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Notes -
Healthcare is under provincial jurisdiction. So what the federal government did was to set some standards which need to be met to get federal money which funds a large part, but not all, of the healthcare system. The systems themselves are run by each province, but they need to meet certain standards, such as covering certain things such that they're free and allowing visting residents of other provinces to use their own province's health insurance.
Of course, if the federal government can just tax everyone and only give the money back to those who do what it wants, I don't see how provincial jurisdiction is meaningful. The federal government can do what it wants if it has the political will. It's currently in the process of setting up a national subsidized daycare program, even though this is also an area of provincial jursidiction. It did something similar with the carbon tax, although it probably didn't have to.
I think a big part of the story is that Canada isn't really a natural country. It's just the leftover provinces of British North America that didn't join the United States. Geographically and culturally, it doesn't make much sense. Before they joined Canada, the different provinces didn't have much to do with each other. They had closer ties to the neighbouring parts of the U.S. Most provinces either have a history of trying to separate from Canada or it almost joined the U.S. instead.
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