Ralph's "Third Way" - Analysis

Back here, I promised to give a detailed analysis of the working paper on Health Policy that Ralph Klein foisted upon us just recently.

My first thought upon printing out the thirty odd pages is that it was going to take some serious time to put all the pieces into place and figure out what Ralph was trying to put forward. After reading the thing back and forth a few times, I've realized that the document is amazingly evasive, and really doesn't say anything that you can pin the government down to.

For the most part, it is an empty shell into which you can read almost anything you like. In their desperate attempt to not say what they really want to do, RalphCo has instead turned to the terminally vague language of evasion. I still suspect that Ralph's "Third Way" is really just an evasive term for the disastrous attempts at mixed public/private health care systems attempted in Thatcher era UK, and more recently in New Zealand - but that's been obvious from Ralphs rumblings for a long time.

However, with this announcement, I have to wonder if Ralph's "Third Way" isn't somewhat stillborn. In order to turn this into anything resembling intelligent legislation, there's months or more worth of work ahead of the government. In real terms, with a leadership contest effectively kicked off now (and due to run for the next 18 - 24 months (a duration only exceeded by Paul Martin's 10 year long bid to take the reins of power in the federal Liberal party. I think the document released a few weeks ago ultimately sets an outer boundary which will define the debate field among the leadership candidates.

In short, the document isn't worth the paper its printed on. It is far from detailed enough to allow for reasonable critical analysis, and may simply be irrelevant in the long run.