The appointment of Tony Clement as health minister by Canada's newly elected prime minister, Stephen Harper, has alarmed some supporters of the country's publicly funded national healthcare system. They regard Mr Clement, who was previously Ontario's health minister, as preferring a two tier (public-private) system.

“It's quite shocking,” said Mike McBane, executive director of the Canadian Health Coalition, a public health advocacy group. “It sends a very clear signal that the prime minister would appoint someone who is ideologically committed to privatising the delivery of the public healthcare system, someone who was aggressively involved in dismantling the Ontario healthcare system, in firing nurses and shutting down hospitals.” …