■ Re-open three emergency rooms – at the Victoria, Seven Oaks and Concordia hospitals – that were closed by the previous Conservative government

■ Add more than 130 new hospital beds, including 60 at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre, 34 at Grace Hospital, 30 in St. Boniface and 10 in Brandon. These beds will be used to relieve pressure on ERs and increase surgical capacity

■ Open four new family medical centres in Winnipeg and one in Brandon to divert non-urgent cases from ERs

■ Build a new provincial cancer care centre

■ Hire 300 nurses and 400 physicians over four years, and establish a task force to lead a recruitment campaign

■ Hire 200 paramedics by the end of their first term

■ End mandatory overtime for nurses

■ Speed up the accreditation process for internationally educated health professionals

■ Create centres of excellence in cardiac care, kidney care, joint surgery and women’s health at various hospitals

■ Make prescription birth control free

■ Expand public coverage of drugs used to treat menopause symptoms

■ Upgrade the Women’s Health Clinic to improve access to abortion services

■ Restore birthing services in northern Manitoba, notably in Pimicikamak Cree Nation and Norway House

■ Modernize health records and eliminate paper cards, charts and fax machines

■ Build an unspecified number of new long-term care homes to replace those where the COVID-19 death rate was particularly high

■ Hire 100 new home care workers

■ Provide health coverage for international students studying at Manitoba postsecondary institutions

■ Improve French-language health care services, starting with the Info Santé phone line

■ There are also some promises that are not about sickness care but that could have a notable impact on the health and welfare of citizens:

■ End homelessness in the province within two terms

■ Create a universal school food program, so no kids go through the school day hungry

■ Create an independent seniors’ advocate to ensure the health needs of seniors are met

This is very different from the usual, glib “everybody will have a family doctor eventually” type promises that we usually hear. Those platitudes never amount to a hill of beans.

■ There is a refreshing specificity, and the serious promises are costed out. And the pledges made by Mr. Kinew and his team are not cheap.

For the hiring of new nurses and doctors alone, $500-million. Reopening and essentially rebuilding three emergency rooms, another $450-million. Billions of dollars more pumped into health care.

This in a small province, with only 1.3 million residents, about the same as the city of Calgary.

Not to mention that the premier-designate promised to balance the budget and didn’t say anything about raising taxes. So there will be some reckonings.

Just as important as the breadth and depth of the vows to fix health care was the tone in which they were delivered.

During his victory speech, Mr. Kinew spoke directly to health workers, saying: “We need you.”

This is not something the beleaguered health work force is used to hearing.

Neither is Mr. Kinew’s hopefulness. Fixing health care, he said repeatedly, is the government’s No. 1 job, and it needs to present a “credible path forward.”

It’s a message that other premiers should heed. Especially when they realize it’s a winning formula.