When I agreed to become the executive director of the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, in 2001, I thought I knew what I was getting into. After all, I had dealt with difficult and high-profile policy issues as a provincial deputy minister and cabinet secretary in Saskatchewan. I was wrong — so wrong. Those eighteen months of the Romanow Commission, as it’s better known, would prove to be the most punishing of my career. Under a media spotlight, we were bombarded daily by individuals and organizations, all wanting to convince us of the merits and demerits of specific reforms. Some even launched pre-emptive strikes, attacking the commission for what they presumed we would (or wouldn’t) recommend. Others personally went after Roy J. Romanow, the former premier of Saskatchewan and head of the commission, in the hope of discrediting him before the report’s release in November 2002.
Greg Marchildon is Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. He is also the Founding Director of the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
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