To Move Forward, Canada's Conservatives Should Look To Past
DrCaleb @ Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:53 am
bootlegga bootlegga:
doing end runs around privacy laws and getting physician's private cell phone numbers,
That one burned me too, as I had just finished the Alberta Health internal courses on the Privacy act and how not to breach it.
Getting an HR department to get a Doctors unlisted cell phone number is pretty much the definition of 'privacy breach'. Will the Minister be held responsible? No! Because Kenney already demonstrated that if you investigate him or his Ministers, your department will be rolled into another one and your job defunded.
Thanos @ Mon Apr 13, 2020 5:24 pm
bootlegga bootlegga:
Thanos Thanos:
Kenney is doing quite well on Covid, even admirable on most of it. I'll give him that much at least.
I'd say he's doing a barely passable job (maybe 55% or so), but in the past couple weeks, he's had a bunch of gaffes that significantly reduced his crediblity.
Like his one hour press conference on the possible COVID-19 outcomes on Thursday - why was he explaining medical terms and not a medical professional? It's fine for him to start off the press conference by announcing what the government is doing to fight COVID-19, but until then, he always let medical professionals talk about medical issues.
His donation of PPEs to Ontario and Quebec has now been shown to be a pathetic attempt at a quid-pr-qou for a pipeline east. And why did he send those east, when just last week he said Alberta had a shortage?
And the biggest is why hasn't he fired Shandro after all of his stupidity over the past month (confronting a doctor in front of his house, threatening constituents who write letters to him, doing end runs around privacy laws and getting physician's private cell phone numbers, as well as cutting doctor's fees in the middle of a pandemic)?
I usually laugh my ass off at Doug Ford, but he seems to be doing a better job than Kenney during this crisis.
Total agreement on firing Shandro. That should have happened the instant the information about him going up to doctors house to confront the man over complaining about the changes in the billing. And if not then then the second and third strikes should have come together when the phone harassment happened. Shandro's a reactive nutcase with a bad temper and shouldn't be in that position at all.
I'd need information on the quid pro quo over the ventilators though. That's the first I've heard of it being a bribe. Kind of a pointless bribe at that because Ontario will be on-side with any east-bound pipeline while Ford is premier. And doubly-pointless giving ventilators to Quebec because they're so anti-pipeline that you could give them a thousand ventilators and an extra billion in cash and they still wouldn't allow one to be built.
DrCaleb @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:03 am
And now Jason Kenney thinks he is more qualified to approve health tests than Health Canada.
$1:
More than 70 companies have now signed up to sell the rapid test kits in the U.S. However, in Texas, the federal government seized 20,000 test kits purchased by the city of Laredo after determining the results were unreliable.
On Monday, Kenney also criticized Tam's response to the pandemic.
He said the Canadian government was wrong to keep national borders open to travellers from countries hit earlier by COVID-19.
"This is the same Dr. Tam who is telling us that we shouldn't close our borders to countries with high levels of infection and who in January was repeating talking points out of the PRC [People's Republic of China] about no evidence of human to human transmission," Kenney said.
University of Calgary Prof. Lorian Hardcastle, an expert in health law, said Kenney's statements are problematic on several fronts.
She said the premier extrapolated an issue about Canadians' access to one test to create the impression the federal agency is slowing access to potential drugs or vaccines. There are no approved drugs or vaccines for COVID-19 yet, she said.
She said standards differ between countries, and a product approved elsewhere may not meet Health Canada requirements.
Hardcastle also questioned whether provinces have the constitutional authority to regulate drugs and health products. Alberta would need to develop its own agency, regulations and expertise, she said. Importing drugs is also under federal government control, which creates a logistical hurdle, she said.
"Provinces don't have any experience in testing the safety of drugs and approving drugs," she said. "To send the message to Albertans that Alberta could all of a sudden do a better job of getting Canadians better access to devices and drugs, I think is very false."
On Monday, Kenney also criticized Tam's response to the pandemic.
He said the Canadian government was wrong to keep national borders open to travellers from countries hit earlier by COVID-19.
"This is the same Dr. Tam who is telling us that we shouldn't close our borders to countries with high levels of infection and who in January was repeating talking points out of the PRC [People's Republic of China] about no evidence of human to human transmission," Kenney said.
University of Calgary Prof. Lorian Hardcastle, an expert in health law, said Kenney's statements are problematic on several fronts.
She said the premier extrapolated an issue about Canadians' access to one test to create the impression the federal agency is slowing access to potential drugs or vaccines. There are no approved drugs or vaccines for COVID-19 yet, she said.
She said standards differ between countries, and a product approved elsewhere may not meet Health Canada requirements.
Hardcastle also questioned whether provinces have the constitutional authority to regulate drugs and health products. Alberta would need to develop its own agency, regulations and expertise, she said. Importing drugs is also under federal government control, which creates a logistical hurdle, she said.
"Provinces don't have any experience in testing the safety of drugs and approving drugs," she said. "To send the message to Albertans that Alberta could all of a sudden do a better job of getting Canadians better access to devices and drugs, I think is very false."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton ... -1.5531175
So doubling down on the fear of immigrants that the Right has been stoking for years.
Conservatives really need to back it up to a time when reality was their guiding principle, not fear.
FieryVulpine @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 8:29 am
Always fun--albeit predictable--to watch the Left try to psychologically project their fear-mongering and paranoia onto the Right. It is all the NDP has considering that they cannot run on their record as Notley's premiership has been a dismal failure. Unfortunately, they never had any grounding in reality as their 2015 victory was due to circumstance than any political skill on their part and it was obvious to anyone with more than one functional synapse that the NDP were on the way out in 2019. Probably more disheartening was than the Alberta Party was the closest to a centrist party Alberta had. Unfortunately, the NDP voter base were just as ideologically committed to the far-left policies as the right wing-nuts of the UCP were dedicated to theirs and thus the Alberta was wiped out.
Listening to NDP voters is similar to listening to Billy Madison's speech during the final event of the academic decathlon. Always rambling and incoherent in their response with the general public made dumber by having listened to it. The greater tragedy is that had Notley done the dignified thing and resigned, the NDP would have slid into the abyss even faster.
bootlegga @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:17 am
Thanos Thanos:
bootlegga bootlegga:
Thanos Thanos:
Kenney is doing quite well on Covid, even admirable on most of it. I'll give him that much at least.
I'd say he's doing a barely passable job (maybe 55% or so), but in the past couple weeks, he's had a bunch of gaffes that significantly reduced his crediblity.
Like his one hour press conference on the possible COVID-19 outcomes on Thursday - why was he explaining medical terms and not a medical professional? It's fine for him to start off the press conference by announcing what the government is doing to fight COVID-19, but until then, he always let medical professionals talk about medical issues.
His donation of PPEs to Ontario and Quebec has now been shown to be a pathetic attempt at a quid-pr-qou for a pipeline east. And why did he send those east, when just last week he said Alberta had a shortage?
And the biggest is why hasn't he fired Shandro after all of his stupidity over the past month (confronting a doctor in front of his house, threatening constituents who write letters to him, doing end runs around privacy laws and getting physician's private cell phone numbers, as well as cutting doctor's fees in the middle of a pandemic)?
I usually laugh my ass off at Doug Ford, but he seems to be doing a better job than Kenney during this crisis.
Total agreement on firing Shandro. That should have happened the instant the information about him going up to doctors house to confront the man over complaining about the changes in the billing. And if not then then the second and third strikes should have come together when the phone harassment happened. Shandro's a reactive nutcase with a bad temper and shouldn't be in that position at all.
I'd need information on the quid pro quo over the ventilators though. That's the first I've heard of it being a bribe. Kind of a pointless bribe at that because Ontario will be on-side with any east-bound pipeline while Ford is premier. And doubly-pointless giving ventilators to Quebec because they're so anti-pipeline that you could give them a thousand ventilators and an extra billion in cash and they still wouldn't allow one to be built.
If you watch the pres conference at the end, Kenney says he hopes this donation will help change their mind 'because of Alberta's generosity...blah blah $20 billion/year' at about 36:45, which I'd call a poor attempt at a bribe or quid-pro-quo.
I agree it may not make a difference to Quebec and/or BC when it comes to pipelines, but the fact that he raised it at all makes me question his motives on this.
N_Fiddledog @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:39 am
FieryVulpine FieryVulpine:
Always fun--albeit predictable--to watch the Left try to psychologically project their fear-mongering and paranoia onto the Right.
What's amusing me is how full of suggestions the left seems to be here on how to fix the right.
Sunnyways @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:01 pm
bootlegga bootlegga:
Thanos Thanos:
Kenney is doing quite well on Covid, even admirable on most of it. I'll give him that much at least.
I usually laugh my ass off at Doug Ford, but he seems to be doing a better job than Kenney during this crisis.
For me, Ford is striking a better tone than than the little I’ve seen of Kenney. He’s strangely humble and subdued which is consistent with the bare fact that nobody knows the best balance of policies to pursue because nobody has the faintest clue what is going to happen. Nearly any option taken will be harmful to somebody.
raydan @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:07 pm
N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:
FieryVulpine FieryVulpine:
Always fun--albeit predictable--to watch the Left try to psychologically project their fear-mongering and paranoia onto the Right.
What's amusing me is how full of suggestions the left seems to be here on how to fix the right.
Actually, "fixing" the right would solve a lot of problems.
Sunnyways @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:28 pm
Hey, we were asked for our opinion! Canadians have distrusted radical political change for a long time now. Perhaps after this crisis, there may some appetite for it. I see a big debate coming on the costs and benefits of globalization across the political spectrum and it may be particularly fierce on the Right.
JaredMilne @ Tue Apr 14, 2020 5:56 pm
Sunnyways Sunnyways:
bootlegga bootlegga:
Thanos Thanos:
Kenney is doing quite well on Covid, even admirable on most of it. I'll give him that much at least.
I usually laugh my ass off at Doug Ford, but he seems to be doing a better job than Kenney during this crisis.
For me, Ford is striking a better tone than than the little I’ve seen of Kenney. He’s strangely humble and subdued which is consistent with the bare fact that nobody knows the best balance of policies to pursue because nobody has the faintest clue what is going to happen. Nearly any option taken will be harmful to somebody.
I've seen multiple instances of the Toronto Star, whose staff would be expected to be Ford's collective arch-enemy, praising him for his leadership and his effort to keep on top of things. Go figure.
DrCaleb @ Wed Apr 15, 2020 5:19 am
JaredMilne JaredMilne:
Sunnyways Sunnyways:
bootlegga bootlegga:
I usually laugh my ass off at Doug Ford, but he seems to be doing a better job than Kenney during this crisis.
For me, Ford is striking a better tone than than the little I’ve seen of Kenney. He’s strangely humble and subdued which is consistent with the bare fact that nobody knows the best balance of policies to pursue because nobody has the faintest clue what is going to happen. Nearly any option taken will be harmful to somebody.
I've seen multiple instances of the Toronto Star, whose staff would be expected to be Ford's collective arch-enemy, praising him for his leadership and his effort to keep on top of things. Go figure.
Ford is carrying himself well, but a lot of the problems seen in nursing homes are the direct result of his austerity policy.