Politic-O-Pinion

Harping on Wait Times

Harper makes medical wait-times promise disappear from priorities list
Stephen Harper’s new game: Hide-the-Priority

In Canadian Politics one thing that has always been able to be said about our right-wing Conservative politicians is that, for better or worse, they do what they promised to do during election campaigns. It had always impressed me how statesmen - and I do not use the term lightly - in the Conservative party can manage to make claims that seem obviously unpopular to the nation - cutting social programs, tax relief for big business, etc - and yet they still get elected. Just look at Mike Harris!

But now we have a Conservative who is playing the “Liberal game”. Changing the rules and changing message and focus midstream. Prime Minister Stephen Harper clearly campaigned and was elected on his “five key priorities“: clean up the federal government, cut taxes, crack down on crime, support families and work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times guarantee.

Not no more.

Now we’ve got “strengthening our country at home and around the world” as priority five.

People (read: leftists) are touting this as yet another sign that Harper is an American in disguise and, as much as I dislike the notion of defining Canada in term of being Not-America, I have to agree. I want my politicians to take Canadian points of view and work to build on initiatives that are most helpful to Canada.

Having run a doctor’s office - a gynecological surgeon no less - I am well versed in the wait times issue. I know what it was like to have to tell patients that they’re looking at six months, at least, for their non-urgent hysterectomy. I know what it’s like to have had to fight with O.R. booking to get our patients in when they had a cancellation. I used to keep two or three women “on deck” at all times - their pre-operative visits performed and up to date - in case there was an opening. It was the only way to make the system work for them.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the highest levels of government ’cause it’s not going to get fixed by anyone else.

While I’ve never felt that Stephen Harper was the right choice for Prime Minister, I was confident that, at least, he would bring to the table the issues that he had promised to address during the campaign.

Now, it seems, he’s just another sneaky politician.

Entry Filed under: General, In The News, Pure Opinion

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