On Thanksgiving, BC NDP Leader David Eby signed a public health-care guarantee at a press conference, promising to protect the province’s system.

“If elected, I will protect public health care in B.C. and oppose the U.S.-style privatized pay-your-way system that Conservatives are implementing in Alberta.”

Eby says Canadians are proud of their health-care system.

“It doesn’t matter how much money you have,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. If you are sick and you need care, you will get that care.”

And he says the promise he made today was one the BC Conservatives can’t make.

“Anna Kindy, she’s the person that Lorne Doerkson is currently considering to be his health minister, but she’s also a very public advocate — although she’s not a public advocate of vaccination — she’s a public advocate of private health care.”

But the BC Conservatives say they are committed to keeping B.C.’s system universal and publicly-funded and accuse Eby of tired health-care fearmongering.

The current health-care system is something BC Conservative Interim leader Lorne Doerkson has been openly critical of.

“We are living in a time when we can put men and women on a moon. But we can’t keep a hospital open in Merritt?” Doerkson said.

“Something is fundamentally wrong with a system that allows this to continue to happen, week after week, in this province.”

Meanwhile, the BC Greens say they oppose any attempt to privatize health care and point to the fact that the BC NDP government has provided millions of dollars in funding for private nursing agencies to cope with nursing shortages.