Free-market economists believe the profit motive is the most reliable and efficient force in economic decision-making. In theory, the selfish, profit-driven actions of private businesses are supposed to benefit everyone. But in the real world, the pursuit of private profit often promotes inefficiency and the misallocation of resources. One glaring (and costly) example is the private drug industry.

Workers at the Moosehead Brewery in Saint John have been locked out for three weeks in a different kind of labour dispute: over high drug costs. The company says it can no longer afford to pay 100 per cent of these costs to its retirees, and wants employees to kick in 30 per cent -- a reminder of the pressures of drug costs on private as well as public plans.

Meanwhile, one of Quebec's foremost public health specialists, Dr. Fernand Turcotte, co-founder of the Laval medical school, recently announced a shattering realization: "that the things I had been teaching my students for 35 years were not true."