nittanylionstorm07

It's something I look in to since I'm interested in law.

That's right... thanks!

Individual doctors won't be opening hospitals. Like in the US, groups of doctors will get together and take out a loan to open a practice. The business that practice provides easily pays off a loan. Eventually, groups of practices help to fund a private hospital. Your education analogy falls apart when you consider that 1. There aren't wait lines to get into public schools. 2. People don't think they are going to get poorer care or die while waiting for public school. 3. People in general are more inclined to spend more money to get better healthcare than better schooling. I never thought the Federal government controlled healthcare...and I've always been a fan of the fact that provinces control it. Shall we get universal healthcare one day, I hope the states control it. The feds do and can provide funding though, and a loss of funding could result in private healthcare in provinces. In what state? Because everywhere I've lived, there is a remarkably clear difference in quality between the private and public services.

Remember when she was asked how she felt about losing a %age of the vote even though she won her seat? She had quite the opinion on that.

I dunno, Jack is 4 years away from being Prime Minister. I think Jack stays on through then, and if he isn't successful in the 2015 elections, he retires, but if he is, he becomes prime minister for 3 years before handing it off to Mulcair.

Conservatives should be smarter than this since they are all free-markety. If you open up a private system where people can charge higher and make more money than in the public system (which is true especially in this case, as the attraction of shorter lines/wait times would be attractive to many), then there will be a rush of doctors and nurses flooding the private system. After that, which strangles the public system of doctor/nurse supply, the ones that make it will stay in the private system... and the few who don't will be relegated to return to the public system, therefore resulting in much lower quality of care overall in the public system. Once this is entrenched into the public system, the vast majority of Canadians will move to private care, leaving only the very poor in the public system.

Makes sense.

Also, I think I'd want Leona Aglukkaq, in this case... and then the Ministry of Health can go to the new conservative MP that has a medical degree and a history in the health sector (I think she's from Quebec?)

I know... somewhere though I heard that it's usually an opposition MP so that the opposition has a reduced vote.

I think I saw her eyes walk down the street during her speech last night.

It's somewhat the equivalent in the US of being able to afford a good lawyer versus getting a public defender. A two-tier system strangles the public system.

24... older than several new MPs

That was after insurance, too. If I didn't have insurance, it would have been ~$10,000

I'm failing all over the place... I don't know why I thought it's usually an opposition MP.

I'm jealous. It cost me ~$2000 to get my wisdom teeth pulled.

Ah that's right. It's probably going to be an NDP MP, but who?

Shadow Foreign Minister: Helene Laverdiere That's one I've got so far

Bump to continue this discussion. Honestly, who is it going to be? It would be mildly funny if Harper nominated the 19 year old McGill student that's now an NDP MP.

It will be Mulcair. I can't believe there is any doubt about that.

Yeah... military, healthcare, education, stable regulations, and jobs are totally things people don't need and should take care of themselves.

Look at the United States. Bush cut taxes in 2001. How did that help at all? The only reason there was a boom 2003-2006 was because of the housing bubble... we saw what happens when that pops. Now look where we are. With the low taxes, we can't fund services to help people, and we are suffering in numerous areas... poor schools, underfunded troops and veterans, ridiculous healthcare. People need to be responsible and realize that there are bills that need to be paid, and that requires higher taxes among other things (inserting tariffs on Chinese goods for a start).

The Wildrose Alliance will be fun to watch when they get into government.

No, it isn't pointless. The healthcare debacle in the United States was one of the main reasons why the democrats lost in 2010... and in Canada, the party in majority power now has a sizeable contingent that want to privatize the healthcare or parts of the healthcare system.

Here's how I see it: This is going to be the penultimate moment for the Harper majority. If they don't take steps towards privatization, they'll alienate the right wing in their party who may threaten to split. If they do take steps towards privatization, they'll alienate the centre that voted for them and shove them off to the NDP. It's a lose/lose situation for Harper.

So the Harper majority is going to have to deal with the Healthcare apocalypse that is going to come in 2014. I can see this easily going very, very badly for them... especially since their opposition is the party that founded universal healthcare in Canada. Let's start a discussion on this. How do you see it playing out?