Looks like Jim Bradley, Kim Craitor, and their Liberals are going to cut healthcare again.
Yeah: you've read it correctly: Jimmy'N'Kimmy's Liberals are once again (as Smitherman had previously done) poised to delist previously covered health care - this is the same recycled, deceptive old Michael Decter/ Bob Rae-style canard of 'we're saving health care by cutting health care".
Let's remember those clowns in Niagara who happily voted for this monopolist Liberal scumbag Bradley; hope they're satisfied with Bradley's Liberal incompetence.
I'm sure that Niagara's Liberal-friendly press barons 'Wendy Williscraft and Mike Metcalfe' are already carefully planning pre-emptive ways to not interview their local Liberal Jim Bradley about any of this, and to not bother examining how a deceptive Bradley for years had ominously fear-mongered about 'harris' - yet, Bradley ended up doing the exact things which he (...along with Niagara's helpful Bradley-booster press...) had sanctimoniously fear-mongered that 'harris' would do!
The St.Catharines Standard, certainly, will be spinning their stories any which way they can [...''lookit, lookit: Drummond made them do it! McGuinty and Matthews had no choice!!"] in order not to examine the last thirty years of Liberal MPP Jim Bradley's failing deceptive allegiance to Tommy Douglas.
*
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Jim Bradley's fairy-tale is actually a Liberal nightmare
A Sudbury Star commentator wrote in "McGuinty's fairy-tale comes to an end":
"Dalton McGuinty got elected by promising Ontario that it could afford to spend lots more than Mike Harris. People believed him but it is becoming increasingly clear that he spun a fairy tale.
Ontario' debt is higher that all the provinces with McGuinty having doubled it since his election.
According to the Toronto Star on January 19 ("Dalton McGuinty and ministers brace for cuts"), "Premier Dalton McGuinty and his ministers are steeling themselves for a grim new era of cutbacks."
Why?
Because they overspent.
Ontario would not need cutbacks if spending had been kept under control. But McGuinty allowed spending to spiral in a frenzy of waste, pay-offs to his friends and a record provincial debt.
Now McGuinty says "one of the ways that we can turn this challenge into an opportunity is to understand that there are, in fact, ways that we can spend the dollars more efficiently.”
Duh. He discovers this now?
Suddenly it's important to spend taxpayer dollars "more efficiently."
Note to Dalton: it is always important to spend taxpayer dollars efficiently. McGuinty's own words are a clear admission that he has been wasting our money all along.
It is becoming clearer than ever that Dalton McGuinty has provided us with one of the worst governments in our history.
He promised Ontario could afford more but now he plans to give us less. He now wants to give us the exact opposite of what he promised during last Fall's election campaign.
This failed government needs to go. The only question now is whether the NDP will vote in the Legislature to prop it up."
*
This is also St.Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley's fairy tale coming to an ignoble, hypocritical, disastrous, painful end.
Bradley and his two-faced Liberal liars were the ones who floated to power by smearing 'harris'.
Here, right in Niagara, Liberal MPP's Bradley and Kim Craitor also 'got elected by promising Ontario that it could afford to spend lots more than Mike Harris'.
People believed Jimmy'N'Kimmy, but now we see what a long-con-scam their slimy Liberal fairy tale had been, all along... more like a Liberal nightmare...
*
"Dalton McGuinty got elected by promising Ontario that it could afford to spend lots more than Mike Harris. People believed him but it is becoming increasingly clear that he spun a fairy tale.
Ontario' debt is higher that all the provinces with McGuinty having doubled it since his election.
According to the Toronto Star on January 19 ("Dalton McGuinty and ministers brace for cuts"), "Premier Dalton McGuinty and his ministers are steeling themselves for a grim new era of cutbacks."
Why?
Because they overspent.
Ontario would not need cutbacks if spending had been kept under control. But McGuinty allowed spending to spiral in a frenzy of waste, pay-offs to his friends and a record provincial debt.
Now McGuinty says "one of the ways that we can turn this challenge into an opportunity is to understand that there are, in fact, ways that we can spend the dollars more efficiently.”
Duh. He discovers this now?
Suddenly it's important to spend taxpayer dollars "more efficiently."
Note to Dalton: it is always important to spend taxpayer dollars efficiently. McGuinty's own words are a clear admission that he has been wasting our money all along.
It is becoming clearer than ever that Dalton McGuinty has provided us with one of the worst governments in our history.
He promised Ontario could afford more but now he plans to give us less. He now wants to give us the exact opposite of what he promised during last Fall's election campaign.
This failed government needs to go. The only question now is whether the NDP will vote in the Legislature to prop it up."
*
This is also St.Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley's fairy tale coming to an ignoble, hypocritical, disastrous, painful end.
Bradley and his two-faced Liberal liars were the ones who floated to power by smearing 'harris'.
Here, right in Niagara, Liberal MPP's Bradley and Kim Craitor also 'got elected by promising Ontario that it could afford to spend lots more than Mike Harris'.
People believed Jimmy'N'Kimmy, but now we see what a long-con-scam their slimy Liberal fairy tale had been, all along... more like a Liberal nightmare...
*
Liberals take a piss on Ontario taxpayers
There was a grrreeat editorial cartoon in Wendy Metcalfe's wrong-righting, Kinsella-defying St.Catharines Standard on Jan.21, 2012. This Dolighan cartoon - a real classic, it's on page A6: you oughta see it - showed Liberal MPP Jim Bradley, wearing his comfy red ermine-trimmed robe, with "MPP" monogrammed on the back, standing at a urinal, taking a piss on Ontario's tax payers.
It was a real good choice for a cartoon by Wendy's right-wrongers!
They even showed a roll of toilet paper hanging out of Jimmy's ass, listing all the $$ billions $$ which Bradley's Liberals have wasted in Ontario, from their ORNGE fiasco, to their Samsungian GreenFear enviro-bolshevism, to their eHealth incompetence, to their OLG scammery... on and on it went.
The cartoon even showed Liberal MPP Jim Bradley laughing with derision as he's pissing on Ontario's taxpayers, while, you see, he and McGuinty are pissing away our tax dollars!
What an incisive and timely cartoon, from Wendy's proud gang at the Standard!
We are sure, now that we have this grrrreeat cartoon of Jim Bradley giving taxpayers his Liberal golden shower, that Wendy's wrong-righters will soon be following up with indepth stories about the size of Liberal MPP Jim Bradley's own "Gold Member Pension"!!
Why, we're sure that Wendy Metcalfe is already working on letting readers know how Liberal MPP Jim Bradley got his unlocked golden pension, when other Ontarians were locked out, and how many salary increases Liberal Jimmy got, when others didn't.
For sure, that's what the Standard is busily working on... right....? hahaha
*
It was a real good choice for a cartoon by Wendy's right-wrongers!
They even showed a roll of toilet paper hanging out of Jimmy's ass, listing all the $$ billions $$ which Bradley's Liberals have wasted in Ontario, from their ORNGE fiasco, to their Samsungian GreenFear enviro-bolshevism, to their eHealth incompetence, to their OLG scammery... on and on it went.
The cartoon even showed Liberal MPP Jim Bradley laughing with derision as he's pissing on Ontario's taxpayers, while, you see, he and McGuinty are pissing away our tax dollars!
What an incisive and timely cartoon, from Wendy's proud gang at the Standard!
We are sure, now that we have this grrrreeat cartoon of Jim Bradley giving taxpayers his Liberal golden shower, that Wendy's wrong-righters will soon be following up with indepth stories about the size of Liberal MPP Jim Bradley's own "Gold Member Pension"!!
Why, we're sure that Wendy Metcalfe is already working on letting readers know how Liberal MPP Jim Bradley got his unlocked golden pension, when other Ontarians were locked out, and how many salary increases Liberal Jimmy got, when others didn't.
For sure, that's what the Standard is busily working on... right....? hahaha
*
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Smitherman's Overpowering Stench of Liberal Incompetence
Adam Radwanski wrote in "DIFFERENT STANDARDS: Deb Matthews unlikely to be given a pink slip over Ornge controversy", (Globe and Mail, Jan.20, 2012):
Little more than two years ago, Dalton McGuinty set an ostensibly high standard for ministerial accountability.
It didn’t matter that David Caplan
Based on that precedent, the woman who replaced Mr. Caplan should be feeling pretty nervous about now. The controversy at Ornge, the province’s air-ambulance service, bears a striking similarity to eHealth in the way it has unfolded – an ambitious system reform implemented in some haste under Mr. Smitherman that has blown up in a successor’s face. In some ways it might actually be worse, since the current controversy goes beyond business practices to life-and-death questions about the quality of emergency services.
But the early signs are that, while she’s in for an unpleasant few weeks or months, Health Minister Deb Matthews
Mr. Caplan, although well-liked by many of his colleagues, was considered dispensable by the Premier. Despite his senior posting, he was never quite in the top rung of cabinet, and he wasn’t central to the government’s plans. Although he had files that he tried to move forward – notably, and admirably, mental health – he was something of a placeholder.
Ms. Matthews is a different story. In fact, with the exception of Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, she’s the one front-bencher Mr. McGuinty can’t afford to lose.
Ms. Matthews has been tasked with flattening health-care spending increases at about 3 per cent annually – a monumental challenge that’s central to the government’s hopes of eliminating its $16-billion deficit. Largely based on trouncing the province’s pharmacists in a fight over prescription drug costs, the Premier’s office is convinced she’s the minister best suited to winning necessary battles with vested interests.
Even beyond her own portfolio, Ms. Matthews plays a pivotal role in her party. Along with Municipal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne
But, of course, Mr. McGuinty won’t just come out and say any of this. And that’s going to place him in a very difficult position if, for instance, ongoing investigations show any conflict between the air-ambulance agency’s non-profit, public operations and its private ones – not to mention if other investigations show deficiencies in emergency responses. Amid allegations that Ms. Matthews was warned about problems with Ornge and didn’t take sufficient action, how will the Liberals explain why Ms. Matthews gets to keep her job, when Mr. Caplan didn’t?
In part, it appears, they will do so by trying to direct blame toward Mr. Smitherman – something they stayed away from during the furor over eHealth, when he was preparing to run for mayor of Toronto.
Mr. Smitherman didn’t win any friends earlier this month when he wrote to the Toronto Star accusing his successors of failing to oversee or even understand Ornge’s operations. And while Mr. McGuinty hasn’t publicly criticized his former minister, other Liberals have been increasingly willing to take potshots.
The Liberals will also try to draw a distinction between eHealth and Ornge, by noting that the latter functions far more independently than the former, and thus lends itself less to ministerial oversight.
And to some extent, they'll just wait until we start talking about something else.
Among the reasons Ornge has got so much attention lately is that the government hasn’t been making much other news. That will change within the next few weeks, when the release of economist Don Drummond’s
Still, it’s highly unlikely that opposition politicians will be able to resist calling for Ms. Matthews’ head when the Legislature returns next month. And since Mr. McGuinty gave them their pound of flesh last time, it will be hard to blame them.
*
Of course, Deb Matthews must be fired for what has transpired under her watch: McGuinty MUST take accountability for the Liberal-approved piles of policy sh!t which Smitherman left stinking, hidden throughout Ontario.
Smitherman was McGuinty's hand-picked glorious golden boy; McGuinty gave Smitherman free reign to destroy health care throughout Ontario. Smitherman's actions are a direct reflection of McGuinty's poor judgement.
If Caplan got his ass kicked out for essentially what Smitherman did, then the same should apply to Matthews. ORNGE is McGuinty's fiasco as well as Smitherman's: let's not forget, Smitherman WAS ALSO McGUINTY'S hand-picked Deputy Premier of Ontario!! These stinking piles of Liberal crap which still fester in Ontario were not perpetrated by some low-level Liberal hack, these policy fiascos came right from the top, from the highest positions in a Liberal majority, untouchable government!! This goes right to the heart of McGuinty's faulty "trust" in Smitherman, a mis-judgement which has now been revealed in spades. McGuinty must act to recognize the utter fiasco which Smitherman created - under McGuinty's tutelage.
AdRad writes that McGuinty tasked Matthews with "flattening health care spending increases"! Sounds like a polite euphemism for "health care cuts" - y'know, the kind of "cuts" which Good Ole Liberal MPP Jim Bradley had often enjoyed sanctimoniously chortling about, when he smear-mongered 'harris' in opposition!
AdRad doesn't quite get to the rest of the frightening Liberal ideology which is at play here: that these cuts - ooops: 'flattened increases' - are occurring to a populace trapped within a Liberal no-patient-choice, morally and financially bankrupt, state-controlled monopolist setting.
*
Little more than two years ago, Dalton McGuinty set an ostensibly high standard for ministerial accountability.
It didn’t matter that David Caplan
Based on that precedent, the woman who replaced Mr. Caplan should be feeling pretty nervous about now. The controversy at Ornge, the province’s air-ambulance service, bears a striking similarity to eHealth in the way it has unfolded – an ambitious system reform implemented in some haste under Mr. Smitherman that has blown up in a successor’s face. In some ways it might actually be worse, since the current controversy goes beyond business practices to life-and-death questions about the quality of emergency services.
But the early signs are that, while she’s in for an unpleasant few weeks or months, Health Minister Deb Matthews
Mr. Caplan, although well-liked by many of his colleagues, was considered dispensable by the Premier. Despite his senior posting, he was never quite in the top rung of cabinet, and he wasn’t central to the government’s plans. Although he had files that he tried to move forward – notably, and admirably, mental health – he was something of a placeholder.
Ms. Matthews is a different story. In fact, with the exception of Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, she’s the one front-bencher Mr. McGuinty can’t afford to lose.
Ms. Matthews has been tasked with flattening health-care spending increases at about 3 per cent annually – a monumental challenge that’s central to the government’s hopes of eliminating its $16-billion deficit. Largely based on trouncing the province’s pharmacists in a fight over prescription drug costs, the Premier’s office is convinced she’s the minister best suited to winning necessary battles with vested interests.
Even beyond her own portfolio, Ms. Matthews plays a pivotal role in her party. Along with Municipal Affairs Minister Kathleen Wynne
But, of course, Mr. McGuinty won’t just come out and say any of this. And that’s going to place him in a very difficult position if, for instance, ongoing investigations show any conflict between the air-ambulance agency’s non-profit, public operations and its private ones – not to mention if other investigations show deficiencies in emergency responses. Amid allegations that Ms. Matthews was warned about problems with Ornge and didn’t take sufficient action, how will the Liberals explain why Ms. Matthews gets to keep her job, when Mr. Caplan didn’t?
In part, it appears, they will do so by trying to direct blame toward Mr. Smitherman – something they stayed away from during the furor over eHealth, when he was preparing to run for mayor of Toronto.
Mr. Smitherman didn’t win any friends earlier this month when he wrote to the Toronto Star accusing his successors of failing to oversee or even understand Ornge’s operations. And while Mr. McGuinty hasn’t publicly criticized his former minister, other Liberals have been increasingly willing to take potshots.
The Liberals will also try to draw a distinction between eHealth and Ornge, by noting that the latter functions far more independently than the former, and thus lends itself less to ministerial oversight.
And to some extent, they'll just wait until we start talking about something else.
Among the reasons Ornge has got so much attention lately is that the government hasn’t been making much other news. That will change within the next few weeks, when the release of economist Don Drummond’s
Still, it’s highly unlikely that opposition politicians will be able to resist calling for Ms. Matthews’ head when the Legislature returns next month. And since Mr. McGuinty gave them their pound of flesh last time, it will be hard to blame them.
*
Of course, Deb Matthews must be fired for what has transpired under her watch: McGuinty MUST take accountability for the Liberal-approved piles of policy sh!t which Smitherman left stinking, hidden throughout Ontario.
Smitherman was McGuinty's hand-picked glorious golden boy; McGuinty gave Smitherman free reign to destroy health care throughout Ontario. Smitherman's actions are a direct reflection of McGuinty's poor judgement.
If Caplan got his ass kicked out for essentially what Smitherman did, then the same should apply to Matthews. ORNGE is McGuinty's fiasco as well as Smitherman's: let's not forget, Smitherman WAS ALSO McGUINTY'S hand-picked Deputy Premier of Ontario!! These stinking piles of Liberal crap which still fester in Ontario were not perpetrated by some low-level Liberal hack, these policy fiascos came right from the top, from the highest positions in a Liberal majority, untouchable government!! This goes right to the heart of McGuinty's faulty "trust" in Smitherman, a mis-judgement which has now been revealed in spades. McGuinty must act to recognize the utter fiasco which Smitherman created - under McGuinty's tutelage.
AdRad writes that McGuinty tasked Matthews with "flattening health care spending increases"! Sounds like a polite euphemism for "health care cuts" - y'know, the kind of "cuts" which Good Ole Liberal MPP Jim Bradley had often enjoyed sanctimoniously chortling about, when he smear-mongered 'harris' in opposition!
AdRad doesn't quite get to the rest of the frightening Liberal ideology which is at play here: that these cuts - ooops: 'flattened increases' - are occurring to a populace trapped within a Liberal no-patient-choice, morally and financially bankrupt, state-controlled monopolist setting.
*
Friday, January 20, 2012
Reactionary non-innovator McGuinty wants 'innovation' cash!
Further related to this previous post and this previous post...
There were two more interesting letters in the National Post, Jan.19, 2012:
"Note to premiers: Federal $ won’t buy innovation
Jeff Spooner wrote:
Re: Premiers Ask: Should PM Be At Health Talks?, Jan. 16.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall’s proposed health-care innovation fund — financed by the federal government and now backed by Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty — is an insult to all Canadians. What Messrs. Wall and McGuinty are saying, is that it has never dawned on them up to now to be innovative, and since they didn’t have money in an envelope marked “innovation,” it wasn’t going to happen.
Even a street con-man would laugh at what these two Premiers are trying to sell the federal government, and by extension the citizens of Canada. If this is what passes for the braintrust that will solve our health care problems, we are in trouble.
Dr. Charles Steele wrote:
“Innovation,” as proposed by Canada’s premiers, is nothing more than “more of the same” on how to extend a failing Roy Romanow system. When Dr. Brian Day was head of the Canadian Medical Association, he suggested that the premiers should buy tickets to Europe to study their successful health-care systems — a mix of public and private care. Canadians deserve better; now is the time to act."
*
The same monopolist, lying, statist-status-quo enforcing Ontario Liberals, who failed to "innovate" in health care for 8 years (...unless you count new health taxes and corresponding cuts to previously-covered-care as innovative...) now want more federal tax cash to... um... "innovate"?!
What a joke.
One "innovation" which Ontario's hypocritical Liberal hacks McGuinty, Jim Bradley, and Kim Craitor could try, is to desist from spreading their toxic, failing Liberal health care duplicity.
*
There were two more interesting letters in the National Post, Jan.19, 2012:
"Note to premiers: Federal $ won’t buy innovation
Jeff Spooner wrote:
Re: Premiers Ask: Should PM Be At Health Talks?, Jan. 16.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall’s proposed health-care innovation fund — financed by the federal government and now backed by Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty — is an insult to all Canadians. What Messrs. Wall and McGuinty are saying, is that it has never dawned on them up to now to be innovative, and since they didn’t have money in an envelope marked “innovation,” it wasn’t going to happen.
Even a street con-man would laugh at what these two Premiers are trying to sell the federal government, and by extension the citizens of Canada. If this is what passes for the braintrust that will solve our health care problems, we are in trouble.
Dr. Charles Steele wrote:
“Innovation,” as proposed by Canada’s premiers, is nothing more than “more of the same” on how to extend a failing Roy Romanow system. When Dr. Brian Day was head of the Canadian Medical Association, he suggested that the premiers should buy tickets to Europe to study their successful health-care systems — a mix of public and private care. Canadians deserve better; now is the time to act."
*
The same monopolist, lying, statist-status-quo enforcing Ontario Liberals, who failed to "innovate" in health care for 8 years (...unless you count new health taxes and corresponding cuts to previously-covered-care as innovative...) now want more federal tax cash to... um... "innovate"?!
What a joke.
One "innovation" which Ontario's hypocritical Liberal hacks McGuinty, Jim Bradley, and Kim Craitor could try, is to desist from spreading their toxic, failing Liberal health care duplicity.
*
Liberal Jim Bradley: public enemy of health-care reform
John Brackenbury wrote in "Canadians want to talk about private health care" (National Post, Jan17, 2012):
"It is in the national interest for Canadians to identify the enemies of health-care reform and crystallize their motives in our minds. For consideration I wish to put forward the health-care unions, which enjoy the current monopoly on health-care delivery.
Supported by forced contributions from their members, they warn against, "American-style blah blah blah" every time the subject of reform comes up.
On Saturday's Letters page, five university professors..." [see here] "...assert that Stephen Harper is out of touch on health-care reform and "the vast majority of Canadians strongly support" the status quo.
Help me, Post readers, to understand what their motivation would be for such vehement opposition to any kind of reform. Do they just hate their grandchildren, or what? We really really need to have this discussion now."
*
Well: two of the "enemies of health care reform" in Niagara are certainly Ontario Liberal MPP's Jim Bradley and Kim Craitor - along with the rest of Dalton McGuinty's gang of single-payer-pushing monopolists at Queen's Park. ['American-health-care bashing' was Jim Bradley's rhetorical touchstone!]
Many more enemies are in the Liberal-friendly press, protecting Liberals such as Jim 'I hate doctors' Bradley from any discussions, whether on his failed Liberal health-care monopolism or his failed Liberal GreenFear-mongering kyodiotry.
It's 'all settled' to them, therefore, no "discussions" are needed...
*
"It is in the national interest for Canadians to identify the enemies of health-care reform and crystallize their motives in our minds. For consideration I wish to put forward the health-care unions, which enjoy the current monopoly on health-care delivery.
Supported by forced contributions from their members, they warn against, "American-style blah blah blah" every time the subject of reform comes up.
On Saturday's Letters page, five university professors..." [see here] "...assert that Stephen Harper is out of touch on health-care reform and "the vast majority of Canadians strongly support" the status quo.
Help me, Post readers, to understand what their motivation would be for such vehement opposition to any kind of reform. Do they just hate their grandchildren, or what? We really really need to have this discussion now."
*
Well: two of the "enemies of health care reform" in Niagara are certainly Ontario Liberal MPP's Jim Bradley and Kim Craitor - along with the rest of Dalton McGuinty's gang of single-payer-pushing monopolists at Queen's Park. ['American-health-care bashing' was Jim Bradley's rhetorical touchstone!]
Many more enemies are in the Liberal-friendly press, protecting Liberals such as Jim 'I hate doctors' Bradley from any discussions, whether on his failed Liberal health-care monopolism or his failed Liberal GreenFear-mongering kyodiotry.
It's 'all settled' to them, therefore, no "discussions" are needed...
*
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Romanow's one-note chorus sings the same old tune
Further to my previous Romanow-related post...
Two interesting letters appeared in the National Post, Jan.14, 2012:
"Why Romanow is wrong on health care
Re: Roy Romanow’s One-Note Tune, editorial, Jan. 10.
Your editorial fails to appreciate Roy Romanow’s personal reasons for promoting federal control over provincial health care. While you correctly state that federal interference in the provincial domain of health-care delivery is unconstitutional, there is a valid explanation for Mr. Romanow’s position.
When he was NDP premier of Saskatchewan, he presided over the worst-performing provincial health system in Canadian history. Many hospitals were closed, waiting lists grew massively and patients suffered. It is reasonable therefore for him to believe that the federal government could do better.
In a CBC interview, I asked Mr. Romanow a direct question: “In a free and democratic society, in which citizens can legally spend their money on tobacco, alcohol, gambling and even pornography, what is wrong with the freedom to spend ones own after tax dollars on the health care of our self or our loved ones?” He fudged, obfuscated and mumbled, then changed the subject and refused to answer.
It is often stated that Canada shares with North Korea and Cuba the existence and enforcement of laws that restrict our right to choice in health care. This statement is false — we are the only country on Earth that has such laws. Our health system is therefore, as supporters of the status quo point out, a truly distinct and defining feature of our Canadian identity. We are indebted to Mr. Romanow, and indeed to politicians and governments across the country, for this unique status.
Dr. Brian Day, Vancouver.
… or is he?
The Supreme Court of Canada has clearly affirmed the constitutionality of the Canada Health Act. The suggestion that the Canadian constitution gives the federal government no role in health policy is wrong as a matter of law. The vast majority of Canadians strongly support the national, publicly funded, health-care system Roy Romanow has worked hard to defend. It is Prime Minister Harper, not Roy Romanow, who is out of touch on the issue of health-care reform.
Prof. Martha Jackman, University of Ottawa; Prof. Timothy Caulfield, University of Alberta; Prof. Colleen Flood, University of Toronto; Prof. Constance MacIntosh, Dalhousie University; Prof. Emeritus Sanda Rodgers, University of Ottawa".
*
That's the usual one-note monopolist line from Jackman.
*
Two interesting letters appeared in the National Post, Jan.14, 2012:
"Why Romanow is wrong on health care
Re: Roy Romanow’s One-Note Tune, editorial, Jan. 10.
Your editorial fails to appreciate Roy Romanow’s personal reasons for promoting federal control over provincial health care. While you correctly state that federal interference in the provincial domain of health-care delivery is unconstitutional, there is a valid explanation for Mr. Romanow’s position.
When he was NDP premier of Saskatchewan, he presided over the worst-performing provincial health system in Canadian history. Many hospitals were closed, waiting lists grew massively and patients suffered. It is reasonable therefore for him to believe that the federal government could do better.
In a CBC interview, I asked Mr. Romanow a direct question: “In a free and democratic society, in which citizens can legally spend their money on tobacco, alcohol, gambling and even pornography, what is wrong with the freedom to spend ones own after tax dollars on the health care of our self or our loved ones?” He fudged, obfuscated and mumbled, then changed the subject and refused to answer.
It is often stated that Canada shares with North Korea and Cuba the existence and enforcement of laws that restrict our right to choice in health care. This statement is false — we are the only country on Earth that has such laws. Our health system is therefore, as supporters of the status quo point out, a truly distinct and defining feature of our Canadian identity. We are indebted to Mr. Romanow, and indeed to politicians and governments across the country, for this unique status.
Dr. Brian Day, Vancouver.
… or is he?
The Supreme Court of Canada has clearly affirmed the constitutionality of the Canada Health Act. The suggestion that the Canadian constitution gives the federal government no role in health policy is wrong as a matter of law. The vast majority of Canadians strongly support the national, publicly funded, health-care system Roy Romanow has worked hard to defend. It is Prime Minister Harper, not Roy Romanow, who is out of touch on the issue of health-care reform.
Prof. Martha Jackman, University of Ottawa; Prof. Timothy Caulfield, University of Alberta; Prof. Colleen Flood, University of Toronto; Prof. Constance MacIntosh, Dalhousie University; Prof. Emeritus Sanda Rodgers, University of Ottawa".
*
That's the usual one-note monopolist line from Jackman.
*
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
