Walkom Cuts Through Harperspeak. It Only Took Five Years

Thomas Walkom discusses the British PM's plans to scale back on their national health care plan, after promising that he wouldn't touch it during his campaign.

But Walkom reminds us that Cameron never really said he wouldn't touch it. Like Stephen Harper he was using neoconspeak. Calculated ambiguity.

And Stephen Harper has never said that he wasn't planning to scrap our public healthcare. I mean he headed up the National Citizens Coalition, a group founded for the purpose of ending Medicare. Belinda Stronach crossed the floor when she learned of his plans.

If that platform promise were honored, medicare – a social program based upon Ottawa’s ability to withhold federal funds from provinces that don’t adhere to national standards – wouldn’t exist in its present form. So, no. Harper’s agenda isn’t hidden -- for health care or anything else. Like Cameron’s, it is all visible. You just have to look. Carefully.

It shouldn't be this hard.