Rotten System of Appointing "Star Candidates"
A good illustration of how the anti-democratic method of selecting and promoting candidates works is the way the candidate standing for the Liberal party in the April 13 University--Rosedale by-election was chosen, who she is, what she stands for and her possible intended use should she get elected. It is important to keep this in mind when looking at the credentials of the Prime Minister's choice of candidate to replace the former Liberal "star candidate" in University--Rosedale, Chrystia Freeland.
Freeland was a "star candidate" when she became MP in 2013. She is a former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Foreign Minister, a known architect and champion of the former Nazi collaborators establishing themselves in power in Ukraine in 2014. In September 2025, Carney appointed her as his special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
The likelihood that the University--Rosedale seat would become vacant first appeared in November 2025, when Freeland was appointed as the next Warden of Rhodes House and Chief Executive Officer of the Rhodes Trust based at Oxford University in the UK.[1] Freeland starts the new posting on July 1 but was forced to vacate her seat on January 9, before moving to the UK, after she took a position on January 5 as economic development advisor in the pro-Nazi regime of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This essentially put her in a conflict of interest by serving two national governments at the same time.
How different is the current candidate Carney has nominated to take Chrystia Freeland's place in terms of the interests she serves?
Dr. Danielle Martin, is also considered a "star candidate" who will be a "shoe-in" to win the riding for the Liberal party. She is promoted as a champion of Canada's health care system in which care is publicly funded, as opposed to the U.S. system where everyone has to fend for themselves. She is a family doctor, founder of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, and has served in leadership roles at Women's College Hospital, the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, the Wellesley Institute and Humber River Hospital.
When
Mark Carney, not the University--Rosedale Liberal riding association,
announced her candidacy, the announcement included a quote from Dr.
Martin: "For more than twenty years, I have served the people of
University--Rosedale as a family doctor and a hospital and university
leader.
I'm ready to bring that same work ethic and determination to be a
strong voice for this wonderful community as your next Member of
Parliament. I'm running because our community and our country are
facing a critical moment, and leaders from all walks of life need to
stand up for our values. I am
excited to work with the Liberal team on the issues that matter, both
locally and across the country."
In appearance, Dr. Martin's credentials portray a health care program which puts Canadians at the centre of its concerns. It is all made to sound very convincing, with emphasis on expanding family health teams and reducing wait times for a family doctor. It talks of sorting out the shortage of doctors and nurses by providing incentives for doctors and nurses to work in rural areas, and streamlining foreign credential recognition for newcomers. Keep in mind that the shortage of doctors and nurses in the public health care system was and continues to be the result of cutbacks implemented as an integral part of the anti-social offensive to restructure the state in favour of private contracts. It also refers to improving access to youth mental health hubs and substance use services and upgrading digital health records so patients and providers can more easily share information.
The Wikipedia rendering of Dr. Martin's curriculum vitae says: "Martin completed her bachelor's degree in science from McGill University and her MD at the University of Western Ontario. She also holds a master's degree in public policy from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Currently, she is the Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), University of Toronto. Previously, she was the vice president, medical affairs and health system solutions at Women's College Hospital (WCH), and the founder of the WCH Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV). She is also a family physician in the Family Practice Health Centre at WCH, and professor in the Departments of Family and Community Medicine and Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. In 2016, she was awarded the CIHR-IHSPR [Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Institute of Health Services and Policy Research] Article of the Year Award for her work on the estimated cost of universal public coverage of prescription drugs in Canada."
Newspaper sources say she gained national recognition in 2017 when she publicly supported Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All Act in the U.S. and spoke to a U.S. Senate committee at his invitation in September 2017. She had testified at a U.S. Senate committee investigation on health care systems, specifically regarding issues such as single-payer and multi-payer systems and wait times in March 2014. Following that she was courted to run as a candidate by various parties, at the federal, provincial and municipal level.
In 2006, she started the organization Canadian Doctors for Medicare. She won the Canadian Medical Association award for young leaders. In 2013, the Toronto Star called her one of 13 people to watch. She has been interviewed on CBC's The National and other media.
She wrote a book entitled Better Now: Six Big Ideas to Improve Health Care for All Canadians, published in 2017. Despite the language about the need to enhance community care, reduce wait times for surgeries and to access family doctors, and the like, it is important to take note that the entire kit and caboodle is about putting health care into the hands of private for-profit providers. The state contracts those private for-profit providers and pays them more for services rendered than a properly renovated modern state-of-the-art public system with professional personnel at every level would cost.
The "Six Big Ideas" are:
"1: The Return of Relationships: Ensure relationship-based primary health care for every Canadian
"2: A Nation with a Drug Problem: Bring prescription drugs under Medicare
"3: Don't Just Do Something, Stand There: Reduce unnecessary tests and interventions
"4: Doing More with Less: Reorganize health care delivery to reduce wait times and improve quality
"5: Basic Income for Basic Health: Implement a basic income guarantee
" 6: The Anatomy of Change: Scale up successful solutions across the country."
All of it is marketing lingo which makes it appear as if a public system is being financed. In fact it is Big Pharma and corporations running private health care services and digital technology which are put in charge of the health of the people.
A search for articles that Dr. Martin has written turned up elaboration of the above six big ideas. The most recent is an article in the Ottawa Citizen from August 10, 2024 co-authored with Dr. Sarita Verma and Dr. Jane Philpott. Philpott was Health Minister in Trudeau's cabinet at a time when billions of dollars were channeled to private corporations in the name of enhancing health care, seniors' care and dental care. In October 2024, Philpott was appointed by Doug Ford to head a task force on connecting all Ontarians to primary-care doctors within five years. According to the article, Ontario could provide primary care for all Ontarians through team-based care provided by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and others. These teams would also be linked to social services and to local universities and colleges for training.
The marketing campaign for this candidate is clearly designed to sell the image of a caring Carney government whose only aim in life is to make Canada Strong for its people. However, it would not be surprising to see Dr. Martin become a member of his cabinet or one of his advisory committees advocating centralized health care spending in a manner which favours specific pharmaceutical companies, digital services, for-profit primary care units etc. All of these have already revealed how health care matters and human resources are decided based on the profit motive. Protests against this are becoming increasingly vociferous as Canadians, Quebeckers and Indigenous Peoples demand a system which is not under the control of the private sector.
Note
1. The Warden of the Rhodes Trust is a position which in 2024 commanded a "compensation package of approximately $340,848, plus an additional $64,832 in other compensation." The Rhodes Scholarship is given to those deemed to be the best and brightest who will make good point-persons of those states which are part of the former British Empire. It is named after the racist architect of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe.
Students in Oxford and people across Britain have been demanding the removal of the statue of this racist from in front of Rhodes House for some time. Most importantly, they strongly oppose the racist values the scholarship promotes, today under a modern guise, all the better to serve what the British imperialists and their Commonwealth and other partners are up to at this time.
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 18 - April 13, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560182.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca