During the recent election campaign, all parties supported increased spending on "Health Care" despite the fact that such spending may have already reached unsustainable levels. More serious even than the financial implications is the degree to which our "Health Care" system has eroded the quality of care and respect for the individual humanity of each "patient". We are all familiar with stories of months on waiting lists, hours in emergency rooms, squalid unsanitary conditions on wards, burned out staff treating patients like annoying interruptions, and doctors consistently overbooking office visits with absurd rules such as "only one complaint per visit".
Despite all of this (and much more) we still hear Canadians claiming we have a marvelous system that we need to protect at all costs (literally, apparently). It's long past time to admit, our "Health Care" system is broken and corrupt and needs to be fixed to improve patient care, health outcomes, accessibility, staff morale, and financial sustainability. It is also past time to recognize that spending more money without significant changes in philosophy and culture is only compounding the problems.
With this in mind, it was not encouraging to hear PM Harper's post election comments which seemed more concerned with placating the "friends of Medicare" than treating the sickness of our system. Some suggest that somehow the recent election has empowered the West, or, alternatively, long-suffering conservatives. I'm not optimistic that we have set the stage for meaningful reform. I think we still have some hard campaigning to do and can expect strong push-back to efforts to administer the strong medicine needed to cure our "Health Care" system. Rather than try and nudge our Conservative MPs toward "Health Care" reform, I think we should fight for reforms at the provincial level (which actually has the constitutional jurisdiction for health).
In Alberta, we have a promising alternative in the proposals of the Wildrose. [see more here and especially here]. The Wildrose recognize the severity and scope of the problem, and that attempting to fix these problems will require courage and innovation. I am particularly heartened by the direction of shifting power to "the patient" by, for example, having funding follow the individual rather than the current top-down, bureaucratic, politicized models. If we accomplish meaningful reform in Alberta, it will hearten those in other provinces to follow our lead. We should be fully prepared for resistance to our efforts from the federal "conservative" government. However, Alberta has fought such fights before and the results have not only benefited Albertans but ultimately all Canadians as well.
It is a far more serious situation than even those of us concerned about it realize. There was talk of Alberta addressing the problems about 10 years ago - even to the point of opting out of the Canada Health Act. Unfortunately, we caved on that. Since then we have subsidized a sick system with billions of our allegedly "dirty dollars". Let's keep our dollars in Alberta, fix our system, and demonstrate to all Canadians what a sound, healthy and effective "Health Care" system would really look like.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Some Historical Perspective on Canada's Election
The first election I was actively interested in took place on March 31, 1958. There was lots of excitement in my rural Alberta community about a real Westerner, John Diefenbaker, having a chance to form a majority government and, perhaps, do some things that would help the Western economy, especially we farm families. Now the May 2, 2011 Canadian election has produced some historic results so, some comparisons:
1958 - Liberals reduced to 48 seats - a then record low - and a popular vote of 33.4%but Lester Pearson, new to the leadership, stayed on and would win Liberal minorities in 1963 and 1965.
2011 - Liberals reduced to 34 seats, a record low - and also a record low popular vote 18.9%. Michael Ignatieff has resigned.
1958 - Conservatives win 208 seats, an increase of 97 seats. Their 50 seats in Quebec were populated with many who had no experience and few qualifications. John Diefenbaker's inability to integrate most of those 50 into effective members of the Conservative caucus eventually cost him, and, one might argue, the country, dearly.
2011 - New Democrats win 105 seats, an increase of 65 seats. Their 58 seats in Quebec are populated by many who have no experience and few qualifications. Jack Layton faces a huge challenge in integrating Quebec MPs into effective members of his caucus without alienating support for the NDP in other regions of Canada (where one might notice they only hold 47 seats or about 20% of the total).
1958 - Newfoundland and Labrador - despite national majority, Conservatives win only 2 of 7 seats.
2011 - Newfoundland and Labrador - despite national majority, Conservatives win only 1 of 7 seats.
1958 - Alberta - Conservatives win 17 of 17 seats. A swing from 13 of 17 for Social Credit in the previous election. There have been few non-conservatives since.
2011 - Alberta - Conservatives win 27 of 28 seats.
1958 - 4 Western provinces combined: Conservatives win 65 of 70 seats. This was an historic break through for the Conservatives and the legacy of Diefenbaker's victory still energizes the Conservative vote in the West although he has long since failed to get credit for it.
2011 - 4 Western provinces combined: Conservatives win 72 of 91 seats.
1958 - 4 Western provinces combined: Liberals win 0 of 70 seats.
2011 - 4 Western provinces combined: Liberals win 4 of 91 seats.
There were 2 Liberal votes cast at the polling station at our Golden Valley School in 1958 and I remember my parents speculating as to who might be so much out of the norm to have done such a thing. It helped me to understand that there is never 100% unanimity.
Now in 2011 there is again an air of expectancy that something good might come out of this result. It would be suitably humbling if any of our current MP elects knew their history and could so conduct themselves that 53 years from now (2064) Canadians can look back with appreciation for what that generation of 2011 accomplished.
1958 - Liberals reduced to 48 seats - a then record low - and a popular vote of 33.4%but Lester Pearson, new to the leadership, stayed on and would win Liberal minorities in 1963 and 1965.
2011 - Liberals reduced to 34 seats, a record low - and also a record low popular vote 18.9%. Michael Ignatieff has resigned.
1958 - Conservatives win 208 seats, an increase of 97 seats. Their 50 seats in Quebec were populated with many who had no experience and few qualifications. John Diefenbaker's inability to integrate most of those 50 into effective members of the Conservative caucus eventually cost him, and, one might argue, the country, dearly.
2011 - New Democrats win 105 seats, an increase of 65 seats. Their 58 seats in Quebec are populated by many who have no experience and few qualifications. Jack Layton faces a huge challenge in integrating Quebec MPs into effective members of his caucus without alienating support for the NDP in other regions of Canada (where one might notice they only hold 47 seats or about 20% of the total).
1958 - Newfoundland and Labrador - despite national majority, Conservatives win only 2 of 7 seats.
2011 - Newfoundland and Labrador - despite national majority, Conservatives win only 1 of 7 seats.
1958 - Alberta - Conservatives win 17 of 17 seats. A swing from 13 of 17 for Social Credit in the previous election. There have been few non-conservatives since.
2011 - Alberta - Conservatives win 27 of 28 seats.
1958 - 4 Western provinces combined: Conservatives win 65 of 70 seats. This was an historic break through for the Conservatives and the legacy of Diefenbaker's victory still energizes the Conservative vote in the West although he has long since failed to get credit for it.
2011 - 4 Western provinces combined: Conservatives win 72 of 91 seats.
1958 - 4 Western provinces combined: Liberals win 0 of 70 seats.
2011 - 4 Western provinces combined: Liberals win 4 of 91 seats.
There were 2 Liberal votes cast at the polling station at our Golden Valley School in 1958 and I remember my parents speculating as to who might be so much out of the norm to have done such a thing. It helped me to understand that there is never 100% unanimity.
Now in 2011 there is again an air of expectancy that something good might come out of this result. It would be suitably humbling if any of our current MP elects knew their history and could so conduct themselves that 53 years from now (2064) Canadians can look back with appreciation for what that generation of 2011 accomplished.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)