Politics, palliation, and Canadian progress in end-of-life care

How do health care consumers, private sector organizations, professionals, and government agencies work toward ensuring quality end-of-life care? This challenge is by no means uniquely Canadian; our approach may thus have applications that extend well beyond our national borders. Raising the profile of palliative care in Canada has occurred on many fronts. Local, provincial, and national efforts in end-of-life care have long been underway. The Canadian Palliative Care Association has been particularly active, recently organizing various stakeholder groups to develop a strong national advocacy partnership for quality end-of-life care. Perhaps most distinctive has been the involvement and nationwide visibility of Canada's Senate. Their report, Quality End-of-Life Care: The Right of Every Canadian has seen Canadian palliative care gain unprecedented momentum. The federal government recently took the unprecedented step of creating a new office to represent palliative care within the federal cabinet. In Canada, it would appear that palliative care is an idea whose time has come.