After a spirited discussion about Pamela Wallin, the Tory’s overspending senator, Ms Soapbox’s mother sighed and said ““Sometimes politics makes me so mad I need a rest!” Brilliant! A rest was exactly what Mr and Ms Soapbox needed so we packed up the car and set off on an over-night
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Susan on the Soapbox: Minister Horne Reacts to the Preferential Access (Queue Jumping) Report: It’s not good
Justice Vertes released the results of the Preferential Access (Queue Jumping) Inquiry this week. Health Minister Horne heaved a huge sigh of relief. Vertes found that allegations raised by Dr Duckett (former head of Alberta Health Services) and Dr Sherman (Liberal leader) were unfounded and there was no evidence that
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: “Show me the money”: The Alberta Medical Association Channels Jerry Maguire
Dr Giuffre & Minister Horne To borrow a phrase from Renee Zellweger in the movie Jerry Maguire, Dr Michael Giuffre had me at hello. He battled Health Minister Fred Horne for months, finally getting the Health Minister’s signature on the AMA Agreement settling doctors’ compensation. We were pleased. Tensions eased…
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Capturing the Youth Vote: Got (Black) Milk?
Politicians have been fussing about the youth vote for decades, primarily because it’s virtually nonexistent. But if they could replicate Black Milk’s social media strategy they’d deliver the youth vote all wrapped up in a pair of Galaxy tights (and Question Period would get a whole lot more entertaining as
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A(nother) Trip to the Mayo: The Power of Seamless Connections
For the record, the Soapbox family is not crazy about going to the US for medical care, but our eldest daughter (let’s call her “Missy”) has some serious health issues (I blame it on Mr Soapbox’s gene pool) and her GP refused to book the necessary appointments with specialists because—get
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Advice from the “Old White Guys”: Alberta Progressives Listen Up!
The Republicans may hold the secret to the progressives’ return to power…yes, seriously! Let’s start at the beginning… Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson in their glib little book The Big Shift argue that Western Canada, particularly Alberta, is responsible for the tsunami of support that carried Stephen Harper to victory
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Home Care Consolidation Debacle: Fred Horne’s Mission Impossible
Like Tom Cruise in Ghost Protocol, Health Minister Horne is tearing through the building trying to stay ahead of the explosives he’s set to detonate. The big question is will he make it out in time. So far Fred has successfully blown up the AHS board, slashed the number of
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Auditor General’s Report: Alberta’s “Enron” Moment
God bless Merwan Saher, Alberta’s Auditor General! He grabbed the government by the scruff of the neck and gave it a shake for dragging us into the abyss of “Enron” accounting. Sadly, the government refuses to budge and opaque financial reporting will continue. Merwan Saher has been a government auditor
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Health Minister Fred Horne: The Puppet Master
The Google search engine connecting a reader to the Soapbox spat out this query: “Is Fred Horne as stupid as he looks?” Yikes! That’s bit harsh. But I must admit the question had crossed my mind (without the reference to Mr Horne’s looks—Ms Soapbox tries to maintain a modicum of decorum
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: We’re all in this together–sort of. The Alberta Flood 2013
Nobody said it better than the Dairy Lane Cafe and the Blue Star Diner in a sunny (literally) little poster announcing that on Canada Day every penny received from sales and tips would be donated to flood relief. The blue banner “We’re All in This Together” epitomized the can-do attitude
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Alberta Energy Board: What the PC Government learned and failed to learn from Machiavelli
On the same day that the Health Minister unceremoniously fired the Alberta Health Services board for refusing to revoke $3.2 million in bonuses, the Energy Minister announced the appointment of the Alberta Energy Board. Hmmm. I wonder whether in a year or two this newly minted board will find themselves
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: “You’re fired!” Health Minister Horne Sacks the AHS Board
Last week Health Minister Horne out-trumped Donald Trump by firing not one but all 10 members of the Alberta Health Services Board—the board his government created in 2008 to deliver healthcare under a centralized delivery model. One expects such theatrics from Donald Trump, after all he’s a showboat; but not
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Time to get Militant with your Doctor and the College of Physicians and Surgeons
Ms Soapbox has been in a quandary all week. She was troubled by what she’d observed at the meeting of the College of Physicians and Surgeons governing council. Finally the penny dropped. The College is deadlocked and incapable of living up to its mission which is “Serving the public by
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Protect the Rights of the Rich? The College of Physicians and Surgeons Grapples with Concierge Clinics
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said to Ernest Hemingway, “You know, the rich are different from you and me.” Hemingway replied, “Yes. They’ve got more money”.* I was sitting in a meeting of the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons when F. Scott Fitzgerald’s comment came to mind. It’s
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Will Platts Pop Alberta’s “Bitumen Bubble”?
Platts, a global company with a remarkably flaccid name, finds itself smack in the middle of an international price fixing scandal and I really hope the Alberta government is paying attention! Last week the European Commission storm troopers, sorry, inspectors, raided the offices of BP, Shell and Statoil, three of
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: “Campus Alberta”: Soviet Style Research and Development Comes to Alberta
Sigh…where to start? The barrage of bad news spewing out of the Premier’s office has been so intense that the government’s Machiavellian takeover of post secondary institutions and research and development slipped by with relatively little public outcry. Sure, some students and academics staged protests on the steps of the
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Conrad Black and Danielle Smith
Conrad Black, the Canadian media mogul and convicted felon* was in Calgary last week to have a “conversation” with the Calgary business elite (and me) over lunch at the Calgary Petroleum Club. The big question is why does Baron Black of Crossharbour—oh let’s just call him Conrad—continue to draw sell-out
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Strike While the Iron is Hot: The Edmonton Remand Centre Labour Dispute
For years I’ve wondered whether unions had outlived their usefulness and were simply using their collective bargaining power to crank up wages and benefits at the expense of…well…who knows what. But the wildcat strike arising out of the Edmonton Remand Centre labour dispute proved me wrong. Edmonton Remand Centre The
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: The Face of Terrorism
I’ve been to Washington DC many times, but this trip was different. In addition to the usual buzz created by lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen who had places to go and people to see, there was a sense of unease. This feeling of foreboding was evident in the police cars
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Trip to the Mayo Clinic: Your dime or mine?
Mayo Clinic seen from Cafeteria This past January Mr Soapbox and my youngest daughter (let’s call her Mini) went on a pilgrimage to the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Unbeknownst to them they were following in the footsteps of Ms Michele Lahey, former Chief Operating Officer of the former Capital
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