Canada's Chretien hammers opposition over health policy

Chretien, left, and Day participate Thursday in a debate held in Ottawa

OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, the strong favorite to win a November 27 election, on Sunday opened the fourth week of campaigning by accusing his chief political rival of planning to undermine Canada's much-cherished health system.

The furor over the creaking state-funded "medicare" system is rapidly becoming one of the main battlegrounds between Chretien's Liberals and the fledgling right-wing Canadian Alliance of Stockwell Day.

Chretien accuses the Alliance of plotting to introduce a parallel private healthcare system, giving quicker access to the rich, which would be illegal under current Canadian law.

Day, who flatly denies the charge, supports the use of government-funded private clinics as long as the rich cannot get faster service.

"It's very disturbing...what is happening at this moment is that they want to do it (introduce a private healthcare system) but they don't want to say it," Chretien told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Ottawa.

To bolster his argument, the 66-year-old prime minister brandished Sunday's Toronto Star which said the Alliance was considering user fees to dissuade those who it said were abusing medicare.

The Alliance was not immediately available to comment on the report. A party spokesman told the Star that the idea of user fees -- which also breaks existing laws -- was not official policy but was nevertheless being considered.

"The Canadian people have the right to know that there's a chance if they (the Alliance) were to form a government there would be a two-tier system. With the Liberal Party you're sure you won't have one," Chretien said.

The problems with medicare -- which stem largely from the enormous spending cuts Chretien's government forced through in the mid-1990s to eliminate a large budget deficit -- top the list of voter concerns before the election.

The Alliance has threatened to sue the Liberals for what it says are advertisements which falsely portray its party position on health but Chretien told reporters the prospect did not worry him.

"If we were to go to court every time they said something about us, I would have a lot of lawyers busy," said the prime minister, who on Friday compared Day to a crooked car salesman and accused him of planning to destroy Canada.

A Compas opinion poll released on Saturday showed the Liberals were ahead by 43 percent to the Alliance's 24 percent, which if translated into votes would be more than enough to give Chretien a third successive majority mandate.

"We still have two weeks in the campaign. The latest poll shows (the Alliance) is going down. I think the momentum is coming with the Liberals," Fisheries Minister Herb Dhaliwal said after the cabinet meeting.

Finance Minister Paul Martin has strongly criticized the Alliance's tax-cutting platform, saying it would lead a budget deficit of $25 billion over five years.

The Alliance responded on Sunday by releasing a favorable analysis of its proposals done by Wharton Econometric Forecast Associates, a firm which the Liberals have also used to assess their own fiscal plans.

"We conclude that the Canada Alliance tax reduction plan....is affordable over the five-year planning horizon," said the eight economists, one of whom is a former member of parliament for the Reform Party -- the Alliance's predecessor.

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