Calgary Sun Letters, June 15: ‘Canadian health care comes up short’

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Third-world Canada

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Let me be clear, AHS staff are awesome, but the infrastructure they contend with is in complete shambles. I recently got the ‘pleasure’ of staying at one of our ‘premier’ government-funded hospitals in the city. I was put in a room which I’m sure was formerly a washroom. There are boxes of goods lining the hallways as staff have nowhere to put supplies. Makeshift patient rooms in hallways. The whole experience reminds me of an abandoned hospital in a zombie movie. I wonder if this is what Tommy Douglas envisioned in his utopian world? It is apparent there is a severe mismanagement of funds somewhere in the health-care system, as Canada contributes among the top amounts of dollars of all OECD countries, but consistently finishes near the bottom in most categories of patient care. The Canadian health-care system is a complete disaster, and more money isn’t the solution. People don’t really care about health care until they need it, the headlines aren’t really sexy and garner little attention. I know one thing, if I ever need health care again I hope I can make it down to Great Falls, Mont., USA, where at least I can go into debt but I won’t have to contend with an apocalypse while I recover. Patients have enough to worry about, not fretting as they wake up from a drug-induced surgery that they’ve somehow fallen sick in a third-world country!

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ARLENE WILLIAMSON

(No question, something needs to change)

Brought it on themselves

It’s an example of getting one’s just desserts watching PM Carney and Premier Ford plead and beg the Trump Administration to renew CUSMA. They brought this situation onto themselves and onto Canadians with their stupid antics. Carney and Ford deliberately sought to belittle, antagonize, agitate and aggravate the U.S. all for their own personal agenda and a quest for power. Carney played the anti-American hand to gullible and uninformed Elbows-up Canadians and now the Yanks have just called Carney’s bluff. There’s a good chance the Trump administration may not renew CUSMA and sign a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico. Where does that leave Canada? Woe to Canada, but if some of the people elect clowns, expect a circus and a carnival freak show.

JEFFREY ANDERSON

(We don’t mind them standing up to Trump, but at some point let’s get down to negotiations)

Thanks for nothing, Mark

You’re quite the guy. Carney. You stand up, pound your chest and announce loans of $150 million to the airline industry to help them account for high fuel prices. At any time, has it ever occurred to you that, had the Liberals not restricted Canada’s oil and gas industries, those loans may not be necessary? You’re the taxpayers’ hero, Carney.

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DOUGLAS CASSELL

(After helping create the problem, the Liberals are trying to sound like they have the solution)

No more cellphones!

I don’t understand all the hub-bub about restricting kids under 16 from accessing social media. Seems to me the answer is obvious. Make it illegal for anyone under age 16 from possessing a cellphone, period! It’s illegal for kids of this age to have cigarettes or alcohol, why not cellphones? If parents are that disconnected from their kids that they cite ‘safety concerns,’ then bring back pagers. Same warnings but without all the drama. No social media, no staring at phones all day and night, just a connection to kids if that’s what you’re worried about. Maybe then parents will take more of an interest in what and where their children are and what they’re doing. Your child is in trouble, link the pager to 911! Those of us who lived life between using landlines and pagers without the tether of a cellphone connecting us to Facebook or some other form of social media survived just fine, thank you. Want to know where your child is? Page them and tell them to call you! Problem solved. Parenting is a responsibility, not an inconvenience!

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JOHN HANCOCK

(Making it illegal may be overkill. Some well-thought-out restrictions would probably do the trick)

Meal ticket motivation

Well, it won’t take much now for all the we-love-Canada people to come out of the woodwork when they see the meal ticket being cancelled. Once these zealots come out of the woodwork people will see how pathetic this Liberal crowd really is, when they are held to account. Quebec had a vote to show their displeasure, now it’s Alberta’s turn and next Saskatchewan. No matter what the outcome is, the message for the future will be sent. If things go off the rails, a southern friend is ready.

WAYNE ROBERTSON

(A friend? Maybe not, but your message point is taken)

Equal power

(Re: Pierre Poilievre) While in Calgary on Monday you spoke of the need for policy changes in Ottawa. It is unreasonable to expect the current government in Ottawa to support changing federal policies that were implemented against reason; by the current government in Ottawa. The best path forward is for Canada to start treating Alberta as an equal partner in confederation. The BNA Act established that members of parliament were to be elected to the House of Commons based on the fundamental democratic principle of representation by population. A recent Aristotle Foundation report analyzing representation by population calculated the current House of Commons vote-value for P.E.I. to be 2.99 times greater than Alberta. In fact, Alberta has the lowest vote-value in the House of Commons. Just to twist this knife, the vote-value disparity was ‘enshrined’ when the current government’s Bill C-14, focusing on MAID legislation and bail reform, was passed in 2022. Buried in Bill C-14, the Constitution Act was amended to ensure no province’s seat count in the House of Commons falls below the 2021 Census levels. Parliamentary democracy upholds a basic principle that all votes should be equally counted. Alberta cannot be an equal partner in confederation until the votes in every province carry equal weight in the House of Commons. Ottawa would send a strong unity message to Alberta by eliminating vote-value disparity in the House of Commons. One eloquent but simple solution is enacting ‘the Canada Clause’ ensuring all provinces have equal representation by population in the House of Commons. Using Aristotle Foundation data, the Alberta MP voting weight would be 1.000. The Canada Clause voting weight for a P.E.I. MP would be 0.334 (1/2.99).

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WILLIAM CLANCY

(Anything that shifts voting power to the prairie provinces would be a tough sell to the ruling Liberals)

Sanction Russian athletes

The war that Russia started with Ukraine over four years ago has not ended. Why are Russian athletes competing in tournaments and competitions around the world? There are Russians competing in tennis tournaments located outside Russia today. Do democratic countries just not care anymore about punishing Putin’s Russia and are forgetting about sanctioning Russian athletes allowing them to compete because the war is not front page news anymore. How shameful?

R. MOSKAL, Winnipeg

(There’s a question whether Russian athletes should be punished en masse for the actions of a regime they may or may not support)

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