Eby accuses Rustad of planning user-pay health-care as early voters smash records [Video]

NDP Leader David Eby is accusing BC Conservative Leader John Rustad of planning an “American-style” user-pays health-care system for British Columbia as the provincial election campaign enters its latest stages.

All three leaders of the province’s main political parties have converged on Vancouver Island in the final stage of campaigning before election day on Saturday, with record numbers of voters already casting their ballots in advance polling.

Eby told a campaign event in Nanaimo that Rustad presents a “risk” to the health care system and he would let people “buy their way to the front of the line.”

Rustad released his party’s platform on Tuesday, which makes no mention of a user-pays health care model and instead promises a single-payer system delivering care through public and non-governmental facilities.

But the NDP has released an audio recording of Rustad at an event they say happened in August where he can be …