What makes Canada, Canada? The question is being asked more regularly as talk of a “51st state” and other threats to our sovereignty repeatedly come up.

Nine times out of 10, the answer I hear is health care. Canadians are deeply proud of our universal Medicare system. The idea that in Canada we care for each other contrasts us with our neighbours to the south. Public health care defines us as a nation.

Which means it should absolutely be treated as a “nation-building project.” The kind of project that our new prime minister talks about regularly these days.

I hope that as our federal, provincial and territorial health-care ministers meet in Calgary on Friday, they will also begin to think of public health care in this way. Because if we want to build a stronger Canada, it starts with o

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