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Eric Hoskins is not exactly the most popular figure in Ontario health care these days, with doctors angry at fee cuts calling almost daily for the provincial health minister’s firing.

But the advice he and other Canadians gave an official fact-finding mission of California senators recently has buoyed the Democratic law-makers as they pursue a daunting task: trying to implement single-payer, government-funded health care in the state.

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Their bill proposing such a system crossed its first legislative hurdle last week — winning approval in the chamber’s health committee — with the senators citing Canadian evidence to support their cause.

Experts in Ontario and Quebec were “enthusiastically supportive” of the initiative, said San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener.

I hope that they are also looking at the overwhelming evidence of the failures of our system

“It made me feel better about what we’re doing,” he said an interview. “We learned it’s not just some fairy-tale, unattainable system that Canada has … People were really earnest about trying to give us advice about what to do and what to avoid.”