Green Party leader Elizabeth May said she thinks most Canadians don't know that before entering politics, Conservative leader Stephen Harper worked hard to dismantle public health care.
May made the observation in an on-board interview with The Tyee as her campaign train headed east out of Vancouver. May talked about where Via Rail has abandoned Canadian passengers, about why she's running in one of the most staunchly Tory ridings in the nation, and about how she might go after Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the upcoming leadership debates.
"When Stephen Harper was working for the National Citizens Coalition, his goal was to end public health care in Canada," May said. "In 2004, he got away with explaining that by saying, 'My views have evolved.'"
May threw up her hands in mock confusion.
"'Evolved?'" she asked. "We'll that's good. It must mean that he believes in evolution. But beyond that what does it mean?"
May added, "I'd like Canadians to know what he did for a living before he ran for leader of the Alliance. And what he did for a living was try to end our health care system. Do they know that? I don't think they know that."
Read the full interview on the Tyee.
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G West
3 years ago
He didn't just harm health care
He made the food supply potentially unsafe.
Please read this:
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.081477
And note especially the following:
Last November (2007) the Canadian government instituted a strategic review of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Among its outcomes was to transfer inspection duties for ready-to-eat meats from the government inspectors to the meat industry. Cabinet decided to “shift from full-time CFIA meat inspection presence to an oversight role, [thereby] allowing industry to implement food safety control programs and to manage key risks.”
In practice, the new policy meant that CFIA inspectors would rarely enter meat plants to test for bacteria and testing was left mostly to companies. Self-inspection came largely to substitute for, and not just to supplement, government inspection. Self-inspection mechanisms have worked effectively in other countries, but in Canada something went very wrong. One troubling sign is that even now, months after the policy change, the CFIA’s required sampling procedure remains under development.....
And further:
This...
"The listeriosis epidemic is a timely reminder that the Harper government has reversed much of the progress that previous governments made on governing for public health. Following the 2003 SARS epidemic and subsequent recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) was created and given its own minister in government— a direct line to the prime minister. But in 2006, among Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s first acts was to eliminate the PHAC minister and public health’s seat at the Cabinet table. His government also left the chief medical officer of health within the ranks of the civil service, working under the minister of health. In so doing, it left our country without a national independent voice to speak out on public health issues, including providing visible leadership during this crisis...."
And this:
"And listeriosis may be the least of it. The same November 2007 Cabinet decision that handed self-inspection to the owners of meat plants did the same for operators of animal feed mills and cut back the avian influenza preparedness program. Yet bad animal feed led to the epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalitis (mad cow disease), and in an influenza pandemic tens of thousands of Canadians may die. Listeriosis pales in comparison. Overall, it would seem that, as a country, Canada is far less prepared now for epidemics than in the past......"
Tip of the hat to http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/
As Ross puts it, this is about a lot more than a couple of bad jokes!