Politics
 | This article needs to be updated.(September 2019) |
On October 2, 2014, Oliver won the Liberal nomination for the Oakville riding in the next general election, defeating local lawyer Jennifer Malabar. [6] In the 2015 Canadian federal election, he defeated Conservative Party incumbent Terence Young by 4,480 votes. [7] On July 26, 2018, Oliver was nominated to be the Liberal candidate for the 2019 general election, becoming one of the first Liberal candidates to be nominated.[ citation needed ]
Oliver has been quoted as saying his main reason for entering politics was seeing the deterioration of Canada's healthcare and research systems by the previous government. [8] Oliver is a fierce proponent of National Pharmacare. One of his first actions after taking office was to initiate a study into a National Pharmacare program for Canada at the Standing Committee on Health. The report titled Pharmacare Now: Prescription Medicine Coverage for All Canadians was released in April 2018. [9] It calls for the creation of a national prescription drug formulary, and for the Canada Health Act be amended to include drugs prescribed outside of a hospital to be an insured service. Oliver is quoted as saying after the report's release "For me it’s simple, no Canadian should be denied access to necessary prescription medicines because they can’t afford it". [10]
He served on the Standing Committee on Health and the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations. [11]
As of 2016, Oliver was the Chair of the Liberal Automotive Caucus. [12]