WHY CANADIANS NEED A SYSTEM-WIDE HEALTHCARE STRATEGY

The World Health Organization defines a health system as “all the activities whose primary purpose is to promote, restore, or maintain health” (WHO 2000, 5). By that definition Canada does have a system. However, what characterizes our “system” is a mixture of different and uncoordinated missions, objectives, measures, targets, and administrative and governance structures. The Canadian reality is unsystematic and fragmented. Less charitably, Leatt, Pink, and Guerriere (2000) refer to it as “a series of disconnected parts” and “a hodge-podge patchwork” (13). A reflection of this fragmentation is that Canada does not have a comprehensive system-wide healthcare strategy. This is