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If Canadians lived healthier lives, we could reduce demand for emergency services, orthopaedic surgeries, primary care and more.
For instance, if you visit the Canadian Cancer Society’s website, you’ll read that “about four in ten” cancer cases are preventable. The Heart and Stroke Foundation notes that “almost 80 percent of premature heart disease and stroke can be prevented through healthy behaviours.” A similar number of Diabetes cases are also preventable.
Many joint replacements and visits to ERs and walk-in clinics could also be avoided through healthy living.
To be sure, not all health problems can be avoided through healthy living – everyday the system treats Canadians with genetic conditions, helps those injured in unavoidable accidents and more.
But there is an opportunity to reduce pressure on the health care system through Canadians shifting to healthier lifestyles – better diets, more exercise, etc.
To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this column.
European countries will partner with anyone who can help patients.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a non-profit, a government entity or a private clinic. What matters is that patients receive quality treatment, in a timely manner and for a competitive price.
In Canada, governments often delivery services using government-run hospitals instead of seeing if non-profit or private clinics could deliver the services more effectively.
When governments have partnered with non-profit and private clinics, the results have often been quite good – Saskatchewan, Ontario and British Columbia are just a few examples of where partnerships have worked well.
Canada should pursue more of these partnerships to reduce wait times and increase the volume of services provided to patients.
To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see the links above.
In Canada, citizens pay high taxes each year and we’re promised universal health care services in return. The problem is, wait times are often extremely long in our health system – sometimes patients have to wait years to see a specialist or receive surgery.
If patients don’t want to wait long periods, they often have to reach into their own pocket and pay for treatment outside the province or country.
Throughout the European Union, we also find universal health care systems. But a key difference is that EU patients have the right to go to other EU countries, pay for surgery and then be reimbursed by their home government. Reimbursements cover up to what the patient’s home government would have spent to provide the treatment locally.
If Canada copied this approach, a patient waiting a year to get their hip operation could instead receive treatment next week in one of thousands of surgical clinics throughout the developed world.
Governments benefit too as the patient is now back on their feet and avoiding complications that sometimes come with long wait times – meaning the government doesn’t have to treat those complications on top of the initial health problem.
To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or this shorter video.
Canada is the only country in the world that puts up barriers, or outright bans patients from paying for health services locally.
For instance, a patient in Toronto cannot pay for a hip operation at a private clinic in Toronto. Their only option is to wait for the government to eventually provide treatment or leave the province and pay elsewhere.
Countries with better-performing universal health care systems do not have such bans. They allow patients a choice – use the public system or pay privately for treatment. Sweden, France, Australia and more – they all allow choice.
Why? One reason is that allowing choice means some patients will decide to pay privately. This takes pressure off the public system. For instance, in Sweden, 87% of patients use the public system, but 13% purchase private health insurance.
Ultimately, more choice improves access for patients.
To learn more, watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or watch this short clip on this topic.
In Canada, most hospitals receive a cheque from the government each year and are then asked to do their best to help patients. This approach is known as “block funding”.
Under this model, a patient walking in the door represents a drain on the hospital’s budget. Over the course of a year, hospital administrators have to make sure the budget stretches out so services are rationed. This is why you might have to wait until next year or the year after for a hip operation, knee operation, etc.
In better-performing universal health systems, they take the opposite approach – hospitals receive money from the government each time they help a patient. If a hospital completes a knee operation, it might receive, say, $10,000. If it completes a knee operation on another patient, it receives another $10,000.
This model incentivizes hospitals to help more patients – to help more patients with knee operations, cataract surgery, etc. This approach also incentivizes hospitals to spend money on expenses that help patients (e.g. more doctors, nurses, equipment, etc.) rather than using the money on expenses that don’t help patients (e.g. more admin staff).
To learn more about this policy option, please watch our Health Reform Now documentary (scroll up) or see this post by MEI.
THE HUB: Bipartisan efforts improved education in England. Canadian students need their politicians to do the same
October 26, 2026
Colin Craig writes in The Hub how bipartisan consensus led to positive education reforms in England. Could Canada do the same?
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A quarter century ago, England’s Labour Party and the nation’s Conservative Party worked together to introduce reforms that put students—not politics—first. Fast forward to today, and the results of England’s push towards school autonomy have been amazing: high student test scores while giving parents more choice.
Meanwhile, with the exception of one province, Canada’s main political parties remain paralyzed from copying what worked in England. The result? A steady deterioration in student performance and 53 percent of Canadians believing the public school system has gone in the wrong direction over the past two decades.
What Tony’s Blair’s Labour government did was take failing public schools and let non-profits run them. England’s Conservative Party supported the policy and expanded it by allowing non-profits to also start their own government-funded schools. In both cases, there’s no tuition to attend. The results have been especially positive for underprivileged children.
The Michaela school in London is perhaps the best example. Located in a lower-income part of the city, the school represents a return to successful practices from the past: students actually face discipline if they misbehave, teachers guide classroom lessons and use proven teaching practices. Michaela actually has some of the highest test scores in the country, rivalling Eton, a private school where the royal family sends their children.
While OECD research shows test scores in the developed world have fallen over the past couple decades, England is an outlier—theirs have largely stayed flat and are ranked in the top 10 in the world for reading, science and math. One reason is that England now has nearly 12,000 non-profit schools (funded by government).
Many Albertans won’t be too surprised by this success story. Alberta students consistently earn the highest scores on average in Canada when it comes to education test scores, and Alberta also has non-profit schools that are funded by the government (and there’s no tuition). They’re called charter schools and have been around since the early 1990s.
New research by SecondStreet.org shows students in Alberta’s charter schools earn, on average, test scores that are a full grade higher than students in public schools. That’s the difference between your child coming home with a “B” instead of an “A.”
Alberta’s charter schools teach the provincial curriculum but often differ in terms of their focus and how they teach subjects. For instance, STEM Innovation Academy, a Calgary high school, focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. They teach kids how to build robots, use 3D printers, and more. Conversely, Calgary Classical Academy, a K-9 school, focuses on teaching the classics—classical literature, Latin, history, and so on. Both schools have firm discipline measures and don’t allow teachers to share their politics in the classrooms.
Alberta’s charter schools give parents more choices without having to pull out their chequebooks. According to research by the Montreal Economic Institute, there are over 20,000 students waiting to get into Alberta’s charter schools.
So why haven’t other provinces copied Alberta or England? Ontario’s education minister visited England’s Michaela school in 2026, marvelled at the results, but noted he would not copy the successful charter school model. He didn’t say it publicly, but it’s likely the same old story—politicians worried about how the province’s powerful unions might respond.
As long as Canadian politicians put the needs of students second, the Alberta and England reforms will continue to be a dream for students and parents in the rest of Canada.
Colin Craig is the President of SecondStreet.org, a Canadian think tank.
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