Time To Reform Health Care

Premiers are meeting in Vancouver for their annual premiers conference. They are calling for on the feds to provide long term funding and benchmarks.for health care.

VANCOUVER — Canada's premiers and doctors are calling for stable, long-term funding and established benchmarks for medical care in what's looking to be difficult negotiations on a new federal health transfer accord with the Harper government.

An Ipsos Reid poll indicates 90% Canadians want the Federal government to take a lead roll in negotiating a new health accord with the provinces.

OTTAWA — With the Canada Health Act set to expire in 2014, about 90 per cent of Canadians "agree" the federal government should lead the way to a new heath accord with the provinces, a new poll suggests.

From the same poll 57% of respondents strongly agree and 32% somewhat agree that the feds should lead the way for the system to be reformed.

 When asked whether it was important for the government to lead a transformation of the health care system, 57 per cent of respondents strongly agreed, while 32 per cent "somewhat" agreed.

 Support for reform  is obviously there. It's up to the politicians to find the cajones to make something happen. If something isn't done very soon we could have much bigger problem than we do now. How to reform the system is the question.

Here is my take. Socialized medicine hasn't worked out very well.  First we must start taking charge of our and our family's own health.  One can do this without government  by eating right, keeping active. watching our stress levels etc.  We must start taking  on personal responbility. We should not rely on and expect the government to take care of us from cradle to grave.

Secondly one thing that  the provinces can immediately do is to cut out a lot of the bureaucracy.     It would streamline the system by getting rid of the duplication that is inefficient and adds to wait times and cost.  The savings could be put toward home care and more long term care facilities that frees up active care beds.

Another thing is to allow for some private delivery of health care and for those who can afford it allow them to pay for their care out of their own pocket . Let the free market work. It will determine cost and quality.  Maybe even some private insurance could be sold across provincial borders which would cause competiveness.  The public needs choice.

If at least a mixed system of public and private delivery of health care were implemented you would see a more efficient, cheaper, and better qualitity of  care. We would all benefit in the end. 

Any of you have any better ideas? What say you?

Evil in Norway

Earlier today in two separate incidents terror hit Norway. It resulted in an evil barbaric act.   One took place in a government building in Oslo,the other one at a youth camp.  These pictures shows how incredibly evil this was.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has issued this statement.

“I was shocked and intensely saddened to learn of the attacks in Oslo and Utøya today.

“We deeply regret the loss of life and injuries resulting from the explosion which occurred today in the government quarters, where the Prime Minister’s Office and other government offices are located.

"We were also horrified to learn that a gunman has opened fire at a youth camp at Utøya.

“Canada condemns these barbarous and senseless acts of violence and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, witnesses and all those affected by these attacks.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Laureen and I wish to express Canada’s sincere condolences to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and to the Norwegian people.

“Canada stands with Norway on this tragic day.”

We should all condemn this evil act and pray for the victims!

US Debt Ceiling Crisis Affects Us in Canada

America is in a deep financial crisis that could cause them to default in the coming days if President Obama and the Republicans can't come to an agreement.  Right now both sides are very far apart and have until Aug.2nd.to make a deal.   They are in a very difficult situation, they're in for some pretty tough times.

The Democrats want to raise taxes while the GOP wants to make cuts to entitlement programs.  Neither are budging right now.  They're debt right now is whopping $14.3 trillion and increasing everyday.  They are in deep trouble and even if they come to a deal it will not be the end.  They're still going to somehow have to eliminate their deficit and pay down that debt. They won't be able to even make the interest payments on that debt nevermind the principal. They've been spending, borrowing and  printing way too much money. They have to stop that number one. Number two,they have to drastically cut spending and reduce the size of government big time. No matter what  Americans are in for a  long tough slog. 

Should we be concerned?  You bet! . If the US defaults, it  will send shock waves through the world. It's affecting the markets already. It could result in another recession if not a depression.  There's not a darn thing we can do about it.   except maybe to get our own house in order the best we can both at the government level and our personal finances and pray that things will turn around.

 

Canada could be facing fresh economic headwinds, with rising unemployment and troubled government finances – and there’s not a thing political leaders in Ottawa can do about it.

The United States is gripped by a political crisis over raising that country’s debt ceiling, with time running out until the Aug. 2 deadline. If that deadline passes without a deal, the world’s largest economy risks defaulting on its debt.

Yeah our economy seems quite good right now. The US is still our largest trading partner and whatever happens it does affect us. Remember in the Eurozone things don't look particularly healthy either.

We are not an island. We are living in a global economy.. Do whatever you can to prepare yourself just in case.  We could be in for some rocky times ourselves   You know what they say, prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

It Starts NOW!!!

Times have never been so exciting in Alberta politics. For the first time in years we have a real race going on.  The PCs have been in power for 40yrs now and they need to go.  Now they have a real rival. The Wildrose party is a relatively new party and is an honest to goodness real contender.

Alberta's Wildrose party held it's Annual General Meeting over the weekend. The theme was "It Starts Now" They signaled they are ready to take on the PC's who have been in power way too long and have become arrogant,entitled,and in recent years, incompetent and corrupt.  The Progressive Conservative party  have done nothing "conservative" in the few years. Alberta is a mess!  Wildrose is the only real conservative party in Alberta. I believe they are quite capable  to fix the province especially with Danielle Smith who is articulate, smart, credible and who has a lot of great ideas. 



As Wildrose lays out their platform they will be urging voters to give them a chance. She also told delegates that the PC's had their chance even changing leaders won't cut it,  they blew it and it's time for them to go.

She took dead aim at the six Tory candidates vying to replace Ed Stelmach as PC leader and premier, accusing them of being just as responsible for a long record of government failures.
Smith said would-be premiers Alison Redford, Ted Morton, Doug Griffiths, Doug Horner, Gary Mar and Rick Orman are "pretending" to disagree with some of Stelmach's unpopular policies.
They're also pretending to stand up for Albertans, protect land owners and search for real health reforms when, in reality, they're "running away from their own records as fast as they can," she said.
"The uncomfortable truth is this: they all helped create the problems we face today and now they are all pretending they are the ones who can fix it," Smith, flanked by Wildrose candidates, told party members packed into the Telus Convention Centre.
"They had their chance. They blew it. All of them. It's time for them to go.

If I were the PC's I would take Wildrose seriously because the latest poll says Wildrose is in striking distance of the PCs. and we're not even into an election campaign yet when the public pays closer attention.

Yeah the PC's and the media will try to smear Leader Danielle Smith and her party but  it's not going to work.
They saw what happened to the old Reform party now the Conservative party and it's leaders from Preston Manning to Stockwell Day to Stephen Harper.  They will be prepared. 

So to all you small "c" conservatives in Alberta why don't you get on board and help get a real conservative party elected in the next election.  We need change. Wildrose is your only choice. It's time to get to work and yes it starts NOW!!!

PS. Wildrose will scrap the Alberta Human Rights Commission. That alone should be enough to support them.  PCs have no intention of doing anything about the kangaroo courts. 

The Opposition and the Media Pundits Should Now Apologize To the Troops

The opposition and the media should immediately apologize to our troops.  This whole Afghan detainee issue has been nothing but a witch hunt from day one. The Liberals used this cabal to find a "gotcha," a "smoking gun" moment on the Conservative government for shear political gain and  the media played right along.  This as with other faux scandals was unfounded and a total waste.

In the process they used the troops waging a smear campaign against our them.  Remember this from John Macallum on CBC when he accused our troops of war crimes?


Over 4000 pages of documents on the Afghan detainee issue was released on Wednesday.  There was absolutely NO evidence our troops or the government was complicit in any war crimes at all. Matthew Fisher  a correspondent for Post Media who has spent a great deal of time in Afghanistan knows a little bit of what goes on there, has a must read piece today in the Calgary Herald says it's time to give this detainee nonsense a rest.

There is still not a jot of proof that Canada and Canadians did anything wrong while overseeing and handing over Taliban prisoners of war during the early days of the combat mission in southern Afghanistan. The so-called scandal has been much ado about nothing. 

I agree with Mr. Fisher. This has been much ado about nothing.  The smear against the troops was disgusting and uncalled for. They do deserve a public apology.  The taxpayer deserves an apology too for that matter for a waste of 12 months and $12 million for this fiasco. 

I advise you to read the whole article, he also has some interesting  info about Richard Colvin,remember him the one who the Tor Star who portrayed  as a "whistleblower"?  

I have known Colvin for nearly 20 years. I spent several hours with him the night he left Kandahar at the end of his brief tour in 2006. I have always found it strange that during our discussion that lasted several hours, the treatment of Afghan detainees by Canadians or by the Afghan authorities never came up in any way.
Colvin spoke at great length that evening about three things: how troubled his love life was, how Foreign Affairs had repeatedly passed him over for promotion and how because of the death of diplomat Glyn Berry in a suicide bomber attack a few months earlier in Kandahar, he had not been allowed to go out into to field to get a sense of what was going on.