Tuesday January 24, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 24, 2023

Liberal Cabinet Retreat

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made his first stop in Hamilton Monday a chance to grab lunch to go with MP Filomena Tassi at The Burnt Tongue on Locke Street.

October 28, 2022

The prime minister and his cabinet are staying in town this week from Jan. 23 to 25 for their post-holiday retreat.

After ordering a cheeseburger and broccoli cheddar soup, Trudeau took a moment to shake hands with the lunch crowd and pose for some photos.

Leaving the restaurant, he posed for a photo with Ashley Acacio and her three-week-old son Mac in his stroller, even correcting the position of a staffer taking a photo for the pair.

On the way to his vehicle, Trudeau hopped on an HSR bus that stopped to greet riders.

Meanwhile, about 200 demonstrators gathered downtown Monday to protest the retreat, calling for migrant rights. They were joined by anti-war demonstrators and about 25 anti-Trudeau and anti-vaccine mandate protesters.

The protesters marched along Main Street, across Summers Lane and blocked King Street in front of the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel for around 20 minutes.

Trudeau’s itinerary said he is expected to attend the retreat, which will focus on affordability and the economy, at 5:30 p.m. Monday. (Toronto Star) 

December 9, 2022

Meanwhile, it’s at the grocery store. It’s at the gas pumps. It’s at your favourite restaurant.

Nearly everywhere Canadians have gone in the past year, every bill might as well have had an extra charge tacked on to the bottom reading simply: inflation.

A shorthand for what’s essentially the rising cost of living, inflation swept across the globe in 2022 and Canada was not immune from its sting.

Canadians eager to travel in June after years of COVID-19 restrictions were met by a 49.7 per cent year-over-year hike in the cost of accommodations. The rest of that summer saw the average price for regular gasoline soar past $2 per litre in many parts of the country. And in October, Canadians were paying 44.8 per cent more for pasta from the grocery store than the same month a year earlier.

April 25, 2014

Poll after poll showed how stretched Canadian dollars had become amid 40-year highs in inflation, with many forced to make impossible decisions about how to feed their families, pay for medications and keep a roof over their heads.

More than a third (36 per cent) of Canadians say their financial situations are very bad or somewhat bad heading into 2023, according to Ipsos Public Affairs polling conducted exclusively for Global News between Dec. 14 and 16. (Global News) 

In the swearing-in of cabinet following the 2021 federal election, the dropping of the awkwardly named Minister of Middle-Class Prosperity, held by Mona Fortier, signalled the short termed portfolio (2019-2021) was an ill conceived addition to the executive team under Prime Minister Trudeau.

Saturday January 21, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 21, 2023

Ontario is Hiring

August 3, 2022

Buried in the mountain of news and commentary this week around the province’s decision to allow more private sector health service delivery was another announcement by Doug Ford.

He said the province will make regulatory changes to ensure health-care workers from other provinces can overcome any bureaucratic or governance hurdles that might slow down their working in Ontario.

That makes sense, as far as it goes. There is no sound reason for different rules from one province to the next. Anything that reduces interprovincial inequity makes sense. But beyond that, this is more smoke and mirrors than meaningful improvement.

May 13, 2021

Is there a horde of medical workers — especially nurses — dissatisfied with their jobs in other provinces, yearning for Ontario? A province that has a law capping nursing salary increases at one per cent when inflation is more than six per cent? Where a court has found that law unconstitutional but the government is appealing the court’s ruling? Where other front-line jobs like police and fire are exempt from the same cap?

The health-care worker shortage is national, and even international. Any meaningful steps addressing it are welcome, but this is largely window dressing. (The Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Friday January 20, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 20, 2023

Jacinda Ardern enjoys ‘good night’s sleep’ after decision to quit

August 30, 2022

Jacinda Ardern said today that she had no regrets about standing down as New Zealand’s prime minister, after an announcement that shocked both her supporters and critics.

A day after revealing she would not stand for re-election because she had no more “in the tank”, she said she was feeling a range of emotions from sadness to a “sense of relief”.

Ardern, who will leave office within weeks, said she would not openly back any of the likely candidates to replace her. Her governing Labour Party is trailing in the polls and predicted to lose the next election due in October.

Speaking outside an airport in the North Island city of Napier, where the Labour Party caucus had gathered for a retreat, Ardern, 42, said she had “slept well for the first time in a long time”.

In response to questions by reporters, she rejected suggestions by some commentators that experiences of misogyny had played a role in her decision.

June 28, 2021

Ardern said she had a “message for women in leadership and girls who are considering leadership in the future” that “you can have a family and be in these roles”, adding “you can lead in your own style”.

Ardern was the youngest female head of government when she became prime minister in 2017 at 37. She achieved a global profile as she led the country through its worst terrorist attack, a deadly volcanic eruption and the Covid-19 pandemic. She won a landslide second term in 2020 but her popularity waned as she battled declining trust in government, a worsening economic situation and a resurgent conservative opposition.

“You cannot and should not do the job unless you have a full tank, plus a bit in reserve for those unplanned and unexpected challenges,” she said. “I no longer have enough in the tank to do the job justice.”

Trying to head off speculation about hidden motives for her decision, she added: “The only interesting angle you will find is that after going on six years of some big challenges, that I am human. Politicians are human. We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.” (The Times) 

September 10, 2022

Meanwhile in a survey made public in Canada recently, fifty-four per cent of those polled said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should step down as the leader of the Liberal Party in 2023, though just 27 per cent said they believe he’ll do so. (Global News) 

 

Thursday January 19, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 19, 2023

Health Canada recommends limiting alcohol to just 2 drinks per week

January 16, 2019

New alcohol guidelines recommending that Canadians limit themselves to just two drinks a week – and ideally cut alcohol altogether – have prompted intense debate over risk versus enjoyment in a country where the vast majority of adults regularly consume alcohol.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) this week called for a substantial reduction in consumption, warning that seemingly moderate drinking poses a number of serious health risks, including cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The new guidelines, funded by Health Canada, represent a dramatic shift from previous recommendations issued in 2011, when Canadians were told that low-risk consumption meant no more than 10 drinks a week for women and 15 drinks a week for men.

“We wanted to simply to present the evidence to the Canadian public, so they could reflect on their drinking and make informed decisions,” said Peter Butt, a professor of family medicine at the University of Saskatchewan and a member of the panel that drafted the guidelines. “It’s fundamentally based on the right to know.”

September 24, 2015

In its measurements, the CCSA considers a standard drink to be a 12oz (355ml) serving of 5%-alcohol beer, a 5oz (148ml) glass of 12%-alcohol wine or a shot glass of 40% spirits.

In the UK, the NHS recommends no more than six 6oz glasses of wine or six pints of 4% beer per week – ideally spread across three days or more. Health officials in the United States recommend no more than two drinks per day for men and only one for women.

But Canadian experts say that new research suggests three to six drinks a week should be considered moderate risk for both men and women, and seven or more drinks a week is high risk. In addition to elevated risk of colon and breast cancer, as well as heart disease and strokes, the CCSA also identified both injuries and violence as negative outcomes from drinking alcohol.

“This isn’t about prohibition. This is simply about reducing the amount one drinks,” said Butt.

The guidelines also warn that no amount of alcohol is safe when pregnant or trying to get pregnant. While abstinence during breastfeeding is the safest option, a standard drink occasionally does not significantly elevate risk.

June 26, 2009

The new guidelines were met with skepticism by some health experts.

“This type of research often marginalizes other considerations of health and wellbeing from alcohol,” said Dan Malleck, a professor of health sciences at Brock University.

“With their job as the Canadian Center on Substance Abuse and Addiction, there’s no space in there for considering there might be benefits. Their job is to find harm.”

Malleck described the guidelines as “irresponsible”, and said they risk creating “anxiety and stress” among Canadians who once saw themselves as moderate drinkers but now occupy a “high-risk” category.

“The research they’re using also ignores the enjoyment and pleasure and stress relief and collegiality associated with alcohol. None of those things are in the calculation whatsoever,” he said. “We aren’t just machines with inputs and output of chemicals or nutrition. We actually exist in a social space. And that has a significant impact on our health.”

Others, however, see the guidelines as an attempt to help Canadians better understand the realities of alcohol consumption. (The Guardian) 

 

Wednesday January 18, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 18, 2023

‘Always an upsell’: health critic Gélinas pans Ford’s OHIP plan

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas says northerners won’t benefit from Premier Doug Ford’s plan to expand the range of medical procedures performed in privately-run clinics.

May 9, 2012

On Thursday, Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced the three-phase plan, beginning with surgical and diagnostic clinics in Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor performing an additional 14,000 cataract operations each year, which represents about 25 per cent of the province’s current wait list for the procedure.

Next, more private clinics will be able to offer MRI and CT imaging, as well as colonoscopies and endoscopies.

The government intends that by 2024, the third phase will see hip and knee replacements performed at for-profit clinics.

“These procedures will be non-urgent, low-risk and minimally invasive and, in addition to shortening wait times, will allow hospitals to focus their efforts and resources on more complex and high-risk surgeries,” the province said in a news release.

But Gélinas said the plan is a long way from the original vision of Tommy Douglas, where case care is based on needs, not your ability to pay.

“It’s already happening,” Gélinas said. “If you look at the cataract surgery, you have your cataract surgery done in the hospital. Nobody pays anything. But you have the same ophthalmologist, same surgeon doing the same procedures in their private clinic, and there is almost always an upsell.”

November 19, 2020

“Another $150.00 to remeasure the eye, $400.00 to use a lens that they prefer, $1000 for this and that and the other thing,” Gélinas said. 

Gélinas estimates that most private facilities are located in southern Ontario, while only a handful have set up shop in the north.

Once the province gives cities in the north the green light to open more private clinics, patients who choose to use their services can expect to be pushed to spend more money, Gélinas said.

“They find ways to make you pay and it’s a barrier to care,” Gélinas said. The province’s motivation in permitting the clinics, Gélinas said, is for a handful of providers to make money.

“There is a lot of money in healthcare,” Gélinas said. “If you look at the budget, $76 billion in Ontario from taxpayers’ money goes toward healthcare.”

April 1, 2021

“A lot of people are interested in health care not because they want to help people, because they want to make money,” she said. “There is a lot of money to be made off the back of sick people and it attracts a lot of investors.”

But Dr. Stephen Cooper, District 9 chair of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), said doctors have been expecting this move from the province for awhile, and for the most part, are welcoming the plan.

“Sudbury and the entire northeast are struggling with managing wait lists, particularly in some of the surgical procedures,” Cooper said. “So when it comes our way, I think it’ll be of great benefit.”

Cooper said the system, at its best, would allow private clinics to specialize, and help ease some of the congestion in hospitals. (CBC)