petr, the center-left Social Democrats, the equivalent of the NDP here, emerged in first place in the 2002 elections and in cooperation with the centrist, two-party coalition were able to form a government with a narrow parliamentary majority. So much for scary socialists, eh. My eldest daughter was in the Czech Republic a couple of years ago and just loved it.         

Pearson and the Liberals brought in medicare, kicking and screaming, not because they were the champions of progressive, social programmes, but because it served as an appeasement to the left, in order to maintain power. The mood of a large chunk of Canadian voters had turned decidedly left, into the arms of the CCF, and that was scary to the powers that be.

Finally paying attention to the aspirations of the "average Canadian voter", was the only way to prevent the collapse of the Liberal minority government. It was a cunning move on the Liberal's part, because not only did it defuse the left, it also resulted in Pearson being considered, by some, as the father of Medicare in Canada, instead of more rightfully, Tommy Douglas and the CCF/NDP....and it also maintained the devine right of kings.*BG*