Tuesday, August 10, 2010

HARPER’S HEALTHCARE HERESY

HARPER’S HEALTHCARE HERESY

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has recommended to Health Canada that a tax-deductible long-term care insurance be considered to alleviate the healthcare costs in Canada. The CMA has stated that the, “Public healthcare system is unsustainable”.

On 5 August 2010, Canadian Premier’s from all provinces and territories met in Winnipeg and they too stated that, “there is an elephant in the room” referring to the cost of healthcare.

Over the past year, there have been too many coincidences and slips regarding healthcare. It appears that governments across Canada have been testing the water with their comments and insights into the cost of healthcare, and what else that money could be used for.

Premier Danny Williams tested the water with both feet when he went to Florida for surgery that he could have gotten in Canada within a week. He even did a full interview on NTV News and stated "The surgery I eventually got … was not offered to me in Canada.” The exact same surgery was available in Canada and his comment spawned an outcry from Canadian cardiologists, who stated that he could have gotten the surgery within one week in Canada.

Now we see Harper paying $130 Million dollars for Williams’ gaff on the AbitibiBowater Expropriation. Could this have been a payment for the seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador? After all, Williams did drive the Conservatives out of NL with his ABC Campaign (Anything But Conservative), which saw six seats go to the Liberals and one to the New Democrats. Maybe Harper and Williams are making deals for those seats to help Harper get the majority he so desperately craves in order to enact his capitalist agenda and get rid of any and all Public Services in favour of “Pay As You Go” American style social programs.

We are being played as fools by the Canadian and Provincial governments. With healthcare being in the state that we currently find it, they are hoping that we will agree to the CMA’s recommendations and then government can get the elephant OUT of the room.

If a Federal election is called in the near future, healthcare will be one of the major players in whether the Conservatives will get a majority, a minority, or even retain power. As long as Canadians continue to close their eyes to what government is doing and support their healthcare incompetence, we continue to get closer to losing healthcare as we know it.

If we allow this to happen, we will see other social programs such as Employment Insurance, Old Age Security, and the Canada Pension Plan become the next “elephant in the room”. Harper has already poured salt into the wounds of our Soldiers and Veterans, do you think he really cares about you?



/signed/
Robin Brentnall
Gambo, NL

Sunday, August 8, 2010

A "ROBIN HOOD" ELECTION PROMISE

:-)
Many people believe we pay taxes to provide the Healthcare for our sick children, mother, or aunt. It is meant to provide schools and recreation, makes our roads safe to drive on, helps those in need, assists those in misfortune, and helps our province provide safe drinking water and infrastructure such as Fire Trucks and Community Centres. The people who believe that would be correct.

In a society with Social Programs such as those above, there is a need for Social Reforms that puts our tax dollars into social programs FIRST. If any is left over, we can put them into other areas of Investment.

In order to provide those programs, we have to collect enough taxes to pay for them. When our government, in an attempt to sway your vote, decides to lower taxes, as they have done in the last budget, they once again begin to lower our ability to pay for our Social Programs. When our government starts to take away taxes from our Social Programs and puts them into what they call Investments (Giveaways to Large Corporations), our Quality of Life begins to diminish.

This is comparable to your boss cutting back your salary, the government being the boss and your income being taxes needed to provide a home, food, clothing, and so on for your family.

Our government is cutting taxes by giving tax breaks to those who earn over $65,000 a year. There was only a very small tax reduction for those earning $40,000 a year and NO BREAK for the truly poor! This means that our government gave a tax break to the rich and nothing to the poor!

Since I was a child, my friends called me “Robin Hood”. My view of the world has always been “everyone is equal”. Unfortunately, not everyone feels the same way and many of those who disagree with my attitude are in the high-income range and didn’t want to share even as a child.

My idea of government is to tax the rich, lower taxes for the poor, and seniors would never pay taxes again! They’ve paid enough throughout their life.

Are you in agreement with me? If you support my views, if you believe in my way of governing, if you want to take back what is rightfully yours, I am here for you.

I appreciate your support.

Robin “Hood” Brentnall
Gambo, NL
2011 Election