I am guessing that the problem if any in Canada is that doctor visits are free. Behavioral economics teaches that anything that is free generates excess demand. If people had to pay a nominal fee to see a doctor, say $15 to see a GP and $25 to see a specialist, the demand and wait times might be cut sharply, and taxes to pay for government-supported medical care could also be reduced.

If the politicians would stop putting their cronies in positions of power we would gave a first rate system. People who couldn't find their asshole with both hands and a road map are running the system.

The most relevant question seems to be whether the numbers compiled by the Fraser Institute are accurate or not. Does anyone have different numbers compiled by a different source?

This has been disavowed by canadians so often.

My Canadian friends say the wait time is directly linked to the urgency of the need. Time crucial needs are handled promptly and more elective things can involve a wait. You can probably ask our Canadian members at this site how accurate the article is, to quasi validate it (even if not a statistically powerful number).

The cause for a working healthcare system is not aided by wasting time and effort on dog whistle articles like this.
Universal systems are fundamentally sound with some areas that fall down.
The US system is fundamentally broken while producing good results for a number of folks, though at a cost way in excess of that in countries that rank higher in WHO rankings (iirc the US ranks around 32 in the world).