Tories – mackaycartoons

Tuesday August 20, 2013

August 20, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 20, 2013

National health care strategy needed for ‘silver tsunami’

Most Canadians think this country needs a national strategy for seniors health care, believing such a plan would help keep seniors in their homes as long as possible, according to a new poll released by the Canadian Medical Association.

The Ipsos Reid poll was released along with the association’s annual report card on health issues. It found that nine out of 10 Canadians feel that the entire health care system could be improved by keeping seniors at home as long as possible, to help lighten the load on hospitals and nursing homes.

It also revealed that only 37 per cent of Canadians have confidence in the ability of the current system to care for our aging population. As well, three-quarters of respondents said they were concerned for themselves about whether they would have access to high-quality health care in their retirement years.

Almost 80 per cent said they were concerned about having access to an acute care system, such as good quality hospital care, while almost an equal number worried about finding home care and long-term care.

Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, says she’s not surprised the poll revealed so few Canadians feel confident about how they will be cared for in their senior years. “It shows there’s an anxiety about what’s happening now and what’s going to happen in the future about the availability and quality of the health care that we’re expecting for our seniors,” she told CTV’s Canada AM Monday.

Meadus says there are a lot of vulnerabilities in the current health care system when it comes to seniors, including a shortage of long-term care beds in most provinces and an insufficient system of home care. (Source: CTV News)

Friday, August 16, 2013

August 16, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, August 16, 2013

Tory MPPs scrap over Hudak leadership

Controversy over whether Progressive Conservative members should be allowed to debate Tim Hudak’s leadership at next month’s party convention has triggered a war of words among Tory MPPs.

House Leader Jim Wilson blasted two of his caucus colleagues for wanting to permit party activists to table a motion on a leadership review at the Sept. 21-22 conference in London, Ont.

Wilson accused MPPs Frank Klees and Randy Hillier, runners-up to Hudak in the 2009 leadership, of putting their own ambitions ahead of the party’s fortunes.

“They can’t accept the fact that they lost the leadership — one of them lost twice — and just keep running that old film over again,” he said, referring to Klees’ 2004 defeat at the hands of previous leader John Tory.

“If anyone thinks they’re helping the PC Party of Ontario … or helping to defeat the corrupt governing Liberals by calling for a leadership review, then they need to have their heads examined.” Asked if the two MPPs should be turfed from caucus, Wilson shook his head.
“I don’t think so, really. They’re good people. They’re just a little misguided on this,” he said, adding “this is just a distraction.”

Since the Aug. 1 byelections — in which the Tories won one seat while the governing Liberals and the New Democrats each took two — Hudak has faced questions about why he didn’t gain more of the five former Grit ridings. (Source: The Toronto Star)
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Saturday, August 3, 2013

August 3, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, August 3, 2013

Hudak blows another election

Thursday’s five by-elections in Ontario were another blow to Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak. This constitutes a real crisis of confidence.

The results need to be analyzed based on the expectations created by the polls and the media’s belief that ex-premier Dalton McGuinty had fatally undermined the Liberal party. On that basis, it was perfectly reasonable to expect the Liberals to lose every one of their seats, maybe just squeaking by in Scarborough-Guildwood; the Tories to win three or four of the five; and the NDP to win only Windsor-Tecumseh. From that perspective, a single Liberal win would have been a real godsend, allowing them to boast they were still contenders. That’s in fact what the Liberals expected and how they were prepared to spin it publicly. But that didn’t happen.

The Tory and NDP responses would have been equally predictable. Given the Conservative shut-out in Toronto for so many years, any victory would unleash delirium, while winning both Toronto seats, which they expected, would have been heaven. With three, or, as they quietly believed, four wins – everything but Windsor – they’d have been celebrating their unstoppable ascent to government. And they would have been right. But none of that happened.

Similarly, the NDP would have crowed about an easy Windsor win – an amazing 61 per cent in a former Liberal stronghold – but one victory was rightly not considered enough. They needed London West as well, although polls showed them running behind the Hudak candidate. Had they won only one of five, and had star candidate Adam Giambrone received only 21 per cent in Scarborough-Guildwood, as polls forecast, Thursday would have been a bad day in NDP circles. That Giambrone had won the nomination in dubious circumstances with unseemly backing by the party brass would have meant much salt in raw wounds. But none of that happened either. (Source: The Globe & Mail)