Albertan when we want, Canadian when it suits us

It’s an odd world Alberta Premier Danielle Smith inhabits: one where her province keeps the benefits of its natural resources, while other provinces should simply surrender the bounty of nature that may have fallen by chance in their jurisdictions to Smith’s Alberta needs.

Smith has been arguing that it’s “unCanadian and unconstitutional” for British Columbia to rebuff plans for an Alberta-sponsored pipeline to go to the British Columbia coast.

(B.C. Premier David Eby has said giving the pipeline proposal a green light when it’s merely in the planning process would upset a fragile consensus for other projects that are much further along.)

In her battle to determine just what should happen in British Columbia, Smith has gotten some help from a resource-rich neighbour, Premier Scott Moe of Saskatchewan.

Shutdown stalls many U.S. government functions

While the threat of an interruption of government services is a fairly common occurrence in U.S. politics — these days, it seems to be part of every federal budget cycle — actual full-scale shutdowns are quite rare.

Despite the seemingly unbridgeable chasm that exists between America’s two political parties in these deeply polarized times, Republicans and Democrats usually find a way to cobble together a deal to raise the government’s debt ceiling in a way that allows services to continue.

This time, however, no agreement could be found. The U.S. government went into shutdown on Oct. 1, bringing many government services to a halt. Those considered essential, such as border and law enforcement, federally funded hospitals and air-traffic control, have continued, though many of the workers delivering those services are not being paid during the budget interruption.

Such situations are not commonplace, despite the current ideological divide. The government has shut down 15 times since 1980, but in 11 of those instances, the interruption lasted three or fewer days. The last shutdown occurred in December 2018, and lasted 35 days.

Victoria Hospital ER part of larger issue

The NDP government’s decision to reopen the emergency department at Victoria Hospital in 2027 will no doubt be welcomed by many in south Winnipeg.

Residents in that part of the city have argued they lost an essential service when the former Progressive Conservative government converted Victoria’s emergency room to an urgent care centre in 2017.

Reopening the ER, one of the NDP’s election promises in 2023, may provide more convenient access for people living nearby. But let’s not pretend it will solve Winnipeg’s worsening emergency room crisis.

Wait times are at or near historic highs, and there’s little evidence to suggest that adding another ER will meaningfully reduce them. The problems driving long ER wait times are far more complex.

More violence can’t be the solution

Many things can simultaneously be true, even when it’s contentious to say so.

Even two years after the fact, the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 was horrendous in the extreme, demonstrating a level of cruelty — both in its planning and in its delivery — that will be impossible for any rational person to forgive or ever forget.

It was an attack designed to not only torture and kill Israelis in their homes and at a music festival, but to deliver maximum torment to the families and friends left behind — not to mention the torment of hostages still held by Hamas.

Simply put, the truth of the breadth of that deliberate cruelty is clear.

A petition you should consider signing

Let’s just keep track of e-6679 and ask ourselves whether it’s not about time for plenty of us to sign it.

What is e-6679? Well, it’s an electronic petition to the House of Commons, suggesting that federal politicians and candidates who knowingly mislead the public should face penalties, including, potentially, being disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons.

Here’s the prayer — the details — of the petition.

“Whereas: Members of Parliament (MPs) have been accused of making important public statements that are false and without evidence; Misinformation is a growing threat to the proper functioning of, as well as faith in, our democratic process; A mechanism is needed to verify MPs’ public statements to maintain trust in our governing body; Artificial Intelligence is amplifying misinformation; Current events in the United States demonstrate the dangers of not addressing this problem; and The Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research (ICDR) of Wales, UK, proposed a white paper entitled ‘A Model for Political Honesty,’ created because ‘the Welsh Government will bring forward legislation before 2026 for the disqualification of Members and candidates found guilty of deliberate deception through an independent judicial process and will invite the committee to make proposals to that effect.’

Canada Post strike ignores a harsh reality

This appears to be a classic case of failing to “read the room.”

In the ongoing dispute between Canada Post and its unionized employees, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has adopted a position that seems either inexplicably unmindful or intentionally heedless of the current realities facing the Crown corporation.

In a decidedly grim announcement last week, Public Works and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound directed Canada Post to adopt massive cost-cutting measures, including an end to door-to-door mail delivery and the closure of some rural post offices. In response, CUPW ordered the 55,000 workers it represents onto the street for a full-scale nationwide strike.

CUPW president Jan Simpson called the minister’s announcement “a direct assault on our public post office, the public’s right to participate in political processes, and good, unionized jobs across the country,” adding the union and the public “can’t let them get away with it.”

Bad neighbours – and maybe bad water, too

In normal situations, it would seem like grown-ups could talk about their mutual concerns and reach a fair compromise.

After all, we’re not four-year-olds, wanting to keep each and every one of the toys for ourselves.

Oh, wait: that’s not the way it is now. Our “America first” neighbour to the south is intent on keeping every one of the toys for themselves, whether that’s with tariffs or streamlining project approvals by stripping environmental rules.

And water is very much one of those toys, especially when we have it, and the U.S. doesn’t: (toddler-like screaming ensues).

TikTok as a tool — but for whom?

Canada already considers TikTok a threat to national security and the lives of many Canadian youth who, a recent investigation showed, collect huge amounts of personal data on every one of its users.

But could it also become a tool to bring U.S. President Donald Trump’s dreams of swallowing Canada up as the 51st state closer to reality?

In theory, if the deal to sell U.S. operations to American investors goes through — and there is no certainty it will at the moment — then conditions are ripe for an abuse by the Trump administration of the data collected by TikTok. And the data are extensive.

U.S. and Canadian authorities have already expressed their concerns that TikTok — which is used by billions of people worldwide — is providing the personal information it collects on its users to the Chinese government. TikTok has denied this repeatedly, but Chinese law allows government to access on demand private data from any app operated on its soil.

Editorial

Medical complaints must be addressed

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba says patient safety is “top of mind.”

As the regulatory body whose role is (according to the CPSM’s own website), “to protect the public as consumers of medical care and promote the safe and ethical delivery of quality medical care by physicians in Manitoba,” one might fairly expect nothing less. Protecting and promoting patient safety is the organization’s sole reason for being.

The numbers, however, suggest something different. As has been recently reported, the college currently has more than 225 open investigations related to complaints from Manitobans regarding medical treatment they’ve received, and at present has just one investigator tasked with conducting those investigations.

The magnitude of the backlog became apparent after a Winnipeg man revealed to the Free Press that his complaint of “severe harm caused by medical neglect” has taken more than a year to move forward, and the college informed him his case is among more than 225 currently awaiting investigation.

There may be no ‘reason’ for the violence

When a shooting occurs, there’s a rush to determine every detail possible — with the most pressing question often being, “Why?”

It can be difficult to pin down, and, unfortunately, the motive can sometimes prove to be insensible.

In the wake of the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters leapt at the chance to denounce the violence as far-left extremism. As details about the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, emerge, the battle to establish his ideological leaning goes on.

Historically, statistics have borne out that many of these shootings are carried out largely by disaffected white men who have adopted extremist right-wing views. But now there might well be a different, non-political cause of this violence, which is best summed up as internet-addled nihilism.

The devilish details that make no sense

Perhaps we’ve just become inured.

We all knew that kid when we were in school. You know the one — he would tell you he could throw a rock further than anyone in school, he just couldn’t do it today, because he’d hurt his arm winning an arm-wrestling championship against the biggest weightlifter the world had ever seen. The kid who told you his father was a secret agent who could kill anyone he wanted to, any time.

Eventually, you didn’t question it any more. It was just the same bafflegab day after day, easier to ignore than to challenge.

“You hold the world record in both rock-skipping and high-jumping? Whatever…”

Gun buyback comments an embarassing mistake

Cabinet unanimity is an interesting animal. Behind closed doors, cabinet ministers at the provincial and federal levels hash out the basic priorities and directions of government — sometimes, everyone at the table agrees. Often, it’s not unanimous.

But once cabinet members leave the cabinet room, everyone has to publicly support the decisions made at the table. They’re supposed to keep their doubts under wraps — in fact, they are required to keep all aspects of the cabinet discussions under wraps, as cabinet deliberations are meant to be kept confidential, so that no can benefit, either politically or financially, from spilling the beans.

This week, a member of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet broke the rules of both cabinet unanimity and confidentiality — and in so doing, leaked messy details about the political machinations of Canadian gun regulation.

The cabinet member was no less than Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree.

Message to the U.S. ambassador: we’re disappointed, too

The U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, is disappointed with us.

On a long-running meet-and-greet trip to speak with Canadians and explain the actions of a somewhat capricious American government, Hoekstra expressed that disappointment during a session presented by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m disappointed that I came to Canada — a Canada (where) it is very, very difficult to find Canadians who are passionate about the American-Canadian relationship,” Hoekstra said.

With every bit of ambassadorial diplomacy we can muster, we beg to differ with the highest U.S. representative in Canada.

Increase in number of doctors is only a start

Manitoba posted a record increase of new physicians this past year, a development that deserves recognition.

According to the latest figures from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, the province added a net new 164 doctors as of April 30, the largest annual increase since at least 2008.

In a health care system long plagued by shortages, backlogs and overworked staff, any growth in the physician workforce is welcome news. Patients, families and communities across the province will feel the benefits of these additional doctors, especially in regions that have been grappling with a lack of access to basic medical care.

But while the increase is encouraging, it would be short-sighted to declare victory. Beneath the surface of this good news lie troubling trends that Manitoba cannot afford to ignore.