Burns and Calvert - You Be the Judge

It was recently brought to my attention that Lorne Calvert bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Burns of The Simpsons fame. I guess I ask that you be the judge. I, however, found the comparison quite amusing. All considered, both are, uninteresting hunch-backed scoundrals with obviously hideous overbites. How could I have never noticed this before?

Oh the Irony...

I couldn’t help but note the irony when reading two of Saskatchewan’s top news headlines today. First, I read that the Roughriders would be losing their top receiver to the Stampeders. I’m not a huge sports fan so, initially, this didn’t get to me all that much. Then I came across another headline, which indicated that Saskatchewan lost 2,000 people in the last quarter of 2005. It seems that Elijah Thurman is not the only one who thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the 110th meridian.

Sure, Saskatchewan’s depopulation has come to be expected under Lorne Calvert’s tutelage, but it still stings every time we lose another chunk of our residents to Alberta and other areas of the country. It might not be so bad if it hadn’t been happening for so many consistent quarterly reports from Statistics Canada. However, the situation seems to be getting worse.

Saskatchewan lost exactly 2,065 people between October 1 and December 31 of last year. This is more that twice the amount that we lost during the same period the year before and even bests the amount lost during the rest of the entire year in 2005, as we only lost 1,692 between January and October. And I thought things were bad before!

In fact, Saskatchewan lost more people than any other jurisdiction in the entire country. As a percentage of our population, the only province to outpace us was Newfoundland and Labrador, whose unemployment rate is three times that of our own. They have no other choice but to leave!

But do Saskatchewanians really have much of a choice anymore? The business sector in our province has grown stagnate, the agricultural sector is perhaps in disrepair, and new ideas for economic growth have not come out of the provincial government in over a decade. What are the fine people of this province to do? Oh wait, isn’t Saskatchewan in the middle of an oil boom? This is what the NDP keeps touting, but to look around one might wonder where the effects of such a boom are being realized other than in the government’s coffers.

As it stands, Saskatchewan’s future prospects are about as promising as the Roughriders winning the Grey Cup next year. Like the Riders, if we keep losing our brightest and best to Alberta, there’s little hope for our success.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier faces off against Lunatic Wife of Famous Rock Star

I'll admit, I spent a portion of my Friday night watching Larry King Live. But how often can you witness a celebrity billionaire British rock star face off against one of the premiers of a Canadian province? And, over, of all things, the Canadian seal hunt?!

It is my perception that the following things are true: 1. Paul McCartney's wife, Heather Mills McCartney, is a nutjob on a mission to rid the earth of inhumanities and barbarism. 2. Paul McCartney is a pawn in his wife's plan because of his celebrity status. 3. Danny Williams is an incredibly patient person, as demonstrated by the fact that he was able to withstand the ludicrous assertions that Mrs. McCartney espoused on the show.

In all honesty, I have never had any sort of interest in the Canadian seal hunt. I've never paid attention to the debate. The most interested I have been in the past was when I attended a presentation by the Honourable John Crosbie last fall, during which he referred to mother seals as licentious, but that's enough to pique anyone's interest. Up until this point I have held no opinion on the seal hunt and, instead, chose to remain ignorant on the issue. However, my opinion was changed tonight and it was as much the result of Danny Williams' calm and rational commentary on the subject, supported by reasonable facts as it was due to Heather Mills McCartney's bewildering disregard for lucidity and rant about Danny Williams' opposition to "peace talks." Who does she think she is anyway to come to a country about which she obviously exhibits little knowledge and demand that its citizens end a several hundred year tradition that has become part of its culture? And, while I'm at it, it was clear that Paul obviously has an even lesser understanding of our country when he mistakenly thought that PEI was a region of Newfoundland.

Overall, I think that Danny Williams is a good premier and a devout advocate for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Not only is he a successful businessman and a competent leader, but he also exhibits a charismatic quality that so many Canadian politicians lack, particularly many of his counterparts in other provinces (the most obvious of which is our own dear Mr. Calvert). You impressed me tonight, Premier Williams. I wish that the people of Saskatchewan could have a Premier of your competency and character.

Mr. McGuinty, do you really need to give the rest of Canada more reason to dislike Ontarians?

So Dalton McGuinty wants the Senate abolished. Fair enough. I don't like it either. I wouldn't advocate abolition. It needs to be reformed and I personally would like to see Triple E. That likely won't happen, but it is good to see that Mr. Harper is moving towards at least one of the E's.

Another E that I particularly like in the triple E concept is that of Equal. As in the US model where each province would have an equal number of Senators. This would provide equal provincial representation, which is one of the original purposes of the Senate: regional representation. This would only be fair, as representation in the House of Commons is based on representation by population.

Apparently Mr. McGuinty doesn't agree. He was quoted today as stating that: "We're 40 per cent of the country by way of population and at least 40 per cent by way of contribution to the GDP," McGuinty said. "But we only have 22 per cent of the Senate seats." Poor Ontario. Always overlooked. They don't already run things enough in Canada so obviously they should have a greater proportion of the Senate seats. And, should this not be feasible, just abolish the whole damn thing.

Mr. McGuinty, you're giving your residents a bad name. And you wonder why no one else on the playground wants to play with them?

Alberta's Third Way

A few weeks following BC's speech from the throne, which stated that the province would be examining alternative methods for health care delivery, Alberta has released its "Third Way" for health care. The 10 point plan outlines an overhaul of the Alberta system. The fact that private health care provision will be introduced for certain procedures is the key aspect of the plan, but what is gaining criticism is the fact that physicians and other health care professionals will be able to practice in both the public and the private systems, a practice that does not occur in most other jurisdictions with dual public/private provision.

The usual suspects: Friends of Medicare, the Alberta Federation of Labour and opposition NDP and Liberals, are not in favour of such a plan, arguing that the "Third Way" will steal professionals away from the public system. Same old rhetoric... However, the Liberals and NDP also argue that this will result in longer wait times. This, in my opinion, is the most bizarre argument put forth by those opposed to the introduction of private medicine. How will wait times increase exactly? I highly doubt that if physicians should leave the public system (which I'm not convinced they will) that wait times in the public system would automatically increase. Is the opposition forgetting that the burden on the public system would be lessened by a dual private option? I would hazard to guess that most people who can afford to pay for these procedures (namely cataract surgery and hip and knee replacements) would opt to have the procedure done as soon as possible, thus freeing up the wait times for those that cannot afford to pay - would this not mean that less doctors are required in the public system?

The introduction of the "Third Way" likely has implications for the Canada Health Act if these procedures can be considered medically necessary. I'm interested to see how the new Harper government approaches these reforms. I would imagine that the majority of the members of the new federal government actually support the reforms in principle, but are they willing to turn a blind eye when Harper promised the defend the Canada Health Act?

Other implications will present themselves for the rest of the provinces should these reforms go forward. The proposed system would be attractive to physicians, possibly luring them from other jurisdictions. Saskatchewan, the province that has lost the most physicians in recent years, might feel the repercussions of these changes the most. This has the potential to seriously hurt the Saskatchewan Health Care system if Lorne Calvert and his socialist cronies continue to support the status quo in the province.

While Klein was quoted yesterday as stating: "The Health System must change to survive, and all premiers agree on that." It's unfortunate that some premiers (namely Campbell and Klein) agree with that concept more than others, such as our own hapless provincial leader.