Dante, in answer:

1. Canada's health system followed a TOTALLY different trajectory from the American one. In Canada the key events happened much earlier, from the 1920s to the 1940s, and had a lot to do with doctor shortages (getting the populace used to government pay incentives and government top-ups to get doctors into towns with need) and doctors wanting stability of payment (something they did not seem to care about much until the Great Depression interfered with them getting paid). 

2. It is unclear who the "we" are you reference in your patriotic narrative of "we made a conscious choice for the betterment of society". That loft-sounding "we" was actually a limited number of people, namely a handful of motivated politicians mainly on the Prairie provinces and those doctors of the time with whom they negotiated there. The citizenry "we" was no more and no less responsible for that system than "we" were for establishing barbaric eugenics programs in the exact same era.