On Sunday, a clip of a virtual discussion from last year’s Conservative Party leadership campaign was posted to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Freeland’s Twitter page, in which then-leadership candidate O’Toole answered in the affirmative to the moderator’s question of whether he would allow provinces to experiment with “real healthcare” reform including for-profit and nonprofit private healthcare services.
In the clip, which Twitter flagged under its policy to label videos where there may be a lack of context, O’Toole said he would work to find “public-private synergies” and “capital will come in to drive efficiencies, to drive innovation.” However, Freeland’s 35-second clip did not include O’Toole’s vow to ensure that “universal access remains paramount” and reforms are “fair, measured and keep the public with it.”
“What’s really important here is that in the middle of a pandemic Erin O’Toole came out, unequivocally, in support of private healthcare, in terms of for-profit healthcare,” Trudeau told reporters when asked about Twitter’s decision to flag Freeland’s post and the Conservative campaign’s call for an investigation.
Trudeau added that the Liberal Party has posted the unedited version of the clip and urged Canadians to watch it in its entirety.
O’Toole, meanwhile, slammed the Liberal Party for “importing American-style misleading politics” into the country’s national election campaign, while highlighting that his party proposes injecting $47.4 billion in additional healthcare funding.
Last Sunday, Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon accepted Trudeau’s request to dissolve parliament triggering the 44th election in the country’s history, sending Canadians to the polls on September 20.
Trudeau has come under increasing scrutiny from the opposition and media for calling an election while the country faces a range of domestic and international challenges.