Canada desperately needs a public insulin manufacturer again
Canada desperately needs a public insulin manufacturer again
Insulin was discovered by four Canadians, who famously sold the patent for $1 each to the University of Toronto—enabling the public manufacture of the new miracle drug for people with diabetes. That was in 1921, and for 65 years insulin was produced in Canada at a publicly owned laboratory—Connaught...
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How do we accomplish this?
Specifically if the conservatives get in and can just sell it off for a short-term payout, how can we make a long-term plan for this?
I ask not to sound smug and cynical, but to earnestly seek ideas on this.
The only way is to make sure conservatives never form government again.
That doesn’t seem like an entirely sustainable plan?
I’m trying to separate what I want (which is what you addressed) with something practical that would allow Canada to invest in longer-term projects like this one.
I don't think there is anything to prevent one government from undoing what another government has done, unless it is something constitutional where they have to have buy in from at least 7 provinces and 50% of the population.
There is no solution that will prevent a minority of greedy people from trying to take from others. We fight the same battles our parents fought and our children will have to fight those same battles as will their children. The only hope is to make sure enough people are educated as to why publicly regulated institutions are important to protect and pass those lessons down to the next generation.
Tbqh I think not only are you correct here but it’s the message I was mentally avoiding.
I feel like we are losing the verge of losing this battle currently, with the CPC inches away from taking a hacksaw to our existing institutions.
But you’re right, this is the battle we need to fight. I shouldn’t look for some shortcut to avoid the hard work.
This is a very fair question. The Cons screw Canada over quite regularly. Is there a way we can safe guard anything put into place.
My only idea would be a partnership with a province which would give the other veto power over any potential sale, along with a legal commitment that Canada would retain access to all IP in case of a sale.
You would need a government in opposition provincially that was politically adverse to the federal government. If you end up with 2 conservative governments it's likely they wouldn't oppose one another ideologically.
Yeah, that’s the rub.
The IP clause to allow Canada to rebuild it in case of that happening might poison any potential sale, and might discourage a province from wanting to sell if Canada would then rebuild in a new province?
But I’m just spitballing and have no idea if it even makes sense
Well, we could look at it in the sense of CPP, Where all of the provinces signed on with the understanding of a mutual benefit, and also an understanding of not knowing the future, or whether the payout would be evenly spread across provinces. Unfortunately, Ms. "I get mine first" Smith wants to pull Alberta out of the CPP, so I'm not sure now would be the time to try for a new mutual benefit project. The provinces have become much more adversarial than they were 100 years ago, minus QC, who's always had a certain "we do what we want, dégage, maudit anglophones!" attitude (said lovingly with a stepmother from QC, and family still there).
That said, when Ms. Marlaina Smith and her UCP flunkies tried to pull financial coverage for people on insulin pumps, enough people became outraged so quickly that the UCP changed directions almost immediately. So if we can get it into people's hands, and make it worthwhile for them, people might self-regulate.
My larger concern for me, is the article mentions the big 3 undermining, then buying out India's insulin manufacturing company. India has a notably larger economy, and population, than Canada. I'm skeptical we'd be able to manufacture insulin at a scale where it would be enough to compete -- not in a profit sense, but in the sense of it being financialy wise for the average person to switch and thereby sustain the manufacturing costs. I know the big 3 are focusing on drugs with larger profit potential, and I also know those CEOs have a narcissistic drive to not let anyone take any of "their" money until they've completely discarded that endeavour. I don't know how we'd be able to protect from their shenanigans.
I think it was supposed to foster cooperation, just as the equalization payments were. Yet Alberta or BC still cant export energy to Europe. Quebec is a dead weight on Canada's productivity, and are like a spoiled child, the only role they play is in swinging the election one way or another.
I dont agree with calling a quarter of our population "dead weight". Quebec has the highest provincial taxes in Canada, and weren't so fortunate as to have their lines on the map surround a fuck tonne of O&G. One of the political topics most QC premieres have had in their platform since at least 2017, arguably earlier, has been to eliminate their reliance on equalization. They're not just sitting there doing nothing. Their real GDP has been in line with the rest of Canada with a 2.2% growth year-on-year, and were ahead of the national average by 0.1% at the beginning of 2025.
Alberta's in a deficit because their provincial taxes are way below the national average. They whine about not getting hand outs when they have the ability to be self-sufficient right in front of them. They refuse to invest in diversifying their economy, so everything hinges on pipelines that require billions of federal dollars (hand out?) across multiple parliaments because it won't be completed in ~4 years, coordinating across multiple provinces, and multiple premieres in those provinces; who can't cooperate with each other if their lives depended on it, working with indigenous communities to ensure they are heard and respected with regards to their land (spoiler, they generally aren't by the O&G industry). In the end, that crude would not be going to Europe. It would be going to California and Asia. So we're back to Trump's BS for a good portion of any of that actually benefiting. If this is so important to AB and BC, maybe those gov'ts need to put on their big person pants, increase their provincial taxes, and take some initiative on their own instead of waiting for daddy Carney to do it for them. Federal gov't is much more likely to help if the provinces can present the project proposal showing they won't be throwing billions into the void.
What if we only funded infrastructure with debt, instead of consumption. Then we wont run into a scenario where we need to start selling assets to pay our creditors. Kind of like Keynes suggested long ago.
This isn’t a case where it needed to be sold, it was just short-term selfish thinking.
However you are perhaps correct that for a systemic problem, a systemic solution is needed not some cheap workaround as with what I was suggesting.