INTRODUCTION

Canadians have complex views of their healthcare system. On the one hand, healthcare has long been mythologized as a key part of what it means to be Canadian. As Jeffrey Simpson (2012) has correctly noted, “nowhere else in the world does public health care play such a defining role in shaping a national self-identity” (2). And because we tend to compare our healthcare system to that of the United States, and not to systems in other high-income countries, Canadians overwhelmingly believe that their healthcare system delivers better care and is cheaper to run. Importantly, they are encouraged in these views