Steve MacLellan

As the Liberals’ re-election campaign was foundering last week,
Andrew Scheer was promising that a Conservative government would spend
$1.5 billion to reduce medical wait times.

It’s a commitment
that might stir some nostalgia. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives
identified reducing wait times as one of their top five priorities
during the 2006 election. Once in government, the Conservatives
committed $700 million in funding and signed agreements with the
provinces.

Then everyone, including the Harper government, forgot about it.

Thirteen years later, with the Conservatives trying to get back into power, the issue of wait times is back on the agenda.

It’s
one of several familiar tunes on the party’s playlist. Indeed,
the early stages of Andrew Scheer’s campaign have sounded, at times,
like a medley of some of Stephen Harper’s greatest hits.