Where's our fifth priority?
The Conservative Party has developed a new slogan, "Promises made, promises kept" but it seems that Harper has missed a priority along the way. During the 2006 election, Harper laid out five priorities for the Conservative Government:
1. Clean up government by passing the Federal Accountability Act;
2. Provide real tax relief to working families by cutting the GST;
3. Make our streets and communities safer by cracking down on crime;
4. Help parents with the cost of raising their children; and
5. Work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee
I guess he's done well, if you agree with his policy, taking action on 4 out of 5 priorities, but I can't help but wonder what has happened to this fifth priority.
Apparently this fifth priority does not require further transfers to the provinces, according to Prime Minister Harper and Health Minister, Tony Clement.
Ontario Health Minister, George Smitherman, commented that Clement has told him that there will be no additonal funds given to the provinces to help shorten wait times.
Could Prime Minister Harper be secretly working on an agenda for a two-tier healthcare system? As Liberal hopeful Bob Rae said on the issue: "Their real agenda is to drive the provinces to establishing two tiers. That's what the real agenda is, it's to tell the provinces and the public that if you want speedy treatment, go to the private sector."
I'm Not a fan of Bob Rae, but I think he's got it right on this one...
posted by TB at 7:30 AM
2 Comments:
Ironically, the fifth promise is the hardest one to keep and also the one that most people want to be kept.
Cutting the GST and giving day-care handouts were payoffs to voters.
Cracking down on crime? How? Raising the age of sexual consent? Other than that, I would have no idea what the CPC has done to keep our streets safer.
Cleaning up the government by passing the Accountability Act? Harper is as big of a hypocrite as anyone by appointing an unelected senator and a floor-crosser to his cabinet. LEST we forget his censorship of the media. Very accountable there.
And lastly, the only thing that REALLY matters to ALL Canadians (not just the rich, or those with children under 6, or horny teens) has stalled.
He sure made promises, and he sure kept the ones that matter the least to our nation (or do very little to "improve" it) but when it comes to real change, to real progress, Harper falls short. Incredibly short.
Agreed.
Also, I find this comment from Harper interesting:
"It's been quite a ride ever since (our budget), with progress being made on all of our five priorities - from cleaning up the federal government, to cutting taxes, cracking down on crime, supporting families and strengthening our country at home and around the world," Harper writes.
But Harper completely omits the fact that his fifth priority was fixing health care and that "strengthening our country" was never listed as one of Harper's famous five priorities.
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