Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The ghost of Tommy Douglas (II)

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:51pm - 19 Comments

Susan Delacourt reports Jack Layton will be on MSNBC this evening, which leaves her somewhat confused.

Perhaps I’ve missed it, but have there been any Conservative-government representatives doing the same thing on the American airwaves? Is our current health minister unavailable?  Perhaps the government should hire some U.S. communications folks to get Harper and others some spots on American networks. Oh wait. They already have.

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  • Blammo

    If you think Harper would *defend* Canada's health cares system, then you don't know Harper. After, destroying socialized health care was the whole reason the National Citizen's Coalition was created in the first place.

  • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

    Not that I agree with the policy but Harper hired people to get him on a channel that people actually watch. It is not difficult to get on station that no one cares about except for a few lefty loonies.

    • Blues Clair

      What? Only lefty loonies watch cnn?

      • Lord Kitchener's Own

        Ever since they gave Lou Dobbs his own show the whole network's nothing but commies.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

        Good one, I totally forgot that Harper was on CNN. I only remembered his Fox News appearance. That means my comment makes no sense because msnbc is doing better in ratings than cnn I believe.

      • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

        Good one, I totally forgot that Harper was on CNN. I only remembered his Fox News appearances. That means my comment makes no sense because msnbc is doing better in ratings than cnn I believe.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

        Yup. Only because we can't get Fox.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Silly_Walks Silly_Walks

    Stand up for Canada!

  • http://theplaceofbiff.blogspot.com biff

    With a cancer death rate that's significantly higher than in the U.S., hallway medicine, rediculously long wait times for even serious procedures, and the widespread practice of Canadians flying to the U.S. for treatments,

    I'm sure those on Obama's team in the media aren't too interested in the unvarnished truth about socialized medicine. Layton will give them exactly what they're looking for.

    • Blues Clair

      "rediculously long wait times"

      have no fear biff, commrade Harper is on it.

      THE TAMING OF THE CUE
      “During the last federal election campaign, I and my party made a clear and unequivocal commitment to Canadians,” said the Prime Minister. “We promised to sit down with the provinces to develop Patient Wait Times Guarantees, and today, I’m proud to announce, we’re delivering.”
      - PM Stephen Harper
      4 April 2007

      • Blues Clair

        Oops, pardon my spelling… The Taming of the Queue.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

    I do not expect there will be anyone from the Conservative cabinet showing up on US programs to discuss health care.
    1) A strong defence of the Canadian system would alienate the significant fraction of Conservative supportors that want the Canadian system to emulate the existing US system.
    2) Speaking in favour of a private or mixed system would bring one of the hidden agenda items out of the bag prematurely.
    3) Pissing off Obama again might be a bad idea, especially for a government that protrays itself as proUS.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/PolJunkie PolJunkie

    I just love it when Canadians refer to our medicare as "socialized medicine."

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john g

    Is she serious? Harper's had how many interviews with Fox? How many with CNN?

    Enough that Canadian Press was complaining that Harper was paying more attention to American journalists than to them.

  • Anon

    Ari Fleischer, one of Harper's media-sherpas, is apparently moving into the sports arena. So, other than promoting Harper's yet-to-be-written book-on-hockey, he's not going to be much help to TheStrategist.

    Canada's health minister is busy with isotopes, H1N1, listeriosis, etc etc, assuming there hasn't been an off-the-record shuffle already.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/PolJunkie PolJunkie

    john g, the difference is that, this time, he would be defending Canada as opposed to apologize for it.

  • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/PolJunkie PolJunkie

    john g, the difference is that, this time, he would be defending Canada as opposed to apologizing for it.

    • Tommy

      So that's why he won't talk about it.

  • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john g

    They've asked Harper about health care on the interviews he's done. He's on record saying that he has no advice to offer Obama w.r.t health care. But given MSNBC's far left bent, their only agenda is to get information on health care that will help Obama's cause. They are more likely to get that from Layton and Dosanjh than they will from Harper or Leona A.

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