Featured Accomplishment

The story of medicare and its adoption in British Columbia can hardly be described as linear. There were moments of progress, then setback, followed by more progress.

In the moments of progress, it was the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the New Democratic Party who drove the public agenda. In moments of setback, the NDP never faltered—even when its electoral strength was diminished—to hold the right-wing Social Credit and B.C. Liberal governments to account.

In its first campaign as a new party in British Columbia, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (forerunner of today’s NDP) campaigned in 1933 for “the socialization of all health services.” It won seven seats and became the Official Opposition. The B.C. CCF pressed the case for socialized medicine in every subsequent election, but Liberal, Coalition and Social Credit governments opposed the idea.

After the CCF in Saskatchewan succeeded in making universal medicare a reality in 1962, the push was on to extend medicare—as a foundational public right—to every province in Canada.

In the 1963 provincial election, Bob Strachan, leader of the newly founded NDP, pledged “total coverage medicare, including prescription drugs and ambulance service.” With the success of medicare in Saskatchewan, public support for medicare grew in B.C. and across Canada.

In response, the federal Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker enlisted retired Justice Emmett Hall to lead a Royal Commission on Health Care. Hall’s 1964 report confounded the critics of socialized medicare care and made the case for the publicly funded and universal program of medicare as championed by Saskatchewan CCF-NDP premiers Tommy Douglas and Woodrow Lloyd.

By the time Hall made his report, the Diefenbaker government had been defeated, replaced by a Liberal minority government led by Lester Pearson. But Hall’s report served as a catalyst for change. The Liberals had campaigned in favour of a national health care program and Tommy Douglas, now a B.C. MP and leader of the federal NDP, held the Liberals to that promise.

Denied a majority in 1963 and 1965, Pearson’s minority government depended on NDP support in the Commons to keep it in power and NDP MPs helped a divided Liberal caucus overcome a united opposition front of Conservatives and Socreds to pass the 1996 Medical Care Act.

Meanwhile in B.C. the NDP under Bob Strachan continued to press the case at every opportunity for the adoption of publicly funded health care. The Social Credit government of W.A.C. Bennett first adopted a B.C. hospital plan and then full medicare only in the face of ongoing political pressure and the promise of federal funding. Bennett had a firm grip on power (1952–72) but he knew that turning away from a public health system would be political suicide.

His 1965 plan was limited in scope and included health premiums: $5 for an individual, $10 for a couple, and $12.50 for three or more people. However, with continued pressure from the NDP and passage of the federal Medical Care Act, B.C. signed onto the national plan in 1968.

The next wave of change occurred when BC NDP Leader Dave Barrett won a majority government in 1972. Barrett implemented sweeping change from 1972–75 and health care was no exception. Pharmacare was introduced to help people cope with drug costs, and a new ambulance service meant better urgent care for people throughout the province.

The NDP’s first Minister of Health was Dennis Cocke, seen here with one of the province’s new ambulances. The Barrett government was also developing a children’s dental health program in 1975—only to see the plan abandoned by the incoming Socred government of Bill Bennett.

In 2001, B.C. medicare came under significant threat when Gordon Campbell and the B.C. Liberals came to power. The Liberals had campaigned on tax cuts for lower and middle-income residents. Once elected, they expanded those cuts to include the wealthiest British Columbians. The Liberals increased medicare premiums (also known as MSP premiums) and made deep cuts to pay for the promise. In the last year of the outgoing NDP government, a couple was paying $768 in premiums. Under the Campbell Liberals that jumped to $1,152 and then to $1,800 per family.

Health care premiums were unfair because not everyone paid them directly. They were often paid by employers as an employee benefit. Those who did pay were often people who could least afford them, namely lower-paid workers.

In the 2017 provincial election, NDP Leader John Horgan promised to eliminate premiums altogether. The Horgan government proceeded to cut premiums by 50 per cent in 2018 and then delivered the biggest middle-class tax break in a generation when premiums were eliminated entirely as of Jan. 1, 2020. With that, medicare was at last free for everyone in the province.

To replace individual premiums, the Horgan government introduced the Employers Health Tax paid by businesses with payrolls of $500,000 or more. In the most recent 2024 provincial budget, David Eby’s NDP government raised the threshold of the employer health tax to $1 million. As a result, 90 per cent of B.C. businesses are exempt.

The Campbell government had also ushered in one of the greatest assaults on the rights of health care workers in B.C. history as the Liberals tore up a contract with the B.C. Hospital Employees Union. With that, more than 8,000 food and housekeeping workers in hospitals and other health facilities were forced to reapply for their jobs with private sector contractors with huge cuts in pay and job security. These workers, primarily newcomers and women, saw their family-sustaining jobs devalued and stripped away.

Righting these wrongs was one of the first priorities when John Horgan and the NDP were elected in 2017. With Bill 47, Health Minister Adrian Dix repatriated those positions to the public service and restored proper wages and working conditions for health care employees while improving health services in facilities across the province. The NDP has been the driving force to create and sustain universal medicare in Canada.

In the 1960s, Tommy Douglas used the NDP’s political power to push the federal Liberals to establish medicare Canada-wide. Today, federal NDP Leader and BC MP Jagmeet Singh has again leveraged the party’s balance of power with another Liberal minority government to negotiate historic agreements on pharmacare and dental care for all Canadians.