Tories To Announce Wait-Times Promise

[Michael Bluth]

So Steve to the rescue for cancer patients in Manitoba. Under his supreme leadership cancer patients in Manitoba will soon only have to wait four weeks for their treatment. LOLOLOL

Interesting how you are attacking the details of the plan. Specifically the wait times for radiation treatment in Manitoba. But, the first article you link to has this in BOLD.

Details yet to be worked out

So you attack the details of the plan by using an article that clearly states the details haven't been worked out yet.

[gc1765]

So Steve to the rescue for cancer patients in Manitoba. Under his supreme leadership cancer patients in Manitoba will soon only have to wait four weeks for their treatment. LOLOLOL

Interesting how you are attacking the details of the plan. Specifically the wait times for radiation treatment in Manitoba. But, the first article you link to has this in BOLD.

Details yet to be worked out

So you attack the details of the plan by using an article that clearly states the details haven't been worked out yet.

Link

[hiti]

Promise Made, Promise Altered

Good news for those of you who are unwell – so long as you are unwell in a very specific physical and geographic way.

Stephen Harper, who last year pledged guarantees “to ensure that all Canadians receive essential medical treatment” in a timely fashion, announced yesterday a plan that might ensure that some Canadians receive one type of medical treatment in a timely fashion. Wow – fulfilling promises sure is easy, especially if you’re not too obsessed with the fulfilling part!

Harper told a health policy conference: “During the last federal election campaign, I and my party made a clear and unequivocal commitment to Canadians.” And now the time has come to take that commitment and make it equivocal. Very equivocal.

Canadian Press reports that the so-called “guarantees” – quotation marks: the official punctuation of sarcasm! – will cover only one service in each province, not the whole gamut of essential services as was promised. Also, the guarantees will not take effect until 2010, assuming the Tories are re-elected. And it is not clear how or if compliance with the guarantees will be assured. Plus, look over there – hey, is that a Sasquatch?! [sound of footsteps running away. A door slams, an engine roars, and a car speeds off.]

http://tinyurl.com/ys8rkw

Not to mention that by 2010, Manitobans will only have to wait 4 weeks to receive cancer treatment wheras today they may get treatment within a week or two.

Great job Steve.

[Argus]

The end of the American recession ended the deficit. The Liberals were simply in power at that time. Martin continued to starve health care long after the Liberals had budget surpluses because he didn't care. He, Chretien, and the rest of the senior Liberals were all wealthy and had private access to immediate care. So long as the polls showed them well in front of the opposition they simply did not care what happened to health care, and did not do anything about it but make mouth noises.

What a load of BS.

I think Mulroney had some great years of economic growth and made next to no progress on the deficit.

You "think". You're quite wrong. Mulroney - not exactly my hero - did make some progress in controlling program spending. It was the existing Liberal debt he inherited from the Liberals which was the real source of the deficit. It required him to borrow about $30-40 billion per year to pay the interest. Not coincidentally, that is what the yearly deficits were. Most of his rule was in times of sky high inflation, interest rates, and unemployment. This carried over for the first few years of Chretien's reign, and they too had huge deficits. Only when the world recession ended and people got back to work did money begin to flow into government coffers - in large measure through the GST the Liberals had fought tooth and nail against.

In any case, what Mulroney did or didn't do about the deficit is entirely irrelevant to the deterioration of social services. Every election the Liberals professed their love and dedication for the protection of the "sacred trust" of social services. Yet they allowed them to deteriorate without doing anything about it despite massive surpluses that Martin had to play crooked accounting games to hide. If he'd performed the same accounting games in the private sector he'd be in prison now.

[jdobbin]

You "think". You're quite wrong. Mulroney - not exactly my hero - did make some progress in controlling program spending. It was the existing Liberal debt he inherited from the Liberals which was the real source of the deficit. It required him to borrow about $30-40 billion per year to pay the interest. Not coincidentally, that is what the yearly deficits were. Most of his rule was in times of sky high inflation, interest rates, and unemployment. This carried over for the first few years of Chretien's reign, and they too had huge deficits. Only when the world recession ended and people got back to work did money begin to flow into government coffers - in large measure through the GST the Liberals had fought tooth and nail against.

In any case, what Mulroney did or didn't do about the deficit is entirely irrelevant to the deterioration of social services. Every election the Liberals professed their love and dedication for the protection of the "sacred trust" of social services. Yet they allowed them to deteriorate without doing anything about it despite massive surpluses that Martin had to play crooked accounting games to hide. If he'd performed the same accounting games in the private sector he'd be in prison now.

Canada's hardship in the 1990s was in large part a "made in Canada" problem with the government raising taxes 19 times and with the Bank of Canada being the only Federal bank attempting to reach 0 inflation. The world-wide recession was never as bad as it got in Canada.

Program spending wasn't exactly a priority for Mulroney who spent a large part of the 1990s in constitutional talks. Or have you forgotten that?

[Michael Bluth]

You "think". You're quite wrong. Mulroney - not exactly my hero - did make some progress in controlling program spending. It was the existing Liberal debt he inherited from the Liberals which was the real source of the deficit. It required him to borrow about $30-40 billion per year to pay the interest. Not coincidentally, that is what the yearly deficits were.

You are correct.

The operating balance is the difference between budgetary revenues and program spending.

The Mulroney Conservatives were the first Government to run an operating surplus in over a decade.

Unfortunately, they inherited such a huge debt that the debt was feeding on itself and the deficits grew yearly.

Mulroney set the table for a balanced budget in the late 90s. One more term and they would have received the credit they were due.

[hiti]

There's nothing to these waiting-time guarantees

Canada's new waiting-time guarantees for health care are a gigantic hoax perpetrated by Ottawa, with the provinces' help. The Conservative government had a promise to keep, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared this week, "I'm proud to announce, we're delivering." The guarantees raise an obvious question: How stupid does the government think voters are?

Stupid enough that they will jump at the eight-week maximum wait guaranteed for cancer radiation therapy in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia by 2010? Canada's health ministers recommend a maximum wait of four weeks. Radiation oncologists say a wait of no more than two weeks between diagnosis and treatment is recommended. So the guarantee is four times the ideal and two times the existing government target. It's a promise of cold pizza or your money back.

http://tinyurl.com/27jlbo

The above article sums it up pretty good. What Steve is delivering is a joke. It's amateur time in the PMO. Too cheap to do it right. Too stupid to know the difference. Not thought out. True hallmarks of Con governance.

And the platitudes that Mulroney wasn't to blame for taking Canada to the brink of bankruptcy is hilarious. Lyin' Brian himself said that he shoulda cut spending.

It is Paul Martin's $41-billion over 10 years for health care that is bringing down the wait times and Steve's misery $612-million is beyond a joke.

[Canuck E Stan]

It is Paul Martin's $41-billion over 10 years for health care that is bringing down the wait times and Steve's misery $612-million is beyond a joke.

You're applauding the cause of the healthcare problem as the saviour. Too little too late,and still he did nothing but make promises he didn't keep.

In his 1995 "deficit slaying" budget, Paul Martin cut $6.3 billion from provincial transfer payments, leaving health care massively underfunded. All when he had the largest budget surplus in history and Canadians were saying that health care was their top priority.

Let's go back to 2004 and review what Paul Martin said he would do,and how much was done in the following two years.

Provinces cautious of Liberal's multi-billion dollar health-care plan

Speaking in Cobourg, Ont., Martin said health care "will be our number one priority as a government."

"Our plan has been created to achieve real results in the real world," Martin said.

Under their five-year plan, the Liberals would spend billions to create a national home-care program, reduce waiting times, train new doctors and regularly make new cash injections.

Martin pledged "major waiting time reductions" in cancer and heart care, diagnostic imaging, joint replacements and sight restoration. He said his government will set targets for reduced waiting times by the end of 2005 and meet those targets by the end of 2009.

Paul Martin called for increased federal-provincial co-operation in a national effort to revitalize health care.

His plan includes the following offers of funding to the provinces:

* $3 billion over two years.

* $4 billion for a national fund to reduce waiting times

* $2 billion for a national home-care program.

* $2 billion over five years for specific priorities like intensive care and mental illness.

The Liberals would also create up to 1,000 new places for students in medical schools and push for faster recognition of foreign medical qualifications.

Martin also pledged to implement a national drug strategy between now and 2006, saying costly medication "should not be the cause of financial ruin for families."

NDP Leader Jack Layton also rejected Martin's pledge, saying his government has a history of broken health care promises.

He said the Liberal record includes $25 billion cuts in funding, a 1997 broken promise for a pharmacare program and allowing private delivery of health services.

"Paul Martin cut health-care funding more than anyone would have imagined and created the crisis of waiting lines," Layton said.

So much for Martin being the healthcare doctor.

[noahbody]

What a load of BS.

I think Mulroney had some great years of economic growth and made next to no progress on the deficit. Why couldn't he do something about the deficit? Because he didn't care. He was more concerned with long constitutional talks that ultimately broke up his party and sent the Tories into a long tailspin downward until this year. Nicely done.

Mulroney brought in the GST.

[Michael Bluth]

Mulroney brought in the GST.

A tax which replaced the Manufacturer's Sales Tax. The MST punished Canadian manufactured products and made them less competitive vis-a-vis imported goods.

Did you support the Liberal's opposition to the tax in 1993? Or their opposition to the cut in the GST in 2006?

Or both.

[ScottSA]

Mulroney brought in the GST.

A tax which replaced the Manufacturer's Sales Tax. The MST punished Canadian manufactured products and made them less competitive vis-a-vis imported goods.

Did you support the Liberal's opposition to the tax in 1993? Or their opposition to the cut in the GST in 2006?

Or both.

Don't forget their promise to abolish it too...

[jdobbin]

Critics weigh in wait times announcement.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070412/...b_c__wait_times

Critics say the lack of doctors and nurses is the main issue behind long wait times.

"That's what Harper should be talking about if they're interested in reducing wait times," McBane said.

"You cannot leave it up to provinces to fix the causes of wait times alone," he said. "There has to be federal leadership but instead we're getting federal gimmicks and federal photo-ops."

I think this promise will indeed be measured by overall wait times, not just one little area. The election promise wasn't just about one small area of healthcare when it came to waiting.

[Michael Bluth]

I think this promise will indeed be measured by overall wait times, not just one little area. The election promise wasn't just about one small area of healthcare when it came to waiting.

That's how you will measure it.

Conveniently enough to paint the Conservatives in the worst possible light.

Unless people look at the Liberals abysmal record on health care.

Didn't Martin fix heatlh care for a generation? I thought a generation was measured in years not months.