Political Staples

Or said another way, campaigning is a lot easier than governing. By now the consensus wisdom if that at least 4 of PM (designate) Harper's 5 priorities should be pretty easy to get through and the fifth, daycare, can happen with some creative stick-handling. The patient wait time guarantee may have gotten a little more interesting though.

Premier Klein seems to have some tricks up his sleave and how PM Harper handles it will go a long way to shaping the future of the "hidden agena" and therefore his future electoral propects.

Alberta Health Minister Iris Evans is not sure whether the province's long-promised health-care changes will create political problems for prime-minister-designate Stephen Harper's Conservative government.

"It's my hope that when we look at the Canada Health Act, we can look at what's possible rather than what can't be done," she told reporters after a closed-door cabinet meeting yesterday where the controversial changes were discussed.

It is expected the province's much-touted health-care legislation, to be tabled this month, will allow queue-jumping by patients willing to pay for treatments. The Progressive Conservative government's proposed nine-point health-care plan could also allow doctors to practise in both private and public systems, a violation of the federal health act.

During the federal election campaign, the Conservative Party led by Mr. Harper promised to protect the act from breaches. Ottawa has the power to financially penalize provinces that contravene it.