Abstract

Published late last year by the Institute of Research on Public Policy Riding the Third Rail: The Story of Ontario's Health Services Restructuring Commission, 1996-2000 is an important contribution to Canada's health policy literature. The HSRC's Chair and two CEOs ably take us through the context of the HSRC, the unique powers granted to it in the early years of the Harris government, and chronicle what they audaciously claim was "Canada's truest and boldest experiment with devolution." Equal time is given to the Commission's initial mandate to restructure Ontario's hospital system and the "still incomplete task of transforming Canadian health services into a true system of care." The book concludes with some powerful and "bitter lessons learned" together with practical advice to those charged with building on their significant legacy.