Throughout the history of Canadian Medicare, there have been those who opposed the universal, publicly funded system and advocated for greater private sector involvement. Certainly Canadian health care is in need of reform. However, in a remarkably short time, the debate about reform has been cut loose from rigorous policy science, empirical evidence, and an explicit commitment to universality, solidarity, equity, and the efficiencies of a single-payer, publicly funded, and not-for-profit system.