The minister of health talking points sent
out a letter to the provinces saying that now that they have their funding in
place for the next twelve years that it’s time to start talking healthcare
reform. Err, okay. If you wanted to talk reform you could have started six
years ago by taking a leadership role with the benchmarks laid out in the 2004
accord that you subsequently ignored. Or you could have used the money your
government laid out on Monday to be the lever for which that reform and change
will happen. But no – once again you abrogating the federal leadership
position. Who’s looking forward to twelve more years of inaction – or long
enough for the system to grind into crisis so that you can really reform the
system through more radical means? Because Stephen Harper would never do that –
except of course for when he did the very same thing with the immigration and
refugee systems.
New RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson frankly
discusses problems in the Force – officers who believe their authority entitles
them to misuse power – and that they’re about one or two incidents away from
losing all credibility. It’s some pretty open and frank talk that is actually
acknowledging the problems and is talking about some more innovative solutions
to break some of the current institutional problems. Remember how the last guy
was supposed to be all transformational because he was a career civil servant
instead of a Mountie? And how that pretty much ended in tears (quite literally
for some of the people on the receiving end of his tantrums)? We didn’t hear
this kind of talk from him, and that could mean that Paulson may be the guy to
bring the real change.
Here’s a look back at political dirtbaggery
that happened during the last election, such as calling people to tell them
that their polling station had moved. One woman suspected something was up and traced the call back to the local campaign office. The Conservatives now claim it was a database error, except that gee, she why would she be in the
Conservative database if she tended to vote Liberal, and why was she told the
polling station had changed if it was really a database error.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of
indigenous persons is deeply troubled by what is happening in places like
Attawapiskat. So what does the minister do? Denounce the special rapporteur, and
say that he’s making a publicity stunt. Because talking points make everything better
instead.
A former Conservative staffer denounces the
omnibus crime bill.
And the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg is beset by further controversy, resignations and delays, and it looks like it may
not open until 2014 at this rate.
