Canada's new health minister, appointed last month in a cabinet shuffle, has said she is willing to see an expansion in the role of the private sector in Canada's healthcare system.

Anne McLellan, formerly justice minister, has taken a distinctly different stance from that of her predecessor, Allan Rock. Ms McLellan has said she does not think that the expansion of the private role in the healthcare system would undermine the key principles of Medicare, the system under which all Canadians are insured.

Mr Rock fought this trend, which has been promoted recently as a way out of the system's …