When sportscaster Scott Oake isn't rinkside at NHL games, he's often hanging out at a substance abuse treatment centre in Winnipeg. He's there to be close to his late son. An urn with Bruce's ashes greets everyone who walks through the doors of Bruce Oake Recovery Centre. In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Brian Goldman visits the centre to meet Scott and learn about the centre's approach to substance-abuse treatment — one that came too late for Bruce.

With election day just around the corner, we know Canadians have questions about health care and how the next federal government can help make it better. That's why we asked candidates from the five major parties about three priority issues: how they would ensure every Canadian has a family doctor or nurse practitioner, what they would do to make it easier for doctors to work across the country, and how they would address the creep in private-pay primary care.

Much of the federal election campaign’s focus has been on the U.S. But health care is always on the minds of Canadians. So what are the federal government’s responsibilities when it comes to health care—especially when six and a half million Canadians don't have a primary care provider? Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, a McGill professor and Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities, explains.