My week in the hospital prevents seven other people from spending the night in that room (if they space out their injuries carefully), but Canadians have decided that health care should be allocated based on individual need, not equal time allocation.
Well, what we decided was that we'd pool our resources into some state-administered health insurance. Having bought that insurance, we don't pay out of pocket, but the government certainly does pay more for your seven-day stay than for a one-day stay.
But if paying more when you travel further is a backwards and antiquated idea, why is it part of just about every other form of paid-for transportation? Why can't I just pay $50 to ViaRail for a trip to wherever I need to go, whether that's Toronto to Hamilton, or Toronto to Vancouver? As you say, that train's going all the way, with or without me.
I suppose my main opposition to free municipal transit is that it's not really like health care at all. I don't think many people go their whole lives never using health care, nor do I think that there are many people who will use health care every day of their lives. I'm not averse to it remaining subsidized, for various reasons, but it seems a bit illogical to expect those who don't intend to use it to actually pay MORE than those who do.