32. Smith and Carney May Destroy Socialized Medicine w/ Nikolas Barry-Shaw

I sit down with Nikolas Barry-Shaw, researcher and trade and privatization campaigner for the Council of Canadians, to break down how Alberta's Bill 11 is dismantling Canada's public healthcare system, with the help of an insurgent private insurance campaign.

Manulife, Canada Life, and Sun Life control two thirds of Canada's $66 billion private health benefits market. These behemoths helped draft Danielle Smith's signature legislation through covert government working groups. Meanwhile, doctors, unions, and the public were excluded.

Bill 11 creates a two-tier fast lane for the privately insured and opens the door to privatizing any part of the system by administrative fiat. So far, the Carney government is refusing to enforce the Canada Health Act, and Saskatchewan and Ontario watching that closely, ready to pounce.

Barry-Shaw argues this moment poses an existential threat to Medicare, from coast to coast. As Tommy Douglas warned forty years ago: the system must move forward or it will be crushed by capital.

Sources

Pandora's Box: Danielle Smith and Insurance Giants Unleash Attack on Healthcare

Danielle Smith Admitted She Wants to Throw Out Canada's Public Health Care Law

Alberta's Bill 11 Breaks Federal Law — Canadian Health Coalition

Bill 11 Analysis — Parkland Institute

Bill 11 Report — Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Council of Canadians — Trade and Privatization

Friends of Medicare Alberta

Ontario Health Coalition

Socials

Bluesky: matthewremski.bsky.social
Instagram: @matthew_remski
YouTube: @antifascistdad
TikTok: [@antifascistdad]
Patreon: antifascistdadpodcast
Order Antifascist Dad

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(65)

UNLOCK 33.1 Antifascist Body Culture: A Brief History

I wanted to trace the century-old roots of Maren Forsberg's antifascist self-defense work, so I dug into three overlapping histories. First: the German Bund's use of Körperbildung — body education thr...

7 Kesä 22min

34. From the Street to City Hall w/ Diana Chan McNally

Diana Chan McNally has been unhoused, a teen mother, a museum curator, a college instructor, a harm reduction worker, a frontline homelessness advocate, and a DJ. Now she's running for Toronto City Co...

3 Kesä 53min

UNLOCK 32.1 What Tommy Douglas Knew & What We All Know about Socialized Medicine

In a coda to episode 32, I reflect on what socialized medicine means not as culture or sentiment but as raw material security and the basis for working-class solidarity. I draw on Beatrice Adler-Bolto...

31 Touko 22min

33. Antifascist Self Defence and Rewriting the Body's Response to Violence w/ Maren Forsberg

Norwegian kickboxer Maren Forsberg works as a self-defense trainer focused on building antifascist courage and resilience for women, queer, and trans people. I spoke with her about her path from child...

27 Touko 59min

UNLOCKED 31.1 Kensington Market Palimpsest

In this coda to my conversation with Serena Purdy, I track the layered history of Kensington Market through the metaphor of the palimpsest, the medieval manuscript practice of writing over earlier tex...

24 Touko 28min

UNLOCK 30.1 The Left Didn't Betray Anyone: Material Conditions and the Limits of Rockhill

A coda to my conversation with Richard Gilman-Opalsky around Gabriel Rockhill's new book, Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism. It's a reflection on what Rockhill's viral success tells us about how ...

17 Touko 33min

31. Voices of Kensington will Ring in Ottawa w/Serena Purdy

Serena Purdy is a comparative health policy researcher at the University of Toronto and socialist candidate who ran in the recent 2025 University-Rosedale federal byelection. We talk about what the up...

13 Touko 45min