That person's responsibility will be to give me advice directly on rural issues as they relate to health care and health promotion. Because as we undertake our work in modernizing medicare, it is going to be essential to have someone who can look at these questions through what Lyle Vanclief calls the rural lens. This initiative will form part of an effort the government is making in all federal departments to look at all issues from the rural perspective. Let me conclude by recalling that it has been said that health is the great leveller because rich or poor, young or old, rural or urban, no matter what our station in life, we're all going to face the day when we are going to have to rely upon the help of others. When that time comes, we will need to rely on the concept of community, of people who will take the time and the trouble to look after us.
Rural communities know better than any the importance of caring for one another.
And the values that have always enriched rural life are the same values that underlie medicare. You know one of the facts that I was reminded of when I was reading up on my new job last summer, was the important part played by rural Canada in the birth of Canadian medicare. His name was Matthew Anderson. Seeing for himself the suffering caused by the Great Depression, he convinced his small community through plebiscite that a health insurance plan was needed. His initiative then triggered a bill in the Saskatchewan Legislature, bringing the health plan to the whole province.