Alliance says Liberals are queue jumping
Robert Fife

COLLINGWOOD, Ont - The Canadian Alliance accused two Liberal politicians yesterday of using their connections to queue jump ahead of other patients to obtain swift medical treatment at the prestigious Ottawa Heart Institute.

Dr. Wilbert Keon, a Tory Senator and director-general of the world-famous institute, strongly denied, however, that any favouritism was given to Allan MacEachen, a former Liberal senator, or John Carstairs, whose wife, Sharon, is a Liberal Senator from Winnipeg.

The normal wait for angioplasty surgery is about three months, but Mr. MacEachen was operated on within a week of his first visit on March 2, 1999. John Carstairs was treated for low blood pressure in 1998 while he was waiting for surgery for prostate cancer.

A hospital source and Alliance supporter told the National Post that Liberal politicians, mainly senators, are jumping the queue.

"It burns my butt to hear Chrétien up there screaming that there isn't two-tier health because there is two-tier health," said the source.

...

"At that point, it wasn't operated [on] in Canada so we went to the United States," she said.

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