The universal health care system has long been sacred for Canadians of every political stripe. However, the strain placed upon the system during the COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity for right-wing governments to challenge this conventional wisdom, seeking to expand private sector involvement in the delivery of health care services.

Ontario’s strong mayor reforms are a direct response to institutional resistance to neoliberal reforms. Rather than understanding them as a fringe, right-wing scheme, then, they should be grasped as consistent with neoliberalism’s inner logic, and part of a ruling class effort to insulate neoliberal policies from democratic interference.