The Globe and Mail censors its own anti-Rob Ford screed

On Sat. Oct.16, 2010, the Globe and Mail [laughably referred to as 'Canada's Paper of Record' by some, and the 'Grope and Flail' by others] printed a disgustingly bigoted anti-Rob Ford article, written by Stephen Marche, which the Globe has since censored and REMOVED from their electronic record!!

Marche's bigoted article was published and appeared on page F2 in the "Globe Focus" section of the Globe and Mail's Saturday Oct.16, 2010 printed edition:

above: photo of the Oct.16, 2010 Globe and Mail article titled "Rob Ford's not popular despite being fat. He's popular because of it."
Click onto photo to enlarge.
(see here for a printed copy of the article; also see here)

How representative is Marche's article of the Globe and Mail's lefty readership? I'm sure thousands of Smitherman-voting Liberals were wholeheartedly and happily agreeing with Marche's views.

[...and in a nice "political product placement" on the opposite page of the same edition on pg.3, across from Marche's bigoted column - the Globe had a cheering "article "about Dipper-turned-Grit Bob Rae, complete with a huge colour photo! oh, and we can't ignore the Bush-bashing cartoon above Marche's article, either!! Funneee stuff, I tells ya! hahaha. I guess the Globe hasn't yet published a slimy joke about Obama's walking-dead 'shellacked' presidency, eh?]

But whaddaya expect from the Globe and Mail, which published an article by Liberal hack Scott Reid (...of 'beer and popcorn' fame...) on Nov.29, 2008 (since edited) where Reid wrote about 'taking out' Canada's Prime Minister Harper and 'killing him, killing him dead ' - see here (link has vanished!! You will have to find an original Nov.29, 2008 printed edition of the Globe and Mail)
     Quote from Reid:"This becomes relevant because suddenly, he is weak. In fact, at this particular moment, he is almost unable to defend himself. Owing to a ridiculously ill-considered act of hubris, he has laid himself vulnerable to his opponents. Their imperative could not be more clear: kill him. Kill him dead. Do not, whatever you do, provide him with an opportunity to extend his hold on power. Because you can be damn certain he will never again be so reckless as to give you a chance to finish him off..."

(Can you imagine, if someone wrote this exact kind of threat about Justin Trudeau??!!)

Liberals making these kinds of remarks isn't new - see here; here; here.
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Ignatieff 's health care 'policy' is a load of bunk

Don Martin, in "Liberals show they're the control freaks" (National Post, Oct.28, 2010), wrote of Michael 'Big-Red-Tent' Ignatieff's brusque brush-off of Liberal MP Keith Martin's health care reform ideas:

"... For a guy pledging to spread a Big Red Tent across the political landscape, this has the look of a leader swinging tent poles at the skull of anyone who dares to raise an inconvenient idea.

What's worse, Ruby Dhalla's experience is not unique.

The flip side of her example is Mr. Ignatieff's curious positioning on another private member's bill designed to hold Canadian mining companies in foreign countries to higher human rights or health standards that, if complaints are upheld, cost them government financial support.

While he didn't officially crack the whip to order his caucus behind the Liberal MP's bill, which the government warns will cost thousands of jobs in the mining sector, they were told to "visit the water cooler" if they couldn't stand in united support of the legislation.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was a worthy policy hill to die on, but this is seriously lousy policy. What's worse for their MPs, it now appears just floating interesting ideas is too much for lofty Liberals to tolerate without rebuttal.

Liberal MP Keith Martin, a medical doctor, declared the obvious when he wrote about the need to pick the handcuffs on the Canada Health Act to allow patients to "pay for care if they wish, in entirely separate facilities funded solely by the private sector."

The screech from inside the Liberal bunker was loud and immediate. Health critic Ujjal Dosanjh didn't just shrug it off as a rogue idea, he went on the attack. "That's bunk. That is absolutely not a solution to any of the problems that we're facing today," he fumed. "It really is irrelevant what Keith Martin thinks. He doesn't speak for the Liberal Party of Canada on health care."

Incredibly, the iron-fisted discipline of the Conservatives is starting to look like a form of freedom compared to the bound-and-gagged Liberals.

While we keep expecting Prime Minister Stephen Harper to stuff a sock in Maxime Bernier's loose lips, it hasn't happened. And MPs confide Mr. Harper seems increasingly open to their ideas at the caucus-meeting microphone.

So move over Conservatives and meet Canada's newest control freaks. They're the ones hiding inside the Big Red Tent."

 So Michael Den Tandt has his answer (again - see here, here) on why Iggy's Liberals have no solutions to health care beyond upholding the failing status-quo. Iggy will propagate his theological devotion to single-payer health care, continuing his stale rehash of health care despotism; maintaining the same old single-payer trap.
Like Ontario's Liberals - such as McGuinty, Jim Bradley, and Deb Matthews - Iggy also will not carry out an adult conversation regarding their Liberal health care duplicity, preferring to demonize any dissenters to their single-payer monopolist orthodoxy. Even those who are already in Iggy's leaky "big red tent" are then conveniently ignored!
It is festering Liberal monopolist-pushing hacks such as Dosanjh who carry the disease, not the cure.
*

Glen Murray: typical Liberal bigot

Karen Howlett reported in "Ontario minister accuses mayor-elect Rob ford of bigotry" (Globe and Mail, Oct.26, 2010):

"A provincial Liberal cabinet minister is coming under fire for a tweet accusing Toronto's new mayor Rob Ford, Ontario Opposition Leader Tim Hudak and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of bigotry.

Glen Murray, the minister of research and innovation and a former Winnipeg mayor, wrote in a post on his Twitter account on the weekend that “If u vote Ford u r voting for bigotry.”

He also repeated a message from another user that said “ford hudak and harper - the trifecta of republican-style, right wing ignorance and bigotry.”

In the legislature today, Mr. Hudak called the comment libellous and demanded Premier Dalton McGuinty get Mr. Murray — who wasn't there — to apologize.

Mr. McGuinty didn't say whether he would ask Mr. Murray for an apology, saying politics can get heated. The premier added that he's not going to assign blame to someone for commentary that they regret in hindsight.

Mr. McGuinty didn't appear worried about the spectre of the Liberal stronghold in the GTA crumbling next October, as some experts are predicting in the wake of Mr. Ford's victory.

Instead, he turned up the bland today, saying “we will not allow political stripes to get in the way of progress,” and that “when it comes to elections, people are never wrong.”

Many experts had predicted that a Ford victory could herald Conservative inroads in Liberal-dominated Toronto and across Ontario in future federal or provincial elections.

“It could be a beachhead for a resurgence of Conservative party support in some parts of the city of Toronto, especially some of the inner suburbs of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough,” Myer Siemiatycki, a politics professor at Ryerson University, told The Canadian Press.
“I think he (Prime Minister Stephen Harper) is probably thinking: ‘There may be scope for me in Toronto. There may be hope for a Conservative foothold or breakthrough in Toronto'," Mr. Siemiatycki said.

But the Ford victory in Toronto was not matched by other conservative or right-wing candidates in other parts of Ontario. In fact, Liberals and left-leaning candidates won several key mayoral races, including Ottawa, Hamilton, London and Vaughan.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also played down the shift to the hard right in Canada's largest city, saying: “This race really was more about people wanting to see some change.”"
*
Hahahaha... isn't Glen Murray playing the Liberal bigot?! Anyone who was at Ford's victory party would have seen the massive cultural diversity of Ford's support base.
Obviously, Glen Murray's just practising the smarmy rhetoric and elitism which McGuintyites are known for; Glenny probably agrees with Frank Grave's advice for divisive Liberal tactics. [ie, Ford: baaaaad! Slitherman: Goooood! eHealth: goooooood! Harris: baaaaad! Remember how St.Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley loved sliming Alberta's Ralph Klein?!]
A vote for Glen Murray - or Kim Craitor, or Jim Bradley, or any of Dalton McGuinty's Liberal hacks - is a vote for a Liberal government of congenital liars.
*
ps - by 5:00pm the Globe updated that Murray had apologized for his twitty tweet: "“I do not believe Rob Ford or Stephen Harper or Tim Hudak are bigots,” Glen Murray, Minister of Research and Innovation, said in a written statement Tuesday afternoon. “I regret tweeting a message that said otherwise, and am sorry that I did.”"
Good for him - but many Liberals won't share Glen's change of heart. They will continue to propagate the conflated leap that Glen instinctively made: 'Conservatives: baaaad bigots!! Dumb!! Liberals: progressive... Smart!!!'
But Glen does realize that McGuinty's Liberal government - the one he's in - has lied its way since 2003? That fact hasn't changed.

Smitherman down and out; McGuinty next

Now that the disgusting Liberal, George Smitherman, has had his ass creamed but good in Toronto's mayoralty race, next to go should be Smitherman's Liberal buddy and political hero, Dalton McGuinty, along with his Liberal gang at Queen's Park.
The stench that hung around Smitherman was - and still is - the exact same odour which wafts from every Ontario Liberal MPP's office.
Toronto's disgust with Pink David Miller was palpable, and Smitherman's putrid performance as McGuinty's loyal bootlick wasn't lost on the electorate, although sadly, some 36% nevertheless voted for Slitherman. Smitherman's well-deserved loss doesn't mean that Dalton McGuinty is now somehow off the hook during the next provincial election: McGuinty and his gang of Liberal liars will have to answer the same questions which had been put to Smitherman - and more. And being a Liberal asshole didn't help Smitty a bit. So unless McGuinty starts apologizing and changing his arrogant ways real soon, McGuinty too will be doing a Smitherman next year.

Craitor attends Anzovino memorial

Christina Blizzard wrote "It's eHealth, the sequel" (Sun Media, Oct.20, 2010) regarding the McGuinty Liberals' latest health care mess as revealed by Auditor McCarter's latest Oct.2010 report:

"If this were the French Revolution, by now tumbrels would be rolling up University Ave., full of fatcat hospital CEOs.

But we're too polite. So no heads are rolling. They should.

We're told the reason hospital CEOs are some of the highest paid folk on the public payroll is because you have to pay for competence.

Oh, really?

Hospital presidents and CEOs routinely make upwards of $500,000 a year -- some up to $700,000. What did we get for that?

A scathing report released Wednesday by the province's auditor general, Jim McCarter, paints a sordid tale of sole-source contracts to consultants by hospitals and Local Health Integration Networks.

This is eHealth -- the sequel.

For those of you who wonder why we're taxed to death, yet our health system is still an unholy mess, wonder no more.

Your money is being thrown into a black abyss to pay for well-connected insiders -- with little or no accountability.

"In auditing language, we essentially felt that the fix was in on some of these contracts," McCarter said.

We nickel and dime nurses, while consultants are being paid for fancy hotels and Christmas lunches out of tax money.

One hospital hired a consultant for a senior management job who was paid $275,000 a year.

From April 2007-December 2009, that consultant claimed $97,000 in fees for other consultants and $50,000 in administrative support fees -- neither of which was in his contract.

If your local ER or operating room has been closed, chew on this: He also billed the hospital twice for more than $7,000 relating to a salary bonus.

While cancer patients were told to wait for treatment, he charged hundreds of dollars a night for fancy accommodation -- $700 a night for five nights in Singapore alone. A $500 phone call in Chicago.

He charged dinners, one costing $300 for three people -- including $140 for booze! Yep, your health tax at work.

While the government preaches to us about how they have to cut back on health services because they can't be all things to all people -- consultants wined and dined at our expense.

Another hospital awarded a consultant three single-sourced contracts and three "follow-on" contracts (i. e., they simply added it on to the original contract with no bidding process) to a consultant to find out why the hospital had a budget shortfall.

Hello? Here's my advice, for free. As long as you're paying high-flying consultants big bucks without tendering the deal, you'll have a budget shortfall forever.

Another consultant was paid for a one-week trip to Hong Kong to attend a business conference, then tacked on a one-week trip to Japan.

Once the auditor started asking questions, the consultant repaid half the $7,800 airfare.

Another hospital executive retired -- only to be engaged shortly thereafter as a consultant -- for $100,000 more a year. Some gold-plated retirement!

Health Minister Deb Matthews was left to defend the indefensible. She has spoken sternly to the hospital CEOs. But will heads roll? No, she said.

Why? Because she'd asked the auditor if anyone should be fired and he'd said no.

That's a cop-out. It isn't the job of the auditor to hire and fire hospital CEOs. It's the job of the hospital boards. And who appoints the hospital boards? The health minister.

We've been betrayed.

Our precious health tax dollars haven't been used to heal the sick. They've been lining the pockets of well-connected parasites who should hang their heads in shame."
*

And in light of the above, what kind of shame might McGuinty's Liberals have?

Well... readers of the Oct.20, 2010 Niagara This Week were treated to a pg.7 photo of Niagara Falls Liberal MPP Kim Craitor attending a park-bench dedication in Fort Erie in memory of Reilly Anzovino. Although it is understandable that, as Richard Hutton wrote, "the day was not about politics", one cannot help but wonder how McGuinty's disgusting Liberals can ingratiate themselves so much that people lose sight of who is to blame for the health care mess in which the young Anzovino died.

Kim Craitor and his Liberals created the LHIN's; Kim Craitor's majority Liberals - through their newly-created LHIN's - then forced the NHS to cut spending; Kim Craitor's Liberals then approved - without question or review - the resultant HIP plan which the Liberals had forced the NHS to present; and then Kim Craitor's Liberals closed two hospital emergency rooms in Niagara.

Yeah - all of that was done by Kim Craitor and his Liberal majority government.

Let's pretend, then, that the stinking Liberal attending the memorial somehow had nothing to do with any of this - that somehow... wait for it... Mike Harris was responsible!! Well, that's what Kimmy and Deb Matthews and McGuinty want us all to believe! George Smitherman, we are led to believe, NEVER forced the NHS to CUT its budget!! Somehow, the NHS simply decided - all on its own - to close down two ER's!!

OK - the pretending is now over: having Craitor at the memorial of one of his health monopoly's victims was bizarre, to say the least. (like when Jim Bradley attended Suzanne Aucoin's memorial service.)

It's bizarre - after all the revelations of how Craitor's Liberals have wasted hundreds and hundreds of millions of health care tax dollars - to now witness the scope of the LIES, the DUPLICITY, and the WASTE perpetrated by Craitor's Liberals.

It's nice to know that while Craitor's disgusting Liberals were putting lives at risk by closing down hospital ER's, Craitor's Liberals were also dumping millions of healthcare dollars into the pockets of their Liberal buddies for necessities such as beer and vacations.

Let's go back to pretending that the shameless Kim Craitor had nothing to with any of this.
*

When will George Smitherman apologize for all his financial scandals?

The latest scandal involving Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government was reported by Len Greenberg (National Post, Oct.21, 2010, here):

"Ontario’s health bureaucracy is facing yet another scandal in the wake of more revelations of spending and procurement abuses.

In a special report released Wednesday morning, Auditor-General Jim McCarter outlines numerous problems at hospitals and local health integration networks (LHINs), regional funding agencies created by the Liberal government.

McCarter points to the questionable hiring of pricey consultants, many of which were sole-sourced and often not required to justify the work they did.

“We acknowledge that consultants can play an important role in the health-care sector,” Mr. McCarter said in a statement. “But we found far too many examples where consultants were engaged on a sole-sourced basis, where significant increases in the initial fee estimate and follow-on work were repeatedly awarded, where there was inadequate oversight to ensure consultants delivered on time and on budget and where billings for fees and expenses were not properly monitored and supported.”

The report details a litany of questionable consulting gigs at hospitals, including one, worth $700,000, that was so vague it didn’t even list a detailed description of services needed.

Another hospital completely failed to account for a $170,000 consultant contract, and was unable to produce the initial request for proposal, the names and number of firms invited to bid, the bidders’ proposals or any evaluation criteria used to reward the contract. The same firm was retained for another, $430,000 contract.

Another hospital paid $8.3 million to one consulting firm for IT services over the past three fiscal years, including $180,000 the firm charges for each consultant it provides.

The auditor’s report also details questionable expense claims by hospital consultants. They include one temporary executive who, despite his $275,000 annual salary, also billed the hospital nearly $150,000 for other consultants and administrative support, $14,000 for salary bonuses, foreign exchange fees and a Christmas luncheon, and numerous expensive hotels (including one, in Chicago, where he paid $500 for hotel phone charges) and lavish meals around the world.

McCarter also questioned the use of lobbyists by half the 16 hospitals he audited.

“We questioned the appropriateness of using government funds to pay lobbyists to help obtain more government funding.”

Health minister Deb Matthews reacted swiftly to the report, announcing legislation that will ban the use of lobbyists and open hospitals to freedom of information legislation by January 1, 2012.

Ms. Matthews said she convened a conference call with all Ontario’s hospital chief executives shortly before the report was released.

“I’m not sure people in our hospital sector really understand who’s paying the bill. I told them to remember whose system it is, who’s paying the bill, who’s paying our salaries.”

The auditor-general also found “significant” problems with consultant contracts signed by LHINs.

The revelations contained in Wednesday’s report are reminiscent of those unearthed last December, when Mr. McCarter detailed spending abuses at eHealth Ontario. That agency, created by the Liberal government, was found to have given millions in sole-sourced contracts to high-priced consultants with few controls and little oversight.

“I’m not afraid to say that I’m really sorry this has gone on,” said Matthews. “I don’t think this is acceptable. I don’t think we’ve been as accountable as we ought to have been. We owe it to taxpayers to ensure that every dollar they spend on taxes gets the best possible value.”
*

Haven't we heard this same old Liberal song of contrition before?! The same ole promises by stinking McGuintyites telling us to 'just trust them', claiming that they're gonna clean up their act - but ONLY AFTER THEY'VE BEEN CAUGHT, again and again!?

This serial lying and duplicity by McGuinty's Grit gang - including Smitherman, Jim Bradley, Kim Craitor - isn't new.

As a reminder, just look back at some of the disgusting details about George Smitherman's eHealth scam, which were in another McCarter report, only a scant year ago - see here (National Post, Oct.9, 2009):

"In a shocking report that precipitated the resignation of one Liberal cabinet minister and prompted calls for the head of another, the province’s auditor general Wednesday portrayed eHealth Ontario as a rogue agency operating with virtually no accountability.

Jim McCarter said rule-breaking that occurred under former CEO Sarah Kramer, who his report found circumvented procurement policies and deceived board members at eHealth, was the worst he’s ever seen.

“Almost every large contract, she was either making the decision or the consultant that she hired as an acting vice-president was making the decisions,” Mr. McCarter said in an interview. “The power was very highly centralized. That was highly unusual. And I think that came about because she felt she had the implied authority to do what was necessary to get the job done.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, Ms. Kramer vigorously denied the facts contained in the auditor’s report.

“I must respectfully, but very strongly, disagree with him,” she wrote, asserting that board members were aware of contracting practices she followed.

“That the auditor general suggests that these individuals would somehow lack a proper understanding of procurement rules, or somehow be intimidated by the CEO or the chair or by the priorities of the premier, is a grave insult to them,” Kramer wrote

The report says Ms. Kramer used her power and that faulty justification to spread millions of dollars in contracts to her friends and former colleagues.

“In our opinion, the CEO’s prior relationships with a number of the firms and individuals were one of the factors in her hiring and procurement decisions, and this does constitute favouritism,” the report states.

One firm, for example, was awarded a job even though its $3.1-million bid was five times higher than another firm’s bid.

During one nine-month period, Ms. Kramer handed out $5.6-million in sole-sourced contracts and provided no documentation to justify the spending.

“[Ms. Kramer] arranged for 95% of it, with no procurement or human resources staff at the ministry or the agency being involved,” the report states. “The CEO basically overrode all of the normal procedures and controls used by SSHA’s (Smart Systems for Health Agency) procurement department. Most of the contracts were signed only after the work had actually begun.”

Once contractors were hired, they were subjected to very little oversight and were allowed to bill based on the number of hours worked, rather than what they achieved. Ms. Kramer and eHealth brass often circumvented board oversight, either by breaking large contracts into smaller ones or simply by failing to inform them of contracts.

“The CEO brought none of the sole-sourced contracts that she personally arranged and awarded to the board’s attention,” Mr. McCarter states in the report. “We believe that the board was under the impression ... that consultants and other vendors were being procured in accordance with established policies.”

Ms. Kramer resigned in June following revelations of procurement improprieties.

A companion branch within the health ministry, meanwhile, was packed full of consultants. By 2008, the ministry had hired 300 consultants, including some in positions of senior management, while it employed less than 30 full-time employees.

“Consultants were not only managing other consultants, but also at times had the authority to hire more consultants, sometimes from their own firm,” Mr. McCarter states in the report.

Overall, Mr. McCarter says the government’s effort to get health records online by 2015 was completely aimless. The Ministry of Health did not develop a strategic plan for the multibillion-dollar project until March 2009, six years after it was begun.

“When you get a lack of oversight, you get broken rules,” Mr. McCarter told reporters at a news conference. “It goes together like a horse and carriage.”

For Premier Dalton McGuinty, the eHealth spending controversy represents the biggest and most damaging scandal his government has faced since sweeping to power in 2003. He personally met with Ms. Kramer when she was hired by eHealth chairman Dr. Alan Hudson to “impress upon her the importance of her upcoming work.”

During his audit, Mr. McCarter was blocked for months by Health Ministry bureaucrats who wouldn’t agree to help him. He finally called deputy health minister Ron Sapsford personally and threatened to table his complaints in the legislature. Once he did that, he said, “we got in the door the next day.”

That unusual tactic set off alarm bells in the mind of the veteran auditor.

“I have to be honest, delaying us is kind of like waving the red flag at a bull,” he told reporters.

At Queen’s Park Wednesday, opposition politicians wondered why only Health Minister David Caplan was forced to pay the price for the eHealth scandal.

Mr. Caplan, whose resignation was formerly accepted by Mr. McGuinty, took over the health portfolio from George Smitherman in June 2008, three months before eHealth was launched.

“The auditor general’s report makes it quite clear than many of the biggest abuses of taxpayer money occurred under the watchful eye of George Smitherman,” said Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. “David Caplan was caught carrying George Smitherman’s dirty laundry.”

“If I was premier, I wouldn’t have Smitherman in my cabinet or as my deputy premier either,” chimed in NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

But Mr. McGuinty said he decided not to ask Mr. Smitherman, who has expressed interest in running for Toronto’s soon-to-be-vacant mayoralty, to resign.

“It’s my judgment call and I stand by that,” Mr. McGuinty told reporters. “I am taking responsibility ... by the actions we’ve taken today upon the release of the report, including minister Caplan’s resignation. Ultimately, we’ll be judged by the people of Ontario. I accept that and I look forward to that.”

Deb Matthews takes over for Mr. Caplan in a mini-shuffle that also brought Laurel Broten back into cabinet.

All Canadian provinces are in the process of establishing electronic health record systems to replace traditional paper-based records, a process that began in 2000. Experts say online records could potentially save lives, reduce health-care costs and improve patient service.

The new system would reduce the likelihood of duplicate tests and lead to shorter wait times. It would also lower the chances of adverse drug reactions, the fourth-leading cause of death in Ontario.

However, the auditor’s report says Ontario “is near the back of the pack compared to most other provinces” when it comes to progress on electronic health records.

It is still unclear what — if any — delays the project will suffer as a result of the upheaval at eHealth."

*

Did anything change in the year between the two above reports? NO!! Nothing changed!! Despite being warned on numerous occasions - well before 2009 - by the auditor and others of their financial abuses, the arrogant McGuinty Liberals simply continued to lie and hide. Both above reports dealt with the financial scams under George Smitherman's watch.

Of course, the lying Liberals wanted us to believe their claims that they were going to run a transparent government, with tight rules on sole-sourced contracts. Remember the Great Lying McGuinty making these claims - see here, here?

That disgusting sack of Liberal crap George Smitherman was not only blowing hundreds of millions at eHealth, he was also cutting health care (in Niagara, forcing hospitals to close two emergency rooms) while on the other hand allowing these outrageous financial abuses over at his expensive (and useless) new monopolistic LHIN bureaucracy.

Smitherman left a diaper load of crap in David Caplan's desk (and it was Caplan who was fired/resigned!); and now, Deb Matthews is apologizing for the stinking pile of shit which Slitherman dumped on her doorstep as well.

And Smitherman? He has yet to apologize.

(ahh... screw the apology: Smitherman should be charged with fraud.)
*

Smitherman's Liberal health-care slush fund revealed by Auditor

The stench of Smitherman continues to burn the senses and pocketbooks of Ontario's taxpayers.

Here's more on George Smitherman's disastrous role as McGuinty's health minister - see Karen Howlett's story Consultants billed Ontario thousands for personal vacations and expenses (Globe and Mail Oct.20, 2010):

"A consultant earning $1,100 a day at a hospital in Ontario billed taxpayers $7,800 for airfare to Japan for his personal vacation. Another hospital consultant charged $400 a night for a hotel room and $500 in long-distance phone charges for a three-day business trip to Chicago.

These are among the questionable consulting expenses at 16 hospitals outlined in a special report unveiled Wednesday by Jim McCarter, Ontario’s Auditor-General.

“Consultants were often selected without competition and without a clear, written-out agreement setting out exactly what they were supposed to do,” Mr. McCarter says.

The auditor conducted spot audits at 16 of the province’s 154 hospitals and found problems across the board, from the large, teaching hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area to smaller, regional hospitals. University Health Network, Canada’s largest hospital complex with three sites, Hospital for Sick Children, Guelph General Hospital and Timmins and District Hospital were all part of the audit.

Mr. McCarter told reporters that the hospitals’ use of consultants was not on the same scale as eHealth Ontario, an agency embroiled in scandal last year over the hundreds of millions of dollars it spent on consultants.

“But we found many of the same problems, including single-sourced contracts,” he said, adding that he was surprised the widely-publicized eHealth scandal did not act as a “wake-up call” for hospital boards of directors and executives.

The Ontario Hospital Association issued an apology on behalf of the province’s 154 hospitals.

“Ontarians have the right to expect that every hospital has the processes in place necessary to ensure that public funds are spent appropriately,” the OHA says.

The report also says eight of the 16 hospitals spent $1.6-million to engage consultants to lobby the provincial government, using money provided by the province for clinical and administrative activities. “We questioned the appropriateness of using government funds to pay lobbyists to help obtain more government funding,” the report says.

The 32-page report is an extension of Mr. McCarter’s audit of eHealth, released in October, 2009. Much like eHealth, a controversy that dogged the McGuinty government in the summer of 2009 and cost former health minister David Caplan his job, the hospitals also billed taxpayers for lavish meals, hotel rooms and unauthorized fees.

The McGuinty government has vowed to crack down on the practice of hospitals hiring lobbyists and announced new rules banning hospitals from using taxpayers’ money to hire lobbyists just minutes after the auditor released his report.

“Leadership means shining the light where it hasn’t been shone before,” Health Minister Deb Matthews said at a news conference. “And it means acting on what you find.”

In addition to banning hospitals from using taxpayers’ money to lobby government for more funding, their chief executive officers will have to post their expenses online, under the proposed legislation introduced on Wednesday.

The legislation also includes more stringent rules government the procurement of goods and services. If hospital executives fail to comply, their pay can be reduced.

“We need every possible dollar going to health care used for front-line health care,” Ms. Matthews declared.

The auditor’s report cites many examples where that was not happening. The consultant who vacationed in Japan, a former Health Ministry employee, reimbursed half the airfare following enquiries from the auditor’s staff.

The same consultant has been on the payroll at the hospital since 1999, the report says, earning about $275,000 a year plus taxes. He billed the hospital for travel expenses, including a one-week trip in 2008 to Hong Kong, where he was a guest speaker at a conference.

The consultant who took the business trip to Chicago was also paid $275,000 a year to fill a senior management role at a hospital, the report says. From April, 2007 to December, 2009, he also billed the hospital $97,000 in fees for other consultants and $50,000 in administrative fees, neither of which was in his contract.

The consultant billed the hospital twice for over $7,000 for a bonus, foreign exchange fees and a Christmas lunch. The report notes that the hospital paid the consultant’s “questionable” business-related expenses, and singled out the trip to Chicago and hotel charges of $700 a night for a five-day trip to Singapore.

Closer to home, the consultant billed the hospital $350 for a dinner in Toronto for three people, including $215 for alcohol.

The report says payments to consultants often were not supported with receipts. And most of the hospitals did not require board approval for large contracts with consultants or those awarded without competitive tenders.

“It’s a damning indictment of how consultants made off with thousands of dollars,” New Democratic Leader Andrea Horwath said in Question Period on Wednesday.

Ms. Horwath revealed earlier this month that at least 14 hospitals across Ontario had hired consultants.

Progressive Conservative health critic Christine Elliott says the examples cited by the auditor are just a continuation of what happened at eHealth.

“People are outraged at this huge waste of their money that should be going into front-line health care,” she told reporters."

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George Smitherman's fingerprints are all over this latest scandalous revelation!

How can anyone possibly vote for this scumbag Smitherman!? (and how can Deb Matthews, Kathleen Wynne, and McGuinty actually endorse Smitherman in his bid for Toronto mayor, knowing all this!! What's that say about these Liberal inbreds?? ...and shame too on John Sewell, David Crombie and Justin mini-Trudeau.)

Smitherman's consultants were billing for vacations while Smitherman was busy telling Ontario's hospitals - like those in the Niagara Health System - to CUT their spending!!! Smitherman was closing ER's and cutting patient surgeries while his buddies went on patient-paid vacations!!

Let's remember: for years, Liberal shitbags such as St.Catharines MPP Jim Bradley denied Ontario's ombudsman access to investigate the MUSH sector, which would have included hospitals. This unbelievable largesse could have been, and should have been, detected years ago. Liberal MPP's such as Jim Bradley are responsible for allowing this kind of outrageous abuse of our tax dollars, which were supposedly going to health care, but were going to Liberal consultant buddies for vacations.

Outrageous.

Here's hoping that the St.Catharines Standard remains true to its Liberal-friendly, Jim Bradley ass-licking form, and overlooks Bradley's long-time role in preventing ombudsman oversight into the health care sector. Bradley refused to allow the ombudsman full access into the workings of the Liberals' health care monopoly, yet now will not be held responsible for the years of abuse and outright theft of taxpayer's money within his Liberal single-payer health monopoly.

Note Auditor McCarter's astounding point that even Smitherman's eHealth scandal DID NOT act as a wake-up call to Ontario's hospital boards!! Obviously, it did not act as a wake-up call to McGuinty's Liberals either.

This is what Bradley and McGuinty and Smitherman were trying to hide from the ombudsman all along! The culture of entitlement pervading McGuinty's despotic health care monopoly is shocking. With no independent oversight - and more importantly - NO COMPETITION - these monopolist Tommy Douglas-ites DO WHATEVER they want, whenever they can get away with!!
Who's going to stop them?

When 500 Ontario patients died from c. diff infection in Smitherman's single-payer health monopoly - and Smitherman, Bradley, and McGuinty were not jailed for it - something is really wrong: there is ABSOLUTELY NO ACCOUNTABILITY. McGuinty's 'oh-just-trust-us' Liberals refused to call a public inquiry.

The Liberal government's reaction to the Auditor's report is too litle too late: Liberal MPP's such as Jim Bradley purposefully prevented independent oversight of their health care monopoly, on nothing but secretive, ideological grounds; they fraudulently underfunded their monopoly, while forcing Ontarians to endure the cuts and closures, while concurrently banning Ontarians from opting out of the single-payer OHIP scam altogether.

When NDPeers such as Horwath wake up and realize that so-called 'universal, state-run, single-payer health-care' is an abject failure, then we can take her seriously. The goal is to give patients a choice, not trap them in a state-run despotic health monopoly - right now, all we can do is listen to McGuinty's and Bradley's endless Liberal lies and duplicity. Enough already.

Help us de-monopolize Ontario's health care system, so that no politician can manipulate it.
*

Sure you can trust Smitherman - TO LIE

Don Peat wrote in the Toronto Sun, Oct.20, 2010:

"The polls have them neck and neck, but George Smitherman and Rob Ford spent Tuesday night going toe-to-toe during the last televised mayoral debate.

Ford and Smitherman got into several heated exchanges as they debated on CP24 alongside Joe Pantalone — who polls have placed well back of the two other major mayoral candidates.

Smitherman set off the first fireworks, slamming Ford for repeated anecdotes about squandered tax money.

“I know you like to talk a good story,” Smitherman said. “When you try to translate the storyline to numbers you failed miserably and people said you played voters for fools.”

Ford shot back asking Smitherman — several times — about the almost $10 million in untendered contracts awarded to the Courtyard Group where, Ford alleged, the former health minister’s chief of staff was working at the time.

Smitherman denied it but admitted sole-source contracting was the practice at the time. He then asked Ford how he had the audacity to ask him about that, when Ford voted in favour of an extension of a sole-source contract for food and beverages in the Beaches.

Ford pointed out the vote was only to ask city staff to have a third-party consultant review the pitch.

“You cannot be trusted,” Ford said to Smitherman.

When Smitherman tried to compare his “scale of responsibility” to Ford and Pantalone, Ford shot back with questions about eHealth.

“I want to know where the money is,” Ford smiled as he asked Smitherman. “The people just want to know where the money is.”

Smitherman jabbed Ford’s own scandals by telling people to go online and type “Rob Ford” and “scandal.”

“You better have a super-sized computer to handle the Google alerts,” he said.

The former deputy premier also asked Ford about the “unprecedented” statement from the Toronto YWCA on Tuesday lamenting Ford’s attempt as a councillor to try to stop them from building a women’s shelter in his ward.

Ford defended his position saying his constituents, many who lived in a seniors’ home next to where the shelter was going to be built, objected to the shelter.

“I did exactly what my constituents wanted me to do,” he said, adding when the shelter opened he was at the opening. “Now it is part of the community.”

Smitherman took several shots at Pantalone and Ford — calling them a new “odd couple,” pointing out they have a combined total of 40 years on city council and hinting they were in teaming up to go soft on each other and beat up on him during the debate.

During a cordial moment where Pantalone was asking Ford which candidate of the two he would support if he wasn’t in the race, Smitherman teased the deputy mayor.

“Too bad your legs aren’t longer, you could play footsie,” he said, before Ford said he’d choose Pantalone over Smitherman.

Pantalone was adamant that he’s staying the race and disagreed with Smitherman’s statement that “a vote for Joe Pantalone is a vote for Rob Ford.”

“A vote for Joe Pantalone is a vote for Joe Pantalone,” he said. “There is nothing strategic about abandoning your principles and values … out of fear nothing good can happen.”

Late Tuesday, Ipsos Reid released another poll giving the edge to Ford with 33%, Smitherman with 31% and Pantalone with 13%. Among voters vowing they will go out and vote, Ford is further ahead with 39%, Smitherman has 33% and Pantalone has 15%. The poll has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20."
*
It's darn queer how Smitherman can smugly tell folks to google "Rob Ford" and "scandal", but doesn't also tell them to google "liar" and "McGuinty" or, "scandal" and "Smitherman" !!

We saw the real Furious George in action when he shoved his foot in his mouth with the 'short' "joke" regarding Pantalone.

Let's ask again, as Ford did: where did the billion eHealth dollars disappear? Smitherman - the Liberal weasel - refuses to, or can't, answer the question.

Smitherman squandered hundreds of millions of tax dollars - while McGuinty was closing down TWO emergency rooms in Port Clborne and Fort Erie.

Why doesn't Smitherman reveal who HE was playing footsie with, among his coterie of Liberal-friendly consultants?

There was this moronic comment attached to the Sun's above story: "Mike October 19th 2010, 11:15pm
Nice try but this is pure spin typical of the Ford camp. Don't let the facts get in the way of a good insult to the record of every other public servant except yourself. Ford will make a terrible mayor because he sees himself as a messiah sent to deliver the truth to the masses. The simpler the truth can be made to sound, the better, and never mind the facts. History is full of populist demagogues like him who turn out to be tyrants once they are in power. We turn around and wonder how we ever let it happen. Guess what, this is how. We elect them. Thank goodness he will only have one vote on council if we let it happen. Let's hope good sense prevails and we don't."

Astounding spin, really - who actually considers himself to be a messiah: it's Smitherman! This piece of smug Liberal crap has considered himself a messiah for years! And the messianic "truth" which Smitherman was spouting was nothing but a sack of LIES!!
Mike, the f*#king demagogue was Smitherman - running his health-monopoly like a fiefdom, cutting health care while denying Ontarians the choice to obtain their own health insurance.
Yeah -"never mind the facts" Mike - who cares that despots Smitherman and McGuinty refused to call a public inquiry when at least 500 Ontarians died of C. diff infection in Smitherman's state-run hospitals?
Or when Smitherman and MPP Jim Bradley chased LifeLine Screening clinics out of Ontario? Or when Smitherman pretended he knew nothing about Suzanne Aucoin (oh, yeah, ignorant Mike wouln't know who she was, either) being forced to travel to Buffalo because McGuinty and Smitherman refused to pay for her cancer treatments in Ontario? Ontario's ombudsman Marin even reported on Aucoin's horrible ordeal in Smitherman's health monopoly. Yet Smitherman did have hundreds of millions to spend on creating his useless LHIN bureaucracy!
Oh, but all this is useless trivia to statists such as Mike.
That's right, Mike - we do "turn around and wonder how" we ever elected Liberal scumbags such as McGuinty and Smitherman.
We can't risk the mistake of having Smitherman's grubby paws near any public funds whatsoever.
And let's hope that good sense prevails and Smitherman gets his ass creamed at the polls next Monday in the same way his ass got creamed at the debate last night.

Smitherman cannot and should not be trusted. His lying days started in 2003 when his Liberals lied about not raising taxes... and the deceptions just rolled on from there.
*

I am curious, George

Here's what Toronto mayoral hopeful George Smitherman doesn't want any Torontonians asking him about: see Secretive Liberals hide from C. diff accountability.
You can rest assured that George Smitherman's friends at the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and the CBC will ignore dredging up George's incompetent role as some 500 Ontario patients died of C. difficile infection under his despotic rule, while Smitherman and McGuinty refused to call a public inquiry.
[Locally, the St.Catharines Standard similarly can't bring itself to send any reporters to ask Liberal MPP Jim Bradley about these patient deaths in the McGuinty government's health care monopoly - it's just best not to talk about it, after all... it's best just to ask Jim Bradley nice, safe questions, preferably kissy-ass questions which demonstrate how wise and great and munificent McGuinty's Liberals - including, of course, George Smitherman - are.]
HEY - let's write about HARRIS instead!! YAY: that's the ticket!!!! Like Jim Bradley, Smitherman loved doing that old trick : 'it's all Harris' fault, y'see: Harris, Harris, Harris'!!!! Why, Smitherman's hero, Dalton McGuinty, is STILL blaming Harris - almost a decade after Harris was premier!!
McGuinty's current Liberal health minister, Deb Matthews, just endorsed George Smitherman: how sickening is that? Yep, Ole Smitty was a f*#king disaster in Ontario, so, he's good enough for Toronto!
As disastrous as his multi-billion-dollar eHealth and Green Bolshevik Energy fiascoes were, George Smitherman should be in jail for playing politics with health care, forcing patients into his ideologically-based single-payer health-monopoly while at the same time underfunding and cutting services; and also at the same time making it illegal for patients to obtain their health care privately.
*

Ignatieff vs. Keith Martin: which Liberal has an actual vision for Canadian health-care

Once again, when you hear Liberals such as Michael Ignatieff pondering deeply about "health care", try asking Iggy to respond to Liberal MP Keith Martin's views expressed in The biggest hindrance to better health care is our own illusions, (National Post, Apr.7, 2009). Try asking any Liberal to provide a written detailed response to Martin's reasonable proposals. St.Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley just ignores what Martin has written.

This summer, tons of reporters happily sat with Iggy as his global-warming, planet-killing diesel bus polluted its way - for over 56,000 km! - across Canada: did ANY of these reporters actually get Count Iggula to define any "health care policy" of his own?! [for that matter, did ANY reporter ask Iggy about the environmental impact and the carbon footprint of Iggy's "Someone-else-causes-climate-change-but-not-me" bus tour?!!]

Ignatieff has no coherent health care policy... well, unless you count fear mongering and a smarmy adherence to the same-old statist-status-quo (like that of Dalton McGuinty).

C'mon Iggy - join in the debate regarding the federal government's role in health care. Instead of undermining Canada's provincial governments, pretending that the provinces don't have the responsibility for health care, say something new instead of your same old tired Liberal rhetoric - see also here, here, here, here.

Chile - second miner rescued, video

At 12:10 am (EST) on Oct.13, 2010, Mario Sepulveda, the second Chilean miner to be rescued, reached the surface. He could be heard hooting and hollering with exuberant joy from within the rescue shaft even before his capsule emerged from the earth. After kissing his wife and hugging other rescuers and officials (handing them souvenir rocks from his backpack) he went over to his fellow workers at the sidelines and led them in a spontaneous cheer!
Let us hope that each of the rescues still to follow will be just as successful.

CBS is carrying the feed live. Above, the scene as Mario Sepulveda arrives back up to the earth's surface.

A third miner, Juan Illanes, has successfully emerged at 1:07 am.

Let's see Jim Bradley open his agenda real wide

Further to the Oct.7, 2010 CBC story, "PM's schedule should be public, court hears", that Canadians should have the right to see the daily agenda books of the prime minister and cabinet ministers, wouldn't it be nice to have the courts also deem that the same should apply for the provinces, and, for all municipalities?
Yes - all Ontarians should have the right to know what Dalton McGuinty's agenda is, moment by moment.
We should all know what McGuinty's secretive cabinet minister, MPP Jim Bradley, is scheduled to be doing, and see to it that he's not off doing something else.
Shouldn't we know what Ole Jimmy's supposed to be doing, every single minute he's "at work"?
When did Jim Bradley know about his Liberal government's secret G 20 law? Hmm...
Let us know what you think, Jim - should the law be changed for the feds, but, um, NOT FOR YOU? (... and not for St.Catharines mayor Brian McMullan, the greenie-chickenshit who - before an election - smugly REFUSES to reveal his position on people raising chickens in his city's backyards?!)
Lastewka's replacement Liberal Andrew Gill's quiet too - is he in favour of the court challenge's goals now, because the Conservative minority holds government; or does Gill agree with the Chretien Liberal majority's position from the 90's?

Dalton "Flipper" McGuinty

Oakville celebrates as Dalton McGuinty - the peoples' premier (cough) - saves their community from the careless Ontario government which didn't listen and which wanted to put a gas-energy plant in their neighbourhood. That government insisted that the electricity from this power plant was desperately needed, and that it was a safe location, and that they would not be swayed by the local NIMBY's. Yes - Dalton McGuinty - King amongst mortals - stood up against that Ontario government and decreed: Enough... I command thee to withdraw... and so it was. The community of Liberal Oakville will now joyously vote for Dalton McGuinty, their communal saviour. What's that? ...McGuinty IS the government?? but...

Wasn't McGuinty in favour of the Oakville gas plant, back in 2009?! Didn't Dalton just flip-flop - again - for the thousandth time since 2003?!! This Liberal liar has done so many political back-flips he could get his own act at Sea World.

Was McGuinty smugly lying then - when he was ALL FOR IT in 2009; or is Dalton lying now, when he's ALL AGAINST IT, in 2010?!?!

And what about George Smitherman, the incompetent McGuintyite who ruined healthcare in Ontario - no word yet from Ole Smitty about HIS direct role in this Oakville energy fiasco!!

How much is the cancellation of this energy-contract - which Energy Minister George Smitherman had announced with great fanfare only back in Sept.2009! - going to cost Ontarians?! Will we know before the next election? Will that weasel Brad Duguid tell us? Will we be adding still more to Smitherman's FLICKING waste of a billion dollars at eHealth, and of Smitherman's 250 million dollars wasted on the LHIN bureaucracy? Count on it.

Smitherman just leaves a stinking wretched Liberal mess of a wake where ever he goes. Don't worry though, Boyle's Law will ensure that Smitherman can't be held responsible for anything: Smitty had nuttin' ta do wid it... wid any of it (!)... and the Liberals - bless their bleeding hearts - saved Oakville from doom.

It all makes sense, somehow: "Help! Please save us from the Liberals... oh, thank-you, thank-you Mr.McGuinty - for saving us from the government!!"

See now: it does makes sense! The Great Lying McGuinty is buying himself an election seat, and we're paying.

Truck stuck under bridge

A Beverage World delivery truck got stuck under the abandoned old Michigan Central railroad bridge this afternoon, as it was heading west along Park St., just east of Zimmerman Ave.

above: view from the rear; note rear right wheels aren't touching the road. Note "2.8 m" sign on top of the bridge.

above: closer view of where the box was caught in the girders. By the amount of gouges seen on this bridge, this isn't the first time it has happened.

above: the tires were deflated and the damaged truck was then pulled out backwards. Note the "2.8 m" warning sign.

Help save Toronto - from Smitherman!! It's not too late to STILL vote for Sarah Thompson!!

Sue Ann levy wrote in "Sarah Thompson, easy lover" (Toronto Sun, Oct.5, 2010):

"Eleven months ago - on the very day George Smitherman declared he was running for mayor - Sarah Thomson posted a pointedly nasty commentary on her Women’s Post blog of why he was not up to the job.

Labelling him a “completely irresponsible, corrupt, boondoggle of a career politician,” Thomson contended he was the man responsible for “most of the transgressions” that have come to light in the eHealth “corruption” controversy.

But her blog post - full of contempt for Smitherman - didn’t stop there.

She said in the 30 years he’s been in politics, he’s learned how to “manipulate, trick and pull the wool over” voters’ eyes.

To add insult to injury, Thomson laces her post with a slur bordering on homophobic.

She indicates Smitherman is “falming mad” about the idea he can’t get the respect he deserves at Queen’s Park.

Falming, according to a dictionary definition, refers to the “most flamboyant and outrageous a homosexual person can be.”

Thomson, who also hinted in that same blog her intentions to run for mayor, threw her hat into the ring on Jan. 25 of this year.

But that was then. This is now.

Last Monday, she officially dropped out of the race, throwing her support behind Smitherman in an effort to stop Rob Ford from winning on Oct. 25.

But that wasn’t enough for the former mayoralty candidate, who appears to have very much enjoyed her time in the spotlight and has no intention of giving that up.

She has been actively campaigning with the Smitherman team - proudly announcing her involvement on Facebook and on Twitter - and sat, surrounded by Smitherman supporters, zealously tweeting how wonderfully her man performed at the CITY-TV debate Sunday night.

When reached Monday afternoon, Thomson at first couldn’t remember writing the blog - she claimed “a lot has happened since” - but later conceded she’d “probably” written it because it was on the Women’s Post website.

Asked what had changed since last November, she said she’s been campaigning alongside the guy for eight months and has “really learned” about him.

She said she had the opportunity to really look into “the truth behind” eHealth and has had a “tough time” criticizing Smitherman about it.

“You realize that believing what the press writes is not always the right thing ... you learn about the press and how they will twist your words,” she said.

“Over the last nine months he’s earned my respect,” Thomson added, claiming she probably meant to say “flaming mad” instead of “falming mad.”

When I pointed out she’s part of the press that allegedly “twist” one’s words, she said she’s “just as guilty” for writing things about eHealth before doing her research.

Thomson insisted she has not made a deal with Smitherman - that she just feels Toronto would be “severely hurt” by a mayor like Ford.

Renovator Joseph Bucca, who first found the blog on the Women’s Post website, said it has now disappeared.

He calls Thomson’s sudden support of the man she so harshly lambasted last November “hypocritical.”

“It really shows what these people are all about,” said Bucca, who feels she definitely made a deal with the Smitherman camp.

I agree 100%.

I suspect Thomson - now addicted to the political limelight - has set her sights on something.

A safe Liberal riding in the 2011 provincial election perhaps?

A cozy sinecure on some city board should Smitherman win on Oct. 25?

Adrienne Batra, spokesperson for Rob Ford, called it “suspicious” when the one of the “most damning indictments” of Smitherman’s tenure as health minister has suddenly been removed from the Women’s Post website.

“It raises questions about what he promised Ms. Thomson for her support,” she said.

Rocco Rossi said Smitherman and Thomson look like a perfect match.

“They belong together,” he said."

*
Sarah Thompson's sickening flip-flopping endorsement of Slippery George reeks of hypocrisy: so, Sarah, were ya lyin' THEN, or ya lyin' NOW?! Sarah's new epiphany about Georgie says much more about her, then about anything else.

Sarah Thompson is now drinking McGuinty's and Smitherman's infected bathwater, also telling us that eHealth was a success!!! Yeah, Smitherman's eHealth pile of crap - which he left steaming to explode in David Caplan's face - was such a "success", that Caplan WAS FIRED... instead of Smitherman!! Boyle's Law (you can't blame Liberals for anything) is at work again, weaving its soothing Liberal magical spell on Sarah: 'Smitty's innocent, I tells ya... he's got nuttin' to do wid it... wid ANY of it... nuttin'. . .

Smitherman and McGuinty also 'successfully' prevented having a public inquiry when almost 500 Ontario patients died of C. dif infection in 2007-2008. Maybe Sarah can pretend that never happened, either. Or anything McGuinty and his bagboy Smitherman did as noted here, or here.

Since Smitherman-sycophant-Sarah is still on the ballot, Torontonians might as well VOTE for her... now...!!

Will Jim Bradley answer the questions which George Smitherman ran away from?

Further to my previous post regarding the YouTube video of Toronto's mayoralty candidate George Smitherman running away from the woman who confronted him: although the Toronto Star and CTV and other media outlets reported the Sept.30, 2010 incident, there hasn't been much information about this woman or about her concerns.

The confrontation was mentioned by these sources - mainly, it seems, only AFTER the video was posted on You Tube!!!

Why aren't any of these media outlets chasing after details about what the woman was saying?

What exactly happenend to her father when Smitherman was McGuinty's health minister?

What did George Smitherman's Liberal health-care policies/deceptions have do with her father's death?

Smug Smitherman now is (or thinks he is) blameless and scot-free of any responsiblity of what happened under his terrible, ideological, incompetent reign as the health-scare minister of Ontario.

There was a pattern under Smitherman - a systemic cutting of health care - we saw it in the Niagara Health System (NHS), and in the other Smitherman-created disastrous LHIN's.

Some 500 Ontario patients died of C. difficile infection in Smitherman's state-controlled hospitals, yet there was NO public inquiry (see here; see here; see here).

That this happened in Smitherman's ideological single-payer health-monopoly - and was essentially buried - is criminal. (see here)

The Niagara Health System in St.Catharines had the third-highest patient-death rate in Canada, yet no Liberal - certainly not Smitherman - bothered to call ANY kind of inquiry.

Now Smitherman smugly walks away from the mess he cocked-up as McGuinty's health-care hack.

There is someone who that woman could perhaps contact, a person who was a McGuinty cabinet minister in 2005 (the year in which the lady's father died, though there's no info on what date); and, who was also McGuinty's minister Responsible for Seniors (from Jun.29, 2005 to 2007): that is St.Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley, see here.

Bradley, Smitherman's monopolist, health-care-cutting colleague, is still in office - unlike Smitherman, who can freely walk away from the stink he left for others to deal with.

Doesn't Jim Bradley have an obligation and responsibility to look into this woman's concerns about the death of her father in 2005?

Was this not a seniors' issue?!

Or is this just another health-care "anomaly" for Jim, just another "anecdotal" patient-victim, not worthy of Jimmy's time?

Take a good look here at the rhetoric which an oh-so-concerned Jim Bradley was busy peddling about dying patients in 1998, when a smug Jimmy was in opposition!

Then look at how hypocrite Jim Bradley hid when patients were dying in his riding in 2008!!

When you read about Margaret Cowal's 2006 death in St.Catharines - see here; see here; and see here pg.79, where you can also read about the 2007 death of Pamela Radusin's mother in St.Catharines - ask yourself why Jim Bradley conveniently vanished from sight, giving no explanation for why his health monopoly failed these patients.

Will the St.Catharines Standard follow up on this woman's story and whether MPP Jim Bradley will assist with her concerns?! Will anyone in the Toronto media bother to follow up with this woman's concerns?

'Cuz ya know if this had happened under Harris' term in office, the Toronto Star and the St.Catharines Standard would be giddily hunting down any possible leads, day and night, to satisfy their anti-Harris narrative...

Boyle's Law tells us, though, that Bradley can't possibly be responsible - for anything.

*

Who's diagnosing George Smitherman?!

As 680 News' John Stall reported on Oct.1, 2010 :

"Rob Ford's health came under scrutiny during a debate Thursday night after a doctor from the audience questioned the mayoral candidate's weight.

Dr. Marvin Kay stood up and said to Ford, "I'm a physician and I look upon you as a possible patient. I'm concerned about your weight. Do you think you'll be able to handle the entire four-year term?"

The retired physician explained to 680News political affairs specialist John Stall Friday why Ford's weight may become a problem.

"He was sweating quite a bit. Several times he picked up a towel or a napkin to wipe his forehead," Dr. Kay said.

"And what does that indicate to you as a physician?," asked Stall.

"His weight could become a problem," replied the doctor.

"In what way?," Stall questioned.

"Heart attack or stroke," Dr. Kay stated.

The doctor was asked by 680News if he was planted to ask the question by any of Ford's opponents. His answer: absolutely not.

At the debate, the Toronto Star reported the jaws of the other candidates dropped and the audience went silent when the question was raised.

Ford replied that he needs to lose a few pounds, but assured the room that his doctor has given him a clean bill of health.

He was agitated by the question and told the doctor he was offended, and added he thought that kind of thing would come only from his opponents.

The candidates were debating at the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute."
*
McGuinty's wonderful health-care system is SO great, isn't it?
Doctors give a FREE diagnosis - in public - WITHOUT EVEN BEING ASKED!!
Marvin Kay - really... this guy is, or was, a real doctor?! He's certainly an ass. Where and what did Kay practise?
Why didn't Kay also concern himself with, oh, say, George Smitherman's 'health issues' as they relate to his competency for office?
Does George Smitherman ever sweat, Dr. Kay?! Yes, or, no?
And what, pray tell, does this then "indicate" to you about Smitherman's health?!
Does Smitherman's past admitted drug use "indicate" anything to you, Dr.Kay?
What about Smitherman's admitted sexual orientation - does this "indicate" anything about George Smitherman's potential to 'become one of your patients' ??!!
How about George's "furious" propensity to mouth off and swear at people... does that "indicate" anything to you?!
Unf#cking believable.
What a quack. Hope Kay doesn't send a bill for his phony "diagnosis" to OHIP. Deb Matthews should look into that!
Hey - why didn't Kay ask George Smitherman about the time in 2004 when Smitherman, then McGuinty's incompetent health minister, along with St.Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley, proudly denied LifeLine Screening Clinic of Cleveland to bring portable preventative heart diagnostics to Ontario; when Smitherman went ballistic, ridiculously deputizing Ontarians to stop them at the border?! (see: here pg.44-45, and here, and here, and here and here!)
Kay could have also asked Smitherman how many people in Ontario LifeLine's diagnostics might have helped, at no cost to Ontario's treasury.
Kay could have also asked Smitherman how many Ontarians would have benefited from this health care option to assess their heart health - which Smitherman killed off, for no reason other than his ideological Liberal devotion to statist health-care monopolism?
In other words, Kay could have asked how many Ontarians were killed because of Smitherman's political desire to control their health care.
Yep - the story of George Smitherman, of Liberal health-care despotism, and of heart-health, coalesced before the ENTIRE TORONTO MEDIA - and yet no-one dared to ask Smitherman about HIS role in denying health-care choices to Ontarians.
Certainly not the good doctor.
*

Smitherman runs like a chicken

Nice YouTube video here of George Smitherman being confronted (see here, here) by a woman yesterday (Thursday) with questions pertaining to Smitherman's role as health minister.

How fitting for Smitty: as a smug Dalton McGuinty had walked away from cancer patient Mike Brady in 2007...

[see my post here; see McGuinty walking away here]

... now Smitherman is following in his hero McGuinty's footsteps: Smitherman also just slithered away from the woman. "Walk away... you walked away as health minister, now you're walking away again" she said after him.

Seems like Smitherman's incompetent reign (see here, for starters) as McGuinty's trusty ideological ole monopoly-pushing health minister might finally be percolating through to Toronto voters.

Slippery George was probably just itching to tell her to f#ck off, though, as he had to that Rossi campaign worker earlier... good thing he ran away before it got any uglier - for him!

Run Smitty, run - but you can't hide from your sorry record as a Liberal McGuinty health-care hack.

Smitherman didn't even need to coerce some lackey to don a chicken suit: this time Smitherman WAS the chicken.

Rising electricity prices? What's McGuinty got to do with THAT?!

Hah... ha... haha... haaaaaaa...
The St.Catharines Standard front page story ("Shock for hydro users", Oct.1, 2010) is shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you! - about electricity price increases!
Yet what ISN'T shocking, however, is that no Liberals were mentioned in Don Fraser's oh, so shocking story! That's right - NOTHING from local Liberal hack Jim Bradley, nor his doofus doppelganger Kim Craitor!
Incredible, ain't it?!! Where's ANY comment from ANY Liberal?!?!
Apparently, NO LIBERAL (according to the logical extrapolation of the infamous Boyle law) can be blamed for their own massive incompetence in the energy sector - or anywhere else in Ontario!!
And sadly, protecting Liberals from uncomfortable controversy is the St.Catharines Standard's metier - very predictable.... and sickening.
Yep , the McGuinty Liberal government's green energy disaster - brought to you courtesy of your local vote for Jim Bradley - ain't even mentioned!! George Smitherman's role in FLICKING up the energy sector - just after he FLICKED up the health care sector! - of Ontario's economy isn't even mentioned in Fraser's story!!
[What IS shocking is that the Standard didn't find someone to STILL BLAME HARRIS!!!!]
And, the Standard found the Blue Mermaid guy, who actually said that the "government is letting the utilities get away with everything"!!
Really?
Yet the Jim Bradley Fan Club over at the St.Catharines Standard couldn't be bothered to analyze and present for readers 'everything' that 'the government's' energy ministers (Dwight Duncan, Brad Duguid, and George Smitherman) 'got away with' during the last seven years of McGuinty's Liberal majority rule, which led to these energy price increases! ... oh, we can't talk about THAT... it could look bad on Jimmy, soooo......

'Oh, if ONLY the government would do something to protect us': perfect sentiment for Fraser's story; perfect example of Boyle's Law! ... Oh... please... help us Jim Bradley!! Somehow, electricity prices have gone up!! We don't know how this happened!! Save us, Jim!!

Talk about asking the DISEASE to help you with the cure!!
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The St.Catharines Standard should now carry a WARNING LABEL on their LiberalFriendlyTM stories:

"In order to protect them from culpablility and political harm, no Liberals were mentioned in this report. We assure our readers that no Liberals were harmed by our spin of this story."
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