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Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin Watch: USA – Don’t Dictate to Me
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin talks to media following a tour of a sawmill in Richmond just south of Vancouver, British Columbia December 14, 2005.Reuters has Don’t dictate to me, Canada’s Martin tells US
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin escalated a war of words with the United States on Wednesday, telling Washington not to dictate to him what topics he can raise in the run-up to Canada’s January 23 election.
But U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, who warned Canadian politicians on Tuesday not to bash the United States as part of their campaigning, denied on Wednesday he was trying to control the election debate.
Martin — who has regularly attacked the U.S. stance on a bilateral trade dispute over softwood lumber and also criticized Washington’s approach to climate change — took aim at Wilkins’s warning for a second consecutive day.
“When it comes to defending Canadian values, when it comes to standing up for Canadian interests, I’m going to call it like I see it,” he told reporters in a lumber yard in Richmond, British Columbia. “I am not going to be dictated to as to the subjects I should raise.”
Well, we will see how well this corrupt political HACK does in the January national elections.
Flap handicaps that corrupt Paul Martin will be the BIGGEST LOSER in this shameless political posturing.
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Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin Watch: C’EST LA VIE
U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins leaves the podium after delivering a speech to the Canadian Club in Ottawa, December 13, 2005.Reuters has Canada shrugs off U.S. warning to back off
The United States made an unprecedented foray into Canada’s election campaign on Tuesday, warning politicians not to bash Washington in their bid to win the January 23 election.
But an unapologetic Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin responded immediately by saying “c’est la vie” — that’s life — if the United States did not like his remarks, and he would not accept anyone telling him he cannot defend his country.
And Flap says c’est la vie to any tourism or purchasing of Canadian goods, EH!
In a hard-hitting speech in Ottawa, U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins lamented what he called relentless and incessant criticism of his country, which he speculated might begin to sow doubt about the strength of the binational relationship.
“Canada never has to tear the United States down to build itself up,” Wilkins said.
“It may be smart election politics to thump your chest and constantly criticize your friend and your No. 1 trading partner. But it’s a slippery slope and all of us should hope it doesn’t have a long-term impact on our relationship.”
Wilkins did not name the prime minister directly, but he specifically targeted a comment made last week at the Montreal climate change conference in which Martin called on the United States to heed a “global conscience” and join efforts to combat global warming.
Paul Martin is a crusty old political hack that will lose control of his CORRUPT fiefdom in January. The Canadian people should tell him to JUST SHUT UP NOW – DON’T YOU KNOW……..
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Canadian Adscam Scandel: Canadian Government Falls on No-Confidence Vote
Canadian Prime Minister Paul MartinThe ASSociated Press has Canadian Government Falls on No-Confidence
A corruption scandal forced a vote of no-confidence Monday that toppled Prime Minister Paul Martin’s minority government, triggering an unusual election campaign during the Christmas holidays.
Canada’s three opposition parties, which control a majority in Parliament, voted against Martin’s government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation.
The loss means an election for all 308 seats in the lower House of Commons, likely on Jan. 23. Martin and his Cabinet would continue to govern until then.
Opposition leaders last week called for the no-confidence vote after Martin rejected their demands to dissolve Parliament in January and hold early elections in February. Monday’s vote follows a flurry of spending announcements in Ottawa last week, with the government trying to advance its agenda ahead of its demise.
Martin is expected to dissolve the House of Commons on Tuesday and set a firm date for the elections. Under Canadian law, elections must be held on a Monday _ unless it falls on a holiday _ and the campaign period is sharply restricted.
Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters Blog who owns the Adscam Scandel Story has ‘This Government Has Lost The Moral Authority To Govern’
The Canadian Parliament approved a historic no-confidence motion against the Liberal executive in Ottawa this afternoon, dissolving the government and forcing elections weeks after the Gomery Inquiry issued its first comprehensive report on the Liberal corruption in the Sponsorship Program:…
I’m listening to the aftermath on CPAC, where the Liberal apologist wants to tell Canada that Adscam involved “a few Liberals”, but that “no one believes that it involved the party as a whole”. That apparently will be the line that the Liberals take in this election, along with a scolding tone about all of the great work that the Commons could be doing instead of holding another election seventeen months after the last one.
Well, that’s why elections get held — so that the Liberals can make that argument now that the country knows about the extent of the corruption. If they want to offer up the notion that just a few Liberals involved themselves in the money-laundering and featherbedding that went on in Adscam, I expect that the Tories and BQ will quote extensively from the Gomery report to remind voters of the extent of the corruption, including all of the money that flowed back into the Liberal Party through the government contracts given to cronies of Jean Chretien.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin gives a thumbs-up to caucus members as he stands next to Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, right, after voting against a no-confidence motion in Ottawa, Monday, Nov. 28, 2005. Canada’s three opposition parties, which control a majority in Parliament, voted against Martin’s government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation.It is about time the Canadian parliament was dissolved and new elections called.
Flap thought it would be this past summer but the politicians waited for the
of the Gomery Commission that is located here.
READ IT ALL.
Will the Liberal Party of Paul Martin be able to explain away the rank corruption of their government?
Will Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party, be able to form a majority or a minority-coalition government after the elections?
Stay tuned…….
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Canada to Limit Drug Exports?
Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh speaks to the media following a cabinet meeting at the Foreign Affairs building in Ottawa June 29, 2005. Dosanjh announced the federal government will draw up legislation giving it the right to ban the bulk sale of prescription drugs and other medicines to the United States when necessary to ensure sufficient supplies in Canada.Canada to Ban Bulk Exports of Rx Drugs
Canada can’t continue to be a cheap “drug store for the United States” and intends to ban bulk export of prescription drugs when supplies are low at home, the health minister said Wednesday.
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said he must ensure Canadians continue to have access to an adequate supply of safe and affordable prescription drugs, and he would launch initiatives, including legislative and regulatory changes, to protect the supply and safety of Canadian drugs.
Dosanjh, in an ambiguous statement at a news conference in Ottawa, said he intended to introduce legislation when the House of Commons reconvenes this fall that would allow for the temporary ban of bulk exports when supplies are running low at home.
He also intends to establish a drug supply network within the federal ministry Health Canada and work with provinces and pharmaceutical companies to provide more comprehensive data on Canada’s prescription drug supply.
“We are in fact looking at a host of issues,” he said. “The legislation would definitely mean a ban on large-scale drug exports to the United States, particularly when there’s a shortage here.”
This is understandable.
Why should the Socialized healthcare system of Canada subsidize a free market in the USA?
Americans will bargain for better prices or have their government representatives guarantee better competition.
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Canada Socialized Medicine: Sends Pregnant Women to USA Again
Whenever, someone mentions a single payor socialized healthcare system for the USA, please send them this link.
Third pregnant woman sent to U.S. for care: Ontario short of intensive care beds for babies
Another pregnant woman in Ontario was sent to the United States last week because there weren’t enough intensive care beds for babies in the province, the Toronto Star has learned.
She is the third pregnant woman to be sent south of the border for care since April 1.
The woman was moved because she needed to be cared for in a hospital that also had a neo-natal intensive care bed, known as level 3 care, in case she delivered early. There was no room for her last week in hospitals in Toronto, London, Hamilton and Kingston offering that level of care. When medically necessary, CritiCall is authorized to access care outside the province.
The woman’s transfer is a sign that a shortage of neo-natal intensive care beds in the province may be getting worse. From April 2004 to March this year, only two expectant women were sent to the U.S.
Last week, the Star reported two pregnant Ontario women were sent to the U.S. earlier this month because no space was available in hospitals that can care for both high-risk mothers and premature infants. Neither delivered their babies in the U.S.
So, now the USA is supporting a failed socialized experiment north of the border?
Wonder if the MSM will cover this the next time Hillary expounds upon her single payor socialized vision?
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Kelowna: Don’t Get Sick There
Flap travelled a few summers ago to Kelowna, British Columbia to meet up with a friend who happened to play the same computer game: Counter-Strike. It is a beautiful city with picturesque views and seemingly very friendly people.
However, after reading this piece I suppose Flap was lucky to not need a physician or hospital. Here we have an another example of Canada’s Socialized single payor healthcare system.
A Kelowna man who drove an unconscious man to the parking lot of his local hospital couldn’t believe his ears when medical staff told him to call 911 and wait for an ambulance.
Ralph Vogel and his wife had been letting a homeless man sleep in their motor home, but became alarmed when they couldn’t wake him Wednesday morning. So Vogel powered up the motor home and drove the man to the Kelowna General Hospital. He ran inside and told medical staff that a man was either dying or dead in his motor home. When staff told him to call 911 and wait for an ambulance, he told them that the man was just outside in the parking lot. He was still told to call 911. By the time the ambulance arrived, it was much too late. The man had already been dead for several hours.
The hospital now admits that staff made a mistake by refusing to treat the man in the parking lot, just in case there was a chance he could still be saved.
This isn’t the first time Kelowna General Hospital staff have refused to treat someone just outside their doors. Three years ago, a woman who collapsed just metres away from the emergency room doors also had to wait for an ambulance.
Alison Paine of the Interior Health Authority says policy changes have been made since that embarrassing incident. But she said the policy’s conditions for helping someone in need of emergency care were not fulfilled in this case. “It is not only [hospital] policy, but Interior Health policy, that if somebody is in need of emergency care in the parking lot, that we go out and help them,” Paine said. “But obviously something has gone wrong here.”
Flap wonders what a tourist from the USA would have to endure if he or she had a medical problem.
In some areas of Canada their residents can just lately purchase private medical insurance without going to jail.
This example of a single payor socialized healthcare system system should remind us what USA medicine could become if Hillary Clinton and her minions are able to “reform” American private healthcare.
As for Flap, he won’t be visiting Canada anytime soon.
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Paul Martin and Liberal Party Survive
In a late night session of Parliament, Canadian Prime Minister and his Liberal Party survived a series of no-confidence votes:
The Liberals, with the support of the NDP and Tories, easily defeated the Bloc Québécois in a vote on a federal budget bill, 249-53.
That was just one of a handful of confidence measures voted on in a marathon session in the House of Commons.
The Liberals came within a hair of collapse just a few weeks ago.
But the tension in the Commons has cooled somewhat, as the Tories have been slumping in public-opinion polls and are less eager for an election.
The opposition predicts the Liberals will survive the remaining votes and would only lose if they engineered their own defeat.
It is obvious form the voting pattern, the Tories simply did not have sufficient votes to even tie a no-confidence test.
With the decline in the polls for the Conservative Party, even with the Adscam Scandel and Gomery Inquiry the government has been ripe to fall.
Stephen Harper has been unable to orchestrate a change.
Is it time for the Tories to choose new leadership? -
Stephen Harper: On His Way Out?
Canadian Conservative Party Insiders are becoming increasingly unhappy with the leadership of Stephen Harper and members are questioning whether he can lead the party successfully forward in the next election:
Political knives are out for Stephen Harper as his federal Conservatives sink deeper in the polls, and the sharpest weapons are being brandished by members of his own party.
“There is a lot of discontent with the turn of things. People are saying it’s time to replace the leader,” said one key Conservative organizer in Toronto who, like many others, asked not to be named because it could hurt his status in the party.
Just a few months ago, Mr. Harper won the support of 84 per cent of party members at a policy convention. Although a recent poll puts the Conservatives eight percentage points behind the Liberals and suggests that six in 10 Canadians have a negative view of Mr. Harper, he can be unseated only if he decides to step aside.
Without a doubt the Stronach affair and the out-manuvering of Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Liberal Party have hurt Harper.
It was almost certain a few weeks ago that the Liberal Party would not survive a no-confidence vote.
So, was it Harper’s fault? or lack of leadership?
But, behind the scenes, party members from coast to coast are pointing fingers and asking why opinion surveys have the Tories battling for third place nationally when the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal should still be tarring the Liberals with the stigma of corruption.
Dissatisfaction with Mr. Harper’s leadership “started expanding with the Belinda [Stronach] defection and then it continued to expand when we didn’t get our [confidence] vote passed [on May 19] and a lot of people in the party are tired of waiting,” said one organizer, who also asked to remain anonymous.
“This guy was supposed to be the answer, and, instead of being 20 points up in the polls which should be happening with the way things are in the Liberal Party, he’s eight points down in the polls. Like, what the hell?”
Anonymous back stabbing by other politicians is always good gossip.
And the rumours abound regarding new leadership:
As party members grumble about their leader’s performance, rumours also abound about campaigns to replace him.
One of the more widely circulated stories appeared yesterday on the Bourque website – a website that Canadian politicians and political junkies pay much attention to. It said that Jim Flaherty, the former Ontario provincial cabinet minister and leadership contender, met with other Conservatives at the posh home of retail heiress Nicky Eaton to discuss his chances. Mr. Flaherty said yesterday he was both “flabbergasted” by the story and unaware of such a meeting.
Tony Clement, who ran against Mr. Harper for the party’s leadership, was also said to have attended the meeting. He said yesterday he has been to many soirées at the home of Ms. Eaton but has never discussed Mr. Flaherty’s leadership aspirations. “A meeting to discuss Jim Flaherty running for federal leader?” Mr. Clement said. “I’ve never been involved in any of those discussions in my life.”
Another rumour had Peter MacKay, the deputy party leader, meeting in Toronto last weekend to test the waters for himself.
But, (Butt- Monkey here)the question is: would the Conservative Party be better served by another leader?
Sounds like a no-confidence caucus vote is in order.
Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters has this:
But as I noted yesterday, even with these opportunities to push for new elections, the polling numbers have the Tories stymied. At the moment, the main problem with getting Canadians to support the Conservatives looks to be Harper himself. If Harper wants to retain his leadership position, he needs to get out and start doing some high-profile interviews, hit the stumps, and start really campaigning to make Canada feel comfortable with a Harper prime ministry. That might go quite a ways in dampening internal Tory dissatisfaction with the missed oppportunity in May.
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Canada Supreme Court: Prohibitions on Private Insurance are Invalid
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that prohibitions on private insurance are invalid since the public system has failed to deliver medical in a timely, reliable way and that Government bans on private health insurance have increased the risk to the life and health of Canadians:
The Court majority agreed with a challenge from a Quebec patient and doctor who argued that prohibiting private health insurance jeopardizes the well-being of people who desperately need treatment.
The ruling struck down Quebec laws that guarantee a virtual monopoly on medical services for the public health system, and it placed other, similar schemes in great doubt.
It looks like Canadians will finally have choice in their healthcare choices.
Viva La Free Market!
The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health-care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care,†Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote on behalf of Mr. Justice Jack Major and Mr. Justice Michel Bastarache.
â€The evidence also demonstrates that the prohibition against private health insurance and its consequence of denying people vital health care result in physical and psychological suffering that meets a threshold test of seriousness.â€
Chief Justice McLachlin said that experience of several other western democracies with public health-care systems is that allowing limited private care can provide benefits to the public.
Yes, a private healthcare system with vouchers for the truely indigent and disabled is the far better system than a socialized state controlled system.
The delays in the Canadian system are well known and the displacements widely documented.This global track record â€refutes the government’s theory that a prohibition on private health insurance is connected to maintaining quality public health care,†she said.
Madam Justice Marie Deschamps – whose concurring reasons gave Chief Justice McLachlin the majority she needed – said: â€The evidence shows that, in the case of certain surgical procedures, the delays that are the necessary result of waiting lists increase the patient’s risk of mortality or the risk that his or her injuries will become irreparable.
Exactly, and Flap will post links to the written opinions as they become available.
Update #1
The New York Times has the story: Canadian Court Chips Away at National Health Care:
The Canadian Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance today, dealing an acute blow to the publicly financed national health care system.
The court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country’s vaunted nationwide coverage, but legal experts said the ruling would open the door to a wave of lawsuits challenging the health care system in other provinces.
The system, providing Canadians with free doctor’s services that are paid for by taxes, has generally been supported by the public, and is broadly identified with the Canadian national character.
But in recent years, patients have been forced to wait longer for diagnostic tests and elective surgery, while the wealthy and well connected either seek care in the United States or use influence to jump ahead on waiting lists.
The court ruled that the waiting lists had become so long that they violated patients’ “liberty, safety and security” under the Quebec charter, which covers about one-quarter of Canada’s population.
Healthcare is only looking up for the many Canadians stuck in the back of the healthcare line.
Small Dead Animals has some good comments on Canadian Healthcare.
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Liberal Party MP’s: Plot to Kill Same Sex Marriage Bill
Liberal MP Pat O’Brien announces at a news conference in Ottawa on Monday that he is quitting the Liberal party to sit as an independent.Canadian Liberal Party members met last Thursday to plan strategy and to plot the ultimate demise of a same-sex marriage bill:
It was an extraordinary meeting in which the MPs discussed strategy, talked of ways to stall the bill and tossed out various scenarios. They even spoke about the possibility of supporting the Conservatives on a no-confidence motion to bring down the government, which would, in effect, kill the marriage bill.
Another person at the meeting was London, Ont., MP Pat O’Brien. A vocal participant, he laid out for his colleagues his frustration with the committee process and the bill.
But he gave no indication he was thinking about the drastic step he took yesterday — leaving the caucus to sit as an independent.
Flap reported yesterday – Paul O’Brien Leaves the Liberal Party: New Election Call?
In his news conference yesterday, Mr. O’Brien said he would do anything he could to stall or defeat the marriage bill, refusing to rule out voting against the government on its forthcoming budget bills.
During the news conference, Mr. O’Brien repeatedly referred to the committee process as a “farce.”
Captain Ed over At Captain’s Quarters has this:
O’Brien’s defection has left the Commons equally split, considering the alliances between the parties. The Tories/BQ faction has 152 seats, the same as the ruling Liberal/NDP bloc, with now four independents, including O’Brien. O’Brien indicated that he would consider voting against the government on the next confidence motion that gets tabled, which would split the independents and leave the decision once again to the Speaker, a result which would save Martin. However, if another member of that mini-caucus opposing gender-neutral marriage takes a walk to join O’Brien, Martin is in serious trouble — and playing Let’s Make A Deal, post-Grewal, probably isn’t in the cards.
A summer election may still happen. Stay tuned
Agreed, Flap continues to handicap a Canadian election within a year.