Michael's Musings

Norma Blissett declares,

 "It is now 2013, time for a change"

By Michael J Morris

Perhaps the defining moment at the Kootenay East riding candidates' forum for the May 14 British Columbia provincial election was the comment by BC NDP candidate Norma Blissett that it is now 2013, not the 1990s.

She was responding emphatically to her opponent Bill Bennett, the BC Liberals candidate who had been critical of the NDP government that was in power in the 1990s. It is a common tactic used by the Social Credit Party and its successor with a different name to invoke fear of  the "socialist hordes that are at the gates of the province" and must be kept out of power.

But Ms Blissett was having  none of it. "It is now 2013," she said, and repeated it, moments later just to make sure her opponent got the message.

Both candidates said they arrived in British Columbia in the 1990s and have stayed. I must have arrived just before them in 1989, and I too am still here. Guess it wasn't as bad as Mr. Bennett and his party would have us believe. We all found work and decided to stay --- and we all came from Ontario.

An NDP provincial government was elected shortly after I arrived and let me give you some simple personal observations on then and now. When the NDP was in power my medical insurance plan premiums did not soar and my BC Hydro bill did not double. Most important to me, I had a family doctor.

For the past four years, I did not have a full-time family doctor as mine wanted to retire and rightfully so, and new doctors arrived and left shortly thereafter like going through a revolving door. My family doctor returned for part of each year, and I half jokingly said to him: "I have to time any illnesses to the times you are here."

None of the family doctors in the other Cranbrook clinics were accepting patients and I was most assuredly not the only person who faced this situation. 

As a result, the emergency department at East Kootenay Regional Hospital and other hospitals have become a walk in clinic for everyone who does not have a family doctor, all happening while the BC Liberals have been in power. The situation became so dire  that emergency care doctors declared a state of emergency in the province, not just here.

Let me make it perfectly and abundantly clear that my criticism is not in any way directed at those who work in the front line of patient care at East Kootenay Regional Hospital. I have been a patient there, and they are amazing people, all of them, working under great pressure.

Just this week, Sparwood Healthcare announced a reduction in hours "due to limited physician availability."  

It begs the question as to where the 44 cents of every tax dollar that is spent on health care that Mr. Bennett claims is going. 

Belatedly as the election approached, the BC Liberals started responding to the physician shortage situation. 

So, that was then, and this is now and as Ms. Blissett noted, it is 2013, and when British Columbia citizens vote on May 14, it is time for a change, and time to make a difference. I agree and I am not now or ever have been a member of the New Democratic Party. In fact, the good Progressive Conservatives, not to be identified with the Harper Conservatives, in my family,  would be shocked to know I plan to vote NDP.

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Full disclosure: I am not now and never have been a member of the Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society; however, I did conduct a workshop for its members for which I was paid.