Terry Newman: Bonnie Crombie's embarrassing campaign bus of untruths

Thursday, in Scarborough, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie promised that, if elected, her party will get all Ontarians a family doctor in four years. Unfortunately, election day is fast approaching, and Crombie has neither detailed nor explained the cost of her ambitious plan. She also seems to have a problem getting her health-care facts straight, including the ones she’s printed on her campaign bus.

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Crombie outlined her “plan” as “a clear focus” on “four measures.” Firstly, she said they’d “train, retain, and accredit more doctors,” provide them with the “right compensation,” and ensure that new medical students “choose to stay with family medicine,” instead of, say, pursuing their childhood dream of becoming a brain surgeon. Secondly, she promised to improve the Ontario health team network and implement a “centralized referral system.” And, thirdly, she pledged to reduce the administration burden of doctors. “Let’s get rid of fax machines!,” she proclaimed. I had no idea fax machines played such a major role in the health-care crisis. Her fourth measure wasn’t a measure at all, but a promise, “make sure no one has to choose between using a walk-in clinic and having a family doctor.”

“That’s the deal when you vote for me. When you vote for us,” she told the crowd. “You’ll get a family doctor within four years. That’s how we’re going to change Ontario.”

A reporter asked Crombie when she first knew there’d be an election, because her platform didn’t seem to be developed yet, as it didn’t have any costs. She responded with a series of explanations and excuses followed by a tirade against Doug Ford before finally getting back to the reporter’s original question and admitting, “But you’re quite right, now we have to cost it.”

Except Crombie’s excuses don’t cut it. Ford announced the snap election on Jan. 29, but the Ontario Liberals have had their health-care plan on their website since Dec. 2. It’s now Feb. 6. and the election is on Feb. 27, twenty-one days from now. Do they intend to provide a detailed plan and costs to Ontario voters before then?

According to the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), Ontario has a shortage of 3,500 family doctors. To make matters worse, 40 per cent of those practising now are considering retiring in the next four years. As a result, the 2.5 million Ontarians who did no have a family doctor in 2023 is set to jump to 4.4 million in 2026. Clearly, an expert, detailed, costed plan is urgently needed to address this crisis before the election.

Then Crombie’s news conference took an interesting turn. A reporter questioned the Liberal leader about her campaign bus’ message: “11,000 people died while waiting for surgery last year. This is Doug Ford’s Ontario.”

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The reporter informed Crombie that the number on her bus was actually wrong. According to data from Ontario Health only around 1,600 people, not 11,000, died while waiting for surgery last year. And of those 1,600, “a lot of those patients were waiting for non-life saving surgeries, so cataract removals, knee-surgeries…” The reporter continued, “Where did that 11,000 number come from? Do you stand by the messaging on it?”

Crombie avoided the question, then brought a doctor from behind her onto the stage who told the crowd that the statistic on the Liberal campaign bus had been “widely reported” and that they are “happy to get back to Ontarians with the citation.” Anyone know how long the Ontario Liberal’s citation-check waitlist is?

Not wanting to hold my breath, I found a 2024 report from Second Street, an organization that investigates the effects of government policies on Canadians. According to their report, which cites information from Ontario Health, 1935 patients in Ontario died while being on a waitlist for some form of surgery from 2023 to 2024. This figure is a bit higher than the 1600 cited by the reporter, but is still much lower than the 11,000 number on Crombie’s bus.

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And, as it is was pointed out to Crombie, having died while being on a waitlist for a diagnostic scan or surgery does not necessarily mean that the patient died from the condition they were on a waitlist for. According to the Second Street report, 115 of the 1935 were patients in Ontario who died while waiting for cardiac surgery. But we still don’t know what they died from. We’d require a specific research question and patient data, such as cause of death, which is usually confidential. But the question would need to be something like, “How many patients died from the condition related to the specific screening or a surgery they were waiting for?” Otherwise, the numbers we get back about waiting list deaths will be inflated, falsely suggesting that a patient died from waiting for knee surgery, when they may have been hit by a bus.

This, of course, doesn’t excuse the long wait times that Ontarians have had to deal with. However, Crombie’s campaign bus gaffe suggests that Crombie’s Liberals may not be capable of crafting a plan that fully understands the Ontario Health numbers. Putting inaccurate or misleading information on a campaign bus to attack one’s opponent also isn’t fair to voters, and it certainly doesn’t help patients or health-care providers.

National Post

tnewman@postmedia.com

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