Yes we CAN-ada

10:25 am, Ontario’s premier’s opening statements at the First Ministers meeting hit a chord among the premiers.

“Yes we Canada,” she said, speaking to a comprehensive team oriented approach to tackling the nation’s issues.  It was a play on President-elect Obama’s rallying American slogan “Yes we can.”

“It’s time to work together to change the system,” said Ontario’s premier.

She wasn’t concerned about potential trademark infringements. “It could be [an infringment],” she admitted, “but it’s all with good intentions.”

The democrat’s slogan has caused controversy south of the border. “It’s outrageous,” declared Homer “Deacon” Jones Jr., the president and grandson of the founder of the Intercourse Canning Company of Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

“….When someone takes our prideful slogan, ‘Yes, We Can!’ and usurps it for political purposes, well, that makes my blood boil. That slogan is known all over the country for just one thing: Canning.” The Intercourse Canning Company is known for canning beets, pickles and tomatoes. Mr. Jones was the President of the National Center for Home Food Preservation and Canning from 1996 to 2002.

Neither the Obama campaign nor The Intercourse Canning Company was available for comment.

Profiles: Alex Etchell

I don’t know which part of the frozen windswept tundra of Nunavut that Alex Etchell came from but he was probably melting the permafrost! This Fiery Premier first made a serious impression on Canadian media when he told the Alberta delegation that they “do not understand basic economic theory!”  It was refreshing to see him stand his ground against the seemingly unchallengeable Albertans.

In a recent statement made to the Seditious Times Etchell reported on behalf of the Nunavut delegation “we were happy with the outcome of the meeting. We felt we had a chance to make our voice heard.” To give credit where credit is due, it is because of Etchell that their voice was heard, and as a result of his performance at the meeting the Seditious Times will be listening all the more attentively in the future.

Walker Smith

Seditious Times

First Minister’s health care proposals weak

In a succession of dispassionate presentations the premiers of the provinces presented their agenda proposals for the upcoming First Ministers Conference on November 15.

Beside the economic crisis, which has the nation seized with concern health care was  the high priority on the list with the majority of the delegates. All delegates stressed the importance of health care whilst managing to steer clear of any initiatives that specifically addressed their provincial concerns.

Home care, drug costs, geriatric care, wait times, day care, there is a plethora of issues to tackle ⎯ the premiers were decidedly vague about what exactly they wanted.

The Fraser Institute just released their report titled Paying More, Getting Less: 2008 Report surmising that the Canada’s current health care system is unsustainable. Provinces can no longer provide adequate health care with their current resources.

The report revealed that New Brunswick and Manitoba face the greatest monetary crunch, with New Brukswick projected to be spending 50 per cent of its total revenues of health care within 11 years while Manitoba could hit the 50 per cent mark within 12 years.

Earlier this week, officials from the New Brunswick Health Coalition held a media conference to release findings from a national report called Eroding Public Medicare: Lessons and Consequences of For-Profit Health Care Across Canada.

In the past few months, Health Minister Mike Murphy has thrown around the idea of privately owned clinics for the delivery of public services such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures or CT scans.

Tory Health critic Claude Landry says Health Minister Mike Murphy is out of touch if he thinks exploring privatized health care in New Brunswick is a smart move. However, the recent investigations could be a long-overdue acknowledgement that the medicare system needs an overhaul.

Conservative Leader of the Government of Canada has a questionable track record because of undermining medicare as head of the right-wing National Citizens Coalition from 1998-2002.

Economic downtown aside, Canada’s health care was in need of reform. Now, with a looming federal deficit on the horizon meeting the basic health needs of Canadians citizens must be achieved through different means other than relying on the federal purse.

Economic Issues Reign in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia’s Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs released what appears to have been a hurried press release on October 3^rd as we approach the upcoming agenda meeting. Spelling mistakes and disorganization aside, the ministry released their priority issues. In these economically stressful times, the province hopes to discuss the national equalization program, the oil and gas industry, and the lagging tourism industry at the meeting.

Considering the immense weight currently placed on the importance of the environment, Nova Scotia has not represented it as one of their main priorities … unless you consider offshore oil drilling a matter of the environment. The province does, however, believe this to be so: government officials say “Nova Scotia’s future is tightly linked to the sustainable, environmentally-friendly extraction of natural resources. Offshore oil is a large part of this future”. Sustainable, perhaps, but is swapping one beneficial environmental process with an equally harmful substitute: risk of oil spills and the release of drilling fluids into the ocean truly a call for an “environmentally-friendly” future? Perhaps Nova Scotia should make its claim in truth, as a matter of economic prosperity for the province. And why not?

Returning to the others matters of importance to the province outlines, we see a call to Canadians for unification. They seek an effective equalization program to maintain a Canada-wide equality in basic health care and social requirements. Hopefully Nova Scotia will bring ideas to the table considering provinces even such as Ontario are seeking help in the financial turmoil that has rocked the stock markets.

Tourism too is a Canada-wide issue that Nova Scotians are hoping to address. According to the Canadian Tourism Commission, the rising dollar has resulted in a decreased foreign spending by $2.5 billion in the past year. Despite this decrease, however, the total tourism spending increased by $14.1 billion, resulting in the creation of 623 900 jobs in the industry. Then what is worrying Nova Scotia? The strength of the dollar has decreased tourism in that province due to its reliance on American tourists. In its current state, Nova Scotia anticipates a further decrease not only in their province, but across the nation.

In the upcoming agenda meeting, Nova Scotia will play a large role in effecting the importance of economic issues, but is the environment to be left “at bay”?

Ariane Fleischmann, The Seditious Time