A wheelchair sits in a hallway at Calgary's former Grace Hospital, now a private health care facility
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered some hints about his views last week when he lauded the more modest Quebec health-care plan that was announced in February. Quebec would provide hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery within six months in the public system, or else it would pay for them to be done in private clinics. It's possible that Alberta eventually will end up closer to Quebec's position. But the increasingly feisty and wealthy province, led by a premier who is not seeking re-election, doesn't have much to lose by playing the game its own distinctive way right to the very end.