It’s an annual event. The provincial and territorial leaders gather to dine and feast on the supposed failures of the federal government. It is a blame game and it proves nothing and solves nothing. They all know there is only one taxpayer and every level of government wants a bigger piece of that pie.
But they all play the game anyway. It is like playing pickle ball under 13 different sets of rules. It all depends on which province is placing their claim. Even this year’s host, the retiring B.C. premier John Horgan, is arguing with federal affairs minister Dominic LeBlanc over who pays what to whom. Nobody seems to realize that it matters little to the taxpayer whether the feds pay 22 or 33 per cent of the cost of Medicare in the provinces. It is the quality of that health care that matters.
And there is little sympathy for Ontario’s premier Ford. That incompetent ass has driven the Ontario healthcare into the ground throughout the pandemic. Nobody was surprised when his minister of health, Christine Elliott, quit rather then run again for that thankless job. In his nickel and dime election campaign, Ford threw pennies to the masses and luckily had no real opposition.
And now Ford is blaming the feds that Ontario has non-functioning emergency departments throughout the province, long waiting lists for emergency operations, and the hospitals themselves on life-support. Despite the healthcare needs, Ford is also asking the federal government to give his government control of immigration in Ontario. They do such a good job on everything else.
Federal conservative leadership contender, Jean Charest, dropped into the Calgary Stampede the other day and told Calgarians that he was the conservative leadership contender that can give them what they want. He promised freedom from carbon taxes, more pipelines and more freedom for the provinces to do their own thing. He told his audience in Calgary that he knew how to do that because he is from Quebec.
And the good news in all of this is that the provincial and territorial leaders all think they have conquered the pandemic. They are meeting in person in B.C.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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