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HALIFAX -- A passionate defender of public health care was in Halifax Thursday urging Canadians to band together to stop governments from privatizing services.

Shirley Douglas said her father, former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas - known as the father of medicare - would be angry at the sight of private MRI clinics sprouting up. Nova Scotia's first opened in Halifax on Thursday.

"My father would not be sad, my father would be so mad," Ms. Douglas, an award-winning actor, said during an NDP news conference at Province House.

"But he also would have whipped this country up and I don't know how to whip them up."

Ms. Douglas, also a member of the Canadian Health Coalition, said people can't protect health care alone. She said more of the public have to realize the "mythology" of governments saying they can't afford to improve health care.

She said governments find money for disasters, such as a hurricane destroying part of a province, but health care is treated differently since not everyone is sick at the same time.

Ms. Douglas said provinces have to work together more to save money, such as buying equipment in bulk and having common drug reviews.

As Ms. Douglas was speaking, Canada's premiers were talking about some of those very issues at the premiers conference in the World Trade and Convention Centre.

They issued a joint statement Thursday afternoon saying they're working toward a national drug approval process, national nursing strategy and are demanding more money from Ottawa.

Federal New Democratic Party Leader Alexa McDonough, who's leaving that post in January, said she wanted to hear a commitment from the premiers to a public, not-for-profit health-care system.

Ms. McDonough and provincial NDP Leader Darrell Dexter outlined their concerns about Halifax's private MRI clinic and the fact the Health Department can't regulate it.

"Nova Scotia has no laws governing the operation of private MRIs. Now there are plenty of laws governing what happens if you go to get a haircut," Mr. Dexter said.

"That's not just ridiculous, it's a serious abdication of responsibility."

Mr. Dexter wouldn't say an NDP government under him would shut down the clinic, but the party will introduce legislation this fall that would regulate such clinics.

He said a properly funded and managed public health-care system would eliminate the need for private clinics.

Health Minister Jamie Muir said the professionals working at the private clinic would have to answer their professional organizations, such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons, if a patient had a complaint.

Activists and unionists rallied for the protection of medicare at Grand Parade on Thursday

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