Calgary Libertarian

A great simple explanation of how inflation works and why we can’t spend our way out of recession.

THIS GUY MAKES A GOOD POINT
This was written by a construction worker in Fort MacMurray- he sure makes a lot of sense.

I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to earn that pay cheque, I work on a rig site for a Fort Mac construction project. I am required to pass a random urine test, with which I have no problem.
What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare cheque because I have to pass one to earn it for them?
Please understand that I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sit on their ass drinking beer and smoking dope.
Could you imagine how much money the provinces would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance cheque?

Alberta’s political parties have already announced their candidates:

* Calgary city councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart Alberta Conservatives.
* Psychiatrist and health-care activist Avalon Roberts for the Alberta Liberals.
* Eric Carpendale, 29, an electrician who works for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union for the provincial NDP.
* Paul Hinman, who stepped down as party leader for the Wildrose Alliance.
* Len Skowronski ,Leader of the social Credit party for Social Credit.

The Tories have held this riding for fourty years. I think its time for a change, send the provincial government a message that you are unhappy with how they are handling the issues in Alberta. Remind them who is in charge and cast your vote for whom ever you think represents you the best. I am unable to vote in that riding but if I was I would be supporting Paul Hinman, he is an advocate for smaller government and personal responsibility despite the ruling parties name they are not conservatives they believe in big government and they have a state knows best attitude. Look at all the recent projects and programs they have created. They have ran up our budget to an unsustainable amount they increased taxes on the entire province through the royalty change (Yes when oil companies are taxed every one is taxed) and they have even gone begging for money from the federal government, When did Alberta become a ward of the federal government?

Alberta needs to rise up and tell the conservative party that they are not the natural governing party in the province and that we are tired of there big government activity. We need to elect a party that understands what made and makes Alberta great which is hard work ,dedication from the people and responsible, limited government. I believe that the ideals of the reform party and the younger conservative party (the party of the 90’s) lives today in the WildRose Alliance if you live in this riding please vote for the WileRose Alliance party but most importantly get out and vote other wise the active minority (or political elite) get to make the choices for you and that is not a free society.

If you read this blog you know I am a supporter of Danielle Smith and the WileRose Alliance. Danielle will be helping Paul with his campaign this weekend. If you want to volunteer check out her site. Also memberships are only 10$ and can really help the party make a difference. www.daniellesmith.com

Karen Selick sets the record straight on Shona Holmes
The following article also appeared in the Calgary Herald today, August 13, 2009, under the title, “A Canadian’s journey South.”

When something’s growing in your head …

Shona Holmes has been attacked for criticizing Canada’s health insurance monopoly, but she should have had the right to seek prompt treatment for her suffering

Ontarian Shona Holmes, right, joins members of the U.S. House Republican leadership, from left, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Judy Biggert and Eric Cantor for a news conference about U.S. health care policy last month in Washington, D.C.
Photograph by: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images, Citizen Special

By Karen Selick, Citizen Special

August 12, 2009

Imagine yourself in this situation. You’ve been noticing for a couple of months that your vision is deteriorating. You’ve been having headaches and unexplained vomiting. You feel tired all the time.

You know your doctor is busy so you don’t trouble her for an appointment immediately, hoping you’ll get better. When you finally do go, she’s alarmed by your vision loss and your skyrocketing blood pressure. She orders an MRI scan. Five weeks later you get the report: there’s a lesion on your pituitary gland, just below your brain. The doctors aren’t sure what to call it. It could be a meningioma, a pituitary adenoma, a craniopharyngioma, an epidermoid adenoma, or a Rathke’s cleft cyst, they say.

You ask what these terms mean. Several of them are types of brain tumour, one possibly malignant. Uh-oh.

Your doctor refers you to two specialists. The earliest appointment you can get with a neurologist is more than seven weeks away. The earliest appointment with the endocrinologist is 16 weeks away.

But this thing is growing in your head.

Your optometrist’s tests confirm that you are getting progressively closer to blindness. What to do?

Shona Holmes, the woman who has been criticized in some quarters recently for jumping into the U.S. debate on health care reform in television ads and media interviews, faced exactly this situation. She decided to take matters into her own hands. If Canada’s health care system didn’t care enough about her to alleviate the unbearable anxiety that anyone would feel under such circumstances, there were other places in the world that would.

Shona travelled to the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Arizona, where she was seen by three specialists within seven days. She was fortunate: her growth turned out to be non-malignant. But it still had to be removed or she would surely go blind. As well, it seemed to be the source of hormonal problems that had been plaguing her. Left unattended, she was warned, her symptoms could worsen dramatically and over the long run, could be fatal. The U.S. doctors were clear: urgent surgery was needed.

Shona returned to Canada thinking that with such a clear diagnosis and treatment plan, she would have no trouble getting urgent surgery.

Wrong again. Faced with more consultations and more waits of indefinite duration, she returned to the U.S. and had immediate surgery that restored her vision completely within 10 days.

Would you have done anything different? I wouldn’t. Canadian politicians and celebrities frequently don’t wait either, using private Ottawa clinics or U.S. hospitals for speedier care.

Nor should Canadians have to wait, according to the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2005, the court struck down Quebec’s health insurance monopoly, thereby permitting Quebecers to purchase private health insurance.

“Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,” wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. The court accepted evidence that Canadians sometimes die on waiting lists for the public health care system. Many others undergo physical and psychological suffering that saps not only their enjoyment of life but also their ability to contribute to society as productive members of the work force.

Four years have passed since the Supreme Court rendered that decision, but Ontario’s laws have not changed.

That’s why Shona Holmes, supported by the Canadian Constitution Foundation, is bringing a similar constitutional challenge to Ontario’s health insurance monopoly. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees citizens’ rights to life, liberty and security of the person. No one should have to experience the agony Shona went through because of a legal prohibition on spending your own money to buy something essential for your health.

Some fear that ending the health insurance monopoly would also spell the end of Ontario’s public health care system. The experience of other countries has demonstrated that this is not the case. Public and private plans co-exist in many countries, including Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, the United Kingdom and Sweden, providing care to all citizens, regardless of income, but without long waiting lists. These countries have health care outcomes as good as, or better than, Ontario’s.

Ironically, two of the doctors who treated Shona in Arizona were Canadians who had gone south. Permitting privately funded medicine in Canada could end the brain drain and might even encourage some of the medical talent we have been exporting for decades to return.

Karen Selick is litigation director at the Canadian Constitution Foundation, which is representing Shona Holmes in a court challenge against the government’s health care insurance monopoly.

All above was copied from Canadian Constitution Foundation

Karen Selick sets the record straight on Shona Holmes
The following article also appeared in the Calgary Herald today, August 13, 2009, under the title, “A Canadian’s journey South.”

When something’s growing in your head …

Shona Holmes has been attacked for criticizing Canada’s health insurance monopoly, but she should have had the right to seek prompt treatment for her suffering

Ontarian Shona Holmes, right, joins members of the U.S. House Republican leadership, from left, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Judy Biggert and Eric Cantor for a news conference about U.S. health care policy last month in Washington, D.C.
Photograph by: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images, Citizen Special

By Karen Selick, Citizen Special

August 12, 2009

Imagine yourself in this situation. You’ve been noticing for a couple of months that your vision is deteriorating. You’ve been having headaches and unexplained vomiting. You feel tired all the time.

You know your doctor is busy so you don’t trouble her for an appointment immediately, hoping you’ll get better. When you finally do go, she’s alarmed by your vision loss and your skyrocketing blood pressure. She orders an MRI scan. Five weeks later you get the report: there’s a lesion on your pituitary gland, just below your brain. The doctors aren’t sure what to call it. It could be a meningioma, a pituitary adenoma, a craniopharyngioma, an epidermoid adenoma, or a Rathke’s cleft cyst, they say.

You ask what these terms mean. Several of them are types of brain tumour, one possibly malignant. Uh-oh.

Your doctor refers you to two specialists. The earliest appointment you can get with a neurologist is more than seven weeks away. The earliest appointment with the endocrinologist is 16 weeks away.

But this thing is growing in your head.

Your optometrist’s tests confirm that you are getting progressively closer to blindness. What to do?

Shona Holmes, the woman who has been criticized in some quarters recently for jumping into the U.S. debate on health care reform in television ads and media interviews, faced exactly this situation. She decided to take matters into her own hands. If Canada’s health care system didn’t care enough about her to alleviate the unbearable anxiety that anyone would feel under such circumstances, there were other places in the world that would.

Shona travelled to the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Arizona, where she was seen by three specialists within seven days. She was fortunate: her growth turned out to be non-malignant. But it still had to be removed or she would surely go blind. As well, it seemed to be the source of hormonal problems that had been plaguing her. Left unattended, she was warned, her symptoms could worsen dramatically and over the long run, could be fatal. The U.S. doctors were clear: urgent surgery was needed.

Shona returned to Canada thinking that with such a clear diagnosis and treatment plan, she would have no trouble getting urgent surgery.

Wrong again. Faced with more consultations and more waits of indefinite duration, she returned to the U.S. and had immediate surgery that restored her vision completely within 10 days.

Would you have done anything different? I wouldn’t. Canadian politicians and celebrities frequently don’t wait either, using private Ottawa clinics or U.S. hospitals for speedier care.

Nor should Canadians have to wait, according to the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2005, the court struck down Quebec’s health insurance monopoly, thereby permitting Quebecers to purchase private health insurance.

“Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,” wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. The court accepted evidence that Canadians sometimes die on waiting lists for the public health care system. Many others undergo physical and psychological suffering that saps not only their enjoyment of life but also their ability to contribute to society as productive members of the work force.

Four years have passed since the Supreme Court rendered that decision, but Ontario’s laws have not changed.

That’s why Shona Holmes, supported by the Canadian Constitution Foundation, is bringing a similar constitutional challenge to Ontario’s health insurance monopoly. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees citizens’ rights to life, liberty and security of the person. No one should have to experience the agony Shona went through because of a legal prohibition on spending your own money to buy something essential for your health.

Some fear that ending the health insurance monopoly would also spell the end of Ontario’s public health care system. The experience of other countries has demonstrated that this is not the case. Public and private plans co-exist in many countries, including Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, the United Kingdom and Sweden, providing care to all citizens, regardless of income, but without long waiting lists. These countries have health care outcomes as good as, or better than, Ontario’s.

Ironically, two of the doctors who treated Shona in Arizona were Canadians who had gone south. Permitting privately funded medicine in Canada could end the brain drain and might even encourage some of the medical talent we have been exporting for decades to return.

Karen Selick is litigation director at the Canadian Constitution Foundation, which is representing Shona Holmes in a court challenge against the government’s health care insurance monopoly.