Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
What made Canada what it is -- far to the left of the United States -- isn't French-speaking Quebec. What made the greatest difference was an originally socialist third party, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, born of an alliance of organizations of socialists, farmers, and workers; see the CCF's 1933 "Regina Manifesto"
I don't know much about Canada, but this is an excellent point (although I'm not sure I'd characterize Canada as "far to the left" of the U.S). Even if the left groupings aren't that powerful, I imagine just their prescence helps temper economic and social rightism.
And of course, the Medicare single payer system gives people some breathing room to speak out at work without fearing loss of health insurance. I also imagine it gives small business a more talented pool of workers who don't have to worry about getting that benefit on the job. It may also encourage more people to start their own businesses. Wonder if anyone's seen any statistics on this.
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