HEALTHCARE IN DANGER?

PUBLISHED IN THE CHARTER NEWSPAPER 9 MARCH 2010 AS: HEALTHCARE TO END HERE?
PUBLISHED IN THE WESTERN STAR NEWSPAPER 34 APRIL 2010 AS: THE WAY I SEE IT

Stephen Harper and Danny Williams have a long history of not liking each other. Now they like each other. All of this just before Danny was scheduled to depart Canada and our wonderful healthcare system for warmer climates and expensive, difficult to get for the poor, healthcare provided by the Americans. Stephen didn't flinch. The Conservative Government on both sides didn't flinch. No one flinched except the New Democratic Party.

Remember, it was the first NDP Leader, Tommy Douglas, who created Healthcare in Saskatchewan. Since then, it has been an election issue and threatened by the Conservatives and Liberals with being too expensive. It has stayed because Canadian's refuse to do without it!

Now let's look at the world scene as it stands today: The Americans have dragged us into a conflict which has cost us billions of dollars. Our veterans are being dealt a painful lesson when trying to get enough to live on due to the Conservative and Liberal governments refusal to provide proper care for them. There are constant rants in the news about the high cost of healthcare by conservatives.

Barack Obama is trying to get Canadian style healthcare for Americans. The Republican Party (Conservative) are trying to block it as best they can. They even use Danny Williams as a poster boy for how good their current healthcare is compared to ours. The Republicans would rather buy guns and bombs than provide healthcare for their citizens. They want Canada to do the same.

What are Stephen Harper and Danny Williams up to? The way I see it, there is a move afoot to drive healthcare into the ground so that Canadians will beg for American style healthcare. Danny Williams already greased the pan with his rant against the NL Medical Association and our doctors, who are very hard to get in the first place. Even the Minister of Health called them names, inciting a fight and a demand for arbitration. I believe the plan is (and you can judge for yourself) that Harper and Williams are starting in Newfoundland and Labrador with crushing healthcare. Danny is so high in the polls that even if he lost a third of his support he would still have a majority. Then he would institute (with his money and making a profit for himself) health maintenance organization's (HMO) just like the Americans have.

Don't believe it? One word: AIRBUS. Brian Mulroney and Frank Moores made off with a lot of money just by buying aircraft for Air Canada. How much do you think the American HMO's, weapons producers, drug company's, and Republican party would pay Stephen Harper and Danny Williams to buy American style healthcare for Canadians? How much did Diefenbaker get for scrapping the Avro Arrow, after which we had to buy American built fighter aircraft?

Healthcare started in one province, Saskatchewan, under the governing NDP. The Conservatives are trying to end it by starting in one province, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Bombs away boys, vote for the party that brought healthcare to Canada, for your health's sake! But that's just the way I see it.

Robin Brentnall
Gambo, NL