90 Replies to “Tommy Douglas: Our Health Is A Political Football”

  1. Well at least it was one less Newfie on the dole.
    Posted by: Eskimo at February 23, 2010 5:04 PM
    But Eskimo, he went south and the taxpayer paid for it, so I think that may contradict your statement.

  2. JJM as I have been told when I asked this question years ago the Shouldice Clinic, started in 1945, is only allowed to remain because it is grandfathered. No other private hospital like it would be allowed to open today.

  3. “But Eskimo, he went south and the taxpayer paid for it, so I think that may contradict your statement.”
    Let’s not spread false information now.
    Williams paid for his procedure himself.

  4. Loki, Had he used a Canadian surgeon, such as in Vancouver, he would have been forced, politically, to wait in line.
    Waiting in line, of course, is for the mere sups, not for those wise philosopher kings of socialism.

  5. Robert of Ottawa – would he have been “forced, politically, to wait in line”? I doubt that. Skipping to another Province might have made him look bad but going to Florida has to make him look a whole lot worse.
    Very very important scumbags like Danny Williams get preferential treatment in Canada. I simply do not believe that he would have been kept waiting.
    He panicked, exposing his hypocrisy, and if Newfoundland has twelve brain-cells to rub together his political career is over. So I kinda like how this turned out.

  6. Willims mentions “God” twice in this piece. Can we presume he is a Christian? Obviously he thinks this is what Jesus would have done. Maybe he just believes in Dree?

  7. > and if Newfoundland has twelve brain-cells
    > to rub together
    …which is the crux of the matter. They don’t. All of the working brain cells were exported to Fort Mac, and we’re not returning them.

  8. You know, it’s weird, Sean (who takes very beautiful photographs). Individually, Williams excepted no doubt, I like Newfies. I’ll probably be knifed in an alley for saying this, but on average I’ll take a Newfie over a Maritimer (they don’t consider themselves Martimers) any old day.
    But politically they couldn’t be more passive and clueless. They’re lovely people, but they don’t seem to think like citizens.

  9. Danny Williams just said the truth: I’m a big important dude so I get to do what I want and you rubes get to pay for it. So shut up and get back to work paying those taxes, goofs.
    I love it when politicians come right out and say the truth. Cuts right through all the smoke and mirrors so even the useful idiots can see they’re getting hosed.
    Notice the lack of trolls posting?

  10. My body, my choice.
    Right?
    Healthcare on demand is a human right.
    Right?
    Funny how the Progs are afraid to get into this discussion. They’ve been using such slogans as “my body, my choice” for decades, but now that it’s being used in the context of healthcare in general, it’s hard to find any who dare to either agree or disagree. Fascinating…

  11. Who said something to the effect that no sitting Canadian politician should be allowed to seek health care outside of Canada?
    … or was it “You can’t keep your little trotters in the trough and seek medical attention outside of the trough”?

  12. While at least we can rest assured that Canadian healthcare is better than what Cubans get in Cuba’s supposedly great system…
    http://therealcuba.com/Page10.htm
    …sometimes people do die in Canada because the system simply can’t save them, period. It simply cannot. Even life-threatening conditions go undetected, undiagnosed and untreated for so long (due to rationing) that by the time the “care” is finally available, it’s simply too late. Just a few months can make the difference between treatable and terminal.
    Trust me. I know. Seen it firsthand. No one can possibly convince me that I didn’t see the truth with my own eyes.
    DIAGNOSIS: CRITICAL
    Only extreme, revolutionary reform can save it now.
    No more tinkering. No more shovelling billions more into the unions’ pockets to end strikes.
    Revolution is the solution.
    “Two-tier” is not a dirty word anymore!

  13. “Danny Williams just said the truth: I’m a big important dude so I get to do what I want and you rubes get to pay for it.”
    C’mon now. This cost taxpayers nothing.
    Williams paid for his procedure himself, including all his travel expenses.
    It’s the optics of his decision to go private in the US that’s in question here.
    Stick to facts.

  14. “This was my heart, my choice and my health,” Williams
    Yes Danny but for everyone else its tough luck or boo hoo eh?
    Not you though Danny. Your special. Its to bad Canadians have to live with your kinds (Bureaucratic elite) hypocrisy.

  15. Dave wrote, “. . . the Shouldice Clinic, started in 1945, is only allowed to remain because it is grandfathered. No other private hospital like it would be allowed to open today.”
    Really? Henry Morgentaler has a number of private clinics, which also carry out a single, surgical procedure at taxpayer expense.
    Politics trumps both health and care all the time.

  16. Danny needs to drink a little more Red Whine.
    the man made is fortune on Newfoundland duff sitting. the feds put in a cable network to every outport so they could all sit on their duffs watching tv and collecting poggie.Danny Millions cashed in on the collective laziness that causes heart problems.

  17. Danny made Fox news! Everything Danny mused about PMSH being, in the video, is exactly what Danny himself really IS. And he has proved it through his acts, backed up by words. The Troika has lost another ally.

  18. JJM
    “The Canadian health care system would collapse without the US system for a back-up.”
    Yup, he tagged onto the real issue behind the Wizard of Ottawa inspired Curtain of a heath system. That Canadians have been deluded into thinking has no strings attached. With clever elegance. The bear opens up the vista of how Dependant we rally are on the US for health & military. For even social medicine to survive in its present degenerate form here. Its become such a vampire.
    Danny only represents the Reptile like attitudes of the Entitled Elite. How they view themselves in relation to productive folks. EBD had a great little saying to cover that.
    “My health, my choice. Your health, my choice.”
    Yes this is our fault as well. Start talking to your Dr.s, politicians & the guy at the grocery if we want change.
    Educate yourself against the inevitable BS avalanche by the Entitled.
    JMO

  19. JJM: “It’s the optics of his decision to go private in the US that’s in question here.
    Stick to facts.”
    Oh, really? Only about optics? As a leading member of Canada’s political class Danny Williams has systematically worked to prevent Canadians from obtaining in Canada what he didn’t hesitate for a moment to obtain for himself in the US.
    I don’t know how you can call it “optics” when one politician eviscerates another in a crass defence of single-tier health care, ensures the average person’s reliance on a faulty government-run system, and then demonstrates that in reality he has nothing whatsoever against two-tier health care and private medicine when it’s *his* health that’s at stake.
    How many deaths has he caused by actively denying Canadians what he has turned out to be in favour of and to have benefited from? For how many people has he caused a deterioration in their quality of life by guaranteeing them a place on a long waiting list?
    Optics my ass.

  20. “[Williams] demonstrates that in reality he has nothing whatsoever against two-tier health care and private medicine when it’s *his* health that’s at stake.”
    QED.
    As I stated, it’s the optics.

  21. Lookout, then why don’t private hospitals open everywhere if there is nothing to stop them? Shouldice is a medium size hospital with 12 full time surgeons and 89 beds. I am not aware of any hospitals this size fully private so help me out here. Morgentaler’s clinic is just up the street and is a small unit.

  22. Something to ponder:
    OK, so health care is a “sacred trust” and thus a two-tier system cannot be tolerated.
    Isn’t education a “sacred trust” too?
    So why do the provinces tolerate private fee-paying schools and academies?
    Just askin’.

  23. What does it say about the MSM when no one asks DW:
    ” assuming that you indeed have the right to seek whatever medical care you see fit why do you support making it against the law for canadians to provide it?”
    the msm are idiots or accomplices or both.

  24. Even if you have the money to purchase health care in the US, you have to be healthy enough to get there. That’s the real ugly of the Tommy Douglas health care system – by the time you realize you’re just a body in a ward waiting for your clock to wind down, there’s no where else to go. They made sure of that.
    What are you all whining about?
    The public system is inadequate? Get your dear leader to reallocate discretionary funding. Start with kicking your rural conservative welfare bum friends off the
    gravy train. You want private healthcare? Run with that in the next election.
    The angry right teabagging fringe believes in democracy, don’t you?
    As long as Williams is paying his fair share of taxes to support the public system, where he goes for his healthcare is up to him.

  25. Phil: So should private healthcare be illegal in Canada?
    I and a lot of other conservatives aren’t arguing against government funded healthcare we are arguing that like every other enterprise you can name, a deregulated privately owned and operated SYSTEM is the most efficient way of providing that care. The reason why the unions and othe vested interests oppose private providers being able to operate is that they know the current government controlled entities can’t compete -even after they pay some of the profits to shareholders and half of those profits in taxes.

  26. “As long as Williams is paying his fair share of taxes to support the public system, where he goes for his healthcare is up to him.”
    Just as long as it’s not in Canada. Right, Phil?

  27. JJM: Selective quotation doesn’t warrant a triumphant QED. Let me explain again.
    “Optics” is another way of saying “appearances,” and “appearances” are opposed to “reality.” Preventable deaths and deteriorating health are reality, and their near-criminal pointlessness is what Danny Williams’ actions past and present are bringing to our attention.
    This is not about optics or “the way things look.” It’s about a politician’s power to prevent people from saving their lives or from living healthier and better lives, even though his actions prove that he has nothing against the measures that would enable people to save their lives or live better lives.
    Optics?

  29. As I’ve said before, I don’t expect NFLD, with a few hundred thousand people at most, to have too many people with lazy heart valves each year. A trained surgeon would be twiddling his thumbs most of the time, which isn’t exactly what I’d want him to be doing if I was his next patient.
    But others have pointed out this operation is available in Vancouver, and I would have to think in Toronto as well. There are already well-established procedures for out-of-province patients, and it is not a case of “jumping the line” – each patient is triaged, and scheduled accordingly. It’s not like Williams would have had to sit in a ward bed for six weeks, waiting for surgery; he could have flown in the day before, had his surgery, and recuperated a bit there before flying home for further observation. No uproar – at least, no defensible uproar – and no smears.
    But he chose to flaunt his privilege in front of all Canadians, and then wonders why we feel slighted. What a tool.

  30. In the public healthcare racket, a patient is a burden to the system due to fixed budgets. In a private healthcare system, a patient is a profit opportunity. Which system is going to deliver better care?
    mmm … I wonder

  32. If Danny had not gone out of his way to smear PMSH and the Conservatives for their apprehensions about the Tommy Douglas Albatross (Medicare) hanging around the necks of all Canadians, if Danny had supported PMSH as the Prime Minister had supported NFLD against the greed of Quebec and the Feds re: offshore oil rights and Churchill Falls hydro; then I would not be disgusted. If Danny had some sort of ‘deal’, at the time, with the Liberanos then he is worse than disgusting, I was shocked when he attacked the Prime Minister; now I have no pity for him as he will be forced to eat crow after he recouperates. It will be a ‘learning lesson’ for a guy who does not seem to know that ‘pleasing your enemies does not make them turn into your friends’. (Kate)

  33. Lily Ledbetter wrote:
    “If you asked anyone they’d swear that their health care was free”….
    Well, sure. Isn’t that what Ujjal Dosanjh told Americans?

  34. As long as Williams is paying his fair share of taxes to support the public system, where he goes for his healthcare is up to him.
    Posted by: phil at February 23, 2010 9:38 PM
    Ok, then, Phil, I’ll take you at your word here. Therefore, if public policy in Canada takes us in the direction of allowing private health insurance, clinics, and hospitals to operate parallel to the public system, I expect nary a word of criticism out of you.

  35. > Individually, Williams excepted no doubt,
    > I like Newfies.
    I’ve little experience with the Newfies still living in Newfoundland beyond the inordinate amount of my tax dollars that they suck up. The Newfies that I’ve met living in Alberta, by and large, are amazing people. Friendly, spirited, and they’ve got a work ethic second to none. A good deal of the prosperity that Alberta experienced during the last boom is attributable to this bunch, and we’re glad to have them.

  36. A Wee Danny Shanty
    I’se da b’y dat builds da boat
    I’se da b’y dat sails her
    I’se da b’y dat ‘bandons me ship
    And let’s the others bail ‘er.

  37. Foxnews had a nice little segment on Danny Williams this morning. Ripped him nice and proper and went as far as calling what he did as obscene. I agree with them. If he wasn’t a premier and one of the staunchest defenders or out single payer system often invoking St. Tommy’s name in his speeches I wouldn’t care.
    The fact he is the premier of Newfoundland and one of the biggest backers of the single payer system makes him the biggest hypocrite in Canada at this moment.

  38. Not that there were no other sources for this.
    Yesturday I’ve sent the address of this post and the comments to Hannity.

  40. I’d would wager that old danny boy didn.t pay a dime for the procedure. In his mind, it is free medi-care.

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