For over five years, public opinion polls have revealed that Canadians are most concerned about the deteriorating quality of health care. Even more importantly, they also indicate that a publicly funded and universally accessible system is tied directly to the country's national identity. In sum, polls show that the quality and way health care is delivered has become an entrenched source of national pride and provides a point of differentiation from America, thus giving Canadians a unique sense of themselves.

Because health care is something tantamount to a "sacred trust" proposing any radical alteration of the system has become taboo. Utterances of a possible "two-tier" system or even the more benign proposal to deliver more services through the private sector are immediately attacked, repudiated or more simply declared "politically suicidal". Yet those who make these declarations "be they in the press, politics or medical profession" know that medical services such as dentistry, chiropractics and prescription drugs are not paid out of the public purse and already constitute a second tier in the system. If it were not for the intellectual jihad that surrounds this issue, they would also acknowledge private delivery of health care services are the cornerstone of the system they cherish - that their doctors are not civil servants, but private sector small businesspeople contracting to provide health services for their own profit.

The unwillingness to tackle this issue with anything other than proposals for incremental tinkering has led to decision-making paralysis and thus has contributed to the progressive deterioration of Canada's health care system. Its declining quality then becomes yet more evidence that government is unable to effect meaningful change and ends up generating more cynicism towards politicians and the political system.

The media's fixation with published polls and the effect they have on their news coverage adds the fuel that drives this cynicism. Make no mistake however, the allegation here is not the standard trope that decries editorial bias or journalistic laziness. Rather, the media "like politicians and the public" have come to rely on polls as their principal source of "news" to such an extent that they have started to structure and limit their analysis of the events they are covering.

Considering the public good - and not the politically acceptable - might be a good place to start.