The Williams bump

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 4:11 PM - 3 Comments

Getting back to this debate, I decided to run the numbers for the entire shortlist using rg’s metric: by popular vote, compare the last election result before the leader took over to the election in which that leader peaked. So, for instance, for Jack Layton I compared the NDP’s 2011 result to the NDP’s result in 2000.

Using that measure, our seven leaders (including Mr. Layton) post the following gains by percentage point.

Danny Williams 29.0
Gordon Campbell 24.4
Jack Layton 22.1
Dalton McGuinty 15.3
Gary Doer 8.0
Stephen Harper 1.9*
Jean Charest 1.5

Add those numbers to our previous stats as you see fit.

*That compares 2011 to the combined result of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives in 2000.

The best way to settle the best politician debate

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 5 Comments

From the comment thread of this post, reader rg suggests one way to settle this theoretical contest.

I think the better metric is how much a leader improved the position of their party, relative to before their tenure as leader. That kind of metric could capture Layton’s 2011 gains. Harper is less impressive on that metric – in 2000 37.7% of Canadians voted for one of the constituent parties of the CPC. Harper fell below that mark in 2004 and 2006, but edged it slightly in 2008 and 2011. Of course Harper looks better if you take the poll position of the Alliance and PC’s at the point when he became leader.

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‘The best politician of my generation’

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 7:30 PM - 18 Comments

Former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon commends Quebec Premier Jean Charest.

Defeated in the May 2 federal election in the West Quebec riding of Pontiac, Cannon strode into a meeting of the Liberal’s youth wing Saturday to take part in a panel discussion. Cannon was invited to the event by the Liberals but few people knew he was attending until he walked in. But his arrival got tongues wagging about a possible return to politics for Cannon or even a run, one day, for the leader’s job should Premier Jean Charest leave.

The veteran politician immediately moved to quash the speculation. “There’s no race in the Liberal Party of Quebec,” Cannon said. “Jean Charest is an exceptional man, probably the best politician of my generation at least. I am convinced Mr. Charest will be there to direct the troops in a future electoral victory.”

It’s perhaps mildly curious that Mr. Cannon didn’t mention Stephen Harper here and it’s unclear what he means by “my generation,” but it’s not unreasonable to say Jean Charest might be the “best” politician of what might be called the Post-Chretien Era.

For the sake of argument, we’ll generally limit this to Canadian politics since 2003 and those who’ve had their greatest successes in the last eight years. And we’ll also separate the politician (whose primary job is to win votes) from the premier or prime minister (whose primary job, at least in theory, is to effectively govern the province or country). If a politician’s primary task is to get elected and a party leader’s primary task is to lead his party to victory and if we generally accept that party leaders dominate our politics, there are probably a half dozen politicians in this conversation—Mr. Charest, Mr. Harper, Dalton McGuinty, Danny Williams, Gary Doer and Gordon Campbell*. Continue…

Love the team—hate the name

By Tom Henheffer - Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 2 Comments

Tom Henheffer

It’s the vodka fuelling their jigs, the blended cappuccino expanding their waistlines, the frozen islands sinking their cruise liners—ice caps are ingrained in Newfoundland culture. But many islanders don’t want the iconic iceberg adorning the jerseys of St. John’s new AHL franchise.

“It’s probably a little bit close to the Tim Hortons thing,” says Gerry Taylor, chairman of Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador. A recent online poll by the Telegram, St. John’s daily newspaper, found a full two-thirds of residents are unhappy about calling their team the Ice Caps. Many critics simply don’t like the association with the creamy summer beverage, but Taylor also feels that the designation is too St. John’s-centric. “It should be more than a capital city team,” he says.

Team director Danny Williams, the former premier of Newfoundland, says the name was actually chosen to appeal to the entire province. “We make Iceberg Vodka, Iceberg Water, we’re the leading jurisdiction for Arctic research. The ice cap is iconic here.”

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Newsmakers: June 9 – 16, 2011

By Nicholas Köhler and Ken MacQueen - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

Isaac Brekken/Getty Images

Done in by the velluvial matrix

Grads from the University of Alberta’s faculty of medicine were enjoying an after-dinner speech at their banquet last week when the words of Dr. Philip Baker, dean of the medical school, sounded vaguely familiar. “A couple of students recognized the term ‘velluvial matrix,’ ” class president Brittany Barber told the Edmonton Sun. “They googled it on their phones.” It showed Baker has borrowed heavily from a speech delivered last year at Stanford by Dr. Atul Gawande, a Boston surgeon and a writer for the New Yorker magazine. Accusations of plagiarism prompted an apology from Baker, who said he was inspired by Gawande’s speech, which “resonated with my experiences.” Baker added that he’s since spoken to Gawande, who “was flattered by my use of his text, took no offence and readily accepted my apology.” The university is investigating.

Dementia’s painful toll

It’s only been a few weeks since Ralph Klein and his wife, Colleen, revealed that the former Alberta premier is suffering from progressive dementia. Although the couple is said to be heartened by the good wishes they’ve received from across the country since then, Ralph’s decline, at age 68, has been rapid and devastating. “He’s starting to get a little bit worse,” Colleen told Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid. “I’m not sure he always recognizes me anymore. He never says my name.”

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This week: Newsmakers

By Nancy Macdonald and Maclean's staff - Friday, April 1, 2011 at 11:06 AM - 0 Comments

Jerome Delay/AP

The heartless contessa?
Celebrity chef Ina Garten, of Barefoot Contessa fame, was shamed into fulfilling a six-year-old cancer patient’s dying wish of cooking a meal with her. “Last year, Ina gave a ‘soft no,’ supposedly because she had a 10-month book tour,” Enzo Pereda‘s mother explained in a blog post. Her son, who was diagnosed with leukemia three years ago, loves watching Garten while resting in bed; he told Garten’s people he would wait. Even after being turned down a second time, last week, she wrote, “he STILL loves the Contessa.” Garten, who was criticized by bloggers and news sites, said she “became aware of Enzo’s story this weekend,” and will be calling him immediately to invite him to the set.

It’s my party, I’ll cry if I want to
Danny Williams‘s big snit continues. After abruptly cancelling a tribute in his honour—an event organized by his own brother, lawyer and veteran Tory fundraiser Tommy Williams—the ex-premier accused his replacement Kathy Dunderdale and her ministers of distancing themselves from him. “They don’t even want me to have the cell numbers of cabinet ministers—I mean, I can’t explain that,” Williams told the CBC. Newfoundlanders who want to relive the memory of his happier days can pick up a copy of Danny Williams: A Profile, a newly released collection of photos from his time in office.

Darren McCollester/Getty Images

A different kind of lone gunman
A five-foot-seven-inch Gurkha soldier from the British county of Kent who single-handedly repelled a Taliban attack has been awarded Britain’s Conspicuous Gallantry Cross—its second-highest honour—for outstanding bravery. Acting Sgt. Dipprasad Pun, 31, spent more than 400 rounds of ammo and 19 grenades in his lone-wolf battle against 30 Taliban fighters at a remote checkpoint in Helmand province. At one point, when his gun would no longer fire, he wielded it like a bat and knocked a Taliban fighter off the rooftop, shouting “Marchu talai“—”I will kill you,” in Nepali.

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic/GETTY IMAGES

Bachmann in overdrive
With Sarah Palin’s star apparently on the wane, get set to hear a lot more about Michelle Bachmann. The Tea Partier from Minnesota told ABC News she’s “in for 2012″—not an official declaration, but enough to whip the chattering classes into a tizzy. The darling of the far right garners a lot of attention, not all good: she’s famous for delivering a state of the union rebuttal while staring goofily into the wrong camera, declaring “not all cultures are equal,” and calling for her colleagues to be investigated to see if they are “pro-America” enough. Expect more hyperbole in months ahead as she zeroes in on Barack Obama, whom she calls the “worst president ever.”

Unlucky star
Madonna’s plan­ned $15-million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls has been scrapped amid charges of eye-popping embezzlement by its now-ousted board of directors. A damning audit showed lavish spending on offices, cars and golf memberships, but not the school, funded by Madonna and fellow Kabbalians like Gwyneth Paltrow—there isn’t even a valid land title. For Madonna the fiasco goes on: staffers are suing the pop star for wrongful dismissal and lost wages.

Where is Iman?
As though Iman al-Obeidi‘s account of a gang rape by 15 of Moammar Gadhafi‘s men after her arrest at a Tripoli checkpoint wasn’t chilling enough, she now faces criminal charges for speaking out. “The boys accused of doing this are furious,” said Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, in a nightmarish twist to the story. “They have filed a case to defend their family name.” Obeidi has been missing since being dragged off by security forces after trying to tell foreign reporters of her two-day ordeal. So far, Libya has levelled a litany of excuses, variously claiming she was drunk, “mentally ill” and a prostitute; according to her family, she’s a lawyer. They told al-Jazeera they were offered money and a house in return for her recanting her story.

Danny Williams won't attend tribute dinner

By macleans.ca - Friday, March 25, 2011 at 12:15 PM - 5 Comments

Former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny WIlliams says he plans to skip next weekend’s special tribute dinner being held in his honour. The snub came as a surprise to WIlliams’s successor, Kathy Dunderdale, who is set to be formally acclaimed as the new leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives that same weekend. Williams, who left the province on Wednesday, would only say “ask the Premier” when asked whether there was any tension between him and Dunderdale. Dunderdale declined to discuss the matter.

The Globe and Mail

Kathy Dunderdale: the one to beat

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 9:36 AM - 1 Comment

Photograph by Paul Daly

The magazines in the reception area of the office of the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador are all still addressed to Danny Williams. Inside the wood-panelled, eighth-floor sanctuary, with its commanding view of St. John’s, Signal Hill and the Narrows, not much else has changed either. Kathy Dunderdale—initially named as Williams’s interim replacement, but now committed to seeking the job in next fall’s provincial election—has added a framed photo of her three grandsons, and a large landscape by local artist Gerald Squires. She’s also traded the leather couch for one covered in plush, green fabric. “I didn’t like it,” she explains. “It was too cold.”

Stepping into the shoes of the province’s most popular politician ever—a poll released just after his surprise Nov. 25 resignation gave Williams a 92 per cent approval rating—doesn’t occasion dramatic alterations. Certainly, that seems to be the thinking of the Progressive Conservatives who will forego a leadership contest and hand the crown to Dunderdale, previously the minister of natural resources and Williams’s deputy, later this spring. The new premier, who turns 59 this month, has already made history, becoming the first woman to hold the Rock’s highest office when she was sworn in, in early December. “We’re two different people,” she says, as she sits, legs curled up in an office armchair. “While we’re passionate about the same things, we share the same sets of principles that have driven the agenda these past 7½ years.” The changes, such as they are, will be more style than substance. “I like to create spaces where people can be heard. And I’m patient.”

Danny Williams found political fortune as Confederation’s bad cop—lowering the Maple Leaf during his dispute with Ottawa over offshore oil royalties, tangling with Quebec about Churchill Falls, tearing into Stephen Harper over equalization issues, and launching an ABC (Anyone But Conservatives) campaign during the last federal election. Charged with securing her predecessor’s legacy—a $6.2 billion deal for a hydro mega-project on the Lower Churchill signed the week before he left office—Dunderdale would probably be wiser to play the good one. After all, her province is now seeking federal loan guarantees for its $4-billion share, as well as a $375-million investment for undersea cables to carry the power to Nova Scotia, and ultimately U.S. markets. There are also the ongoing efforts to buy back Ottawa’s 8.5 per cent equity stake in the lucrative Hibernia oil development.

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Hanging up the gloves

By Paul Wells - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 48 Comments

Williams announced his retirement in St. John’s; Williams and Harper clashed regularly over the years | Paul Daly/Andrew Vaughan/CP

When his time came to bid the people of Newfoundland and Labrador farewell as their ninth premier, Danny Williams stood in the lobby of the Confederation Building in St. John’s and rattled off the very long list of things he has accomplished for “this bloody awesome province.”

It was a tale of renewed prosperity, fuelled by resource wealth and capped only a week earlier by a $6.2-billion hydro deal for the Lower Churchill River. “If you stand outside and breathe in the air you know you are breathing in the smell of success—the success of us being a ‘have’ province,” he said.

But somewhere in the middle of that river of thanks and congratulations for himself and his collaborators, the 60-year-old Progressive Conservative mentioned another speech, very different in tone, that he delivered three weeks earlier. That speech, at the annual Premier’s Dinner fundraiser, was designed to get some darker stuff off his chest before the upbeat farewell, he said. This suggests the two addresses were conceived, and should be considered, as a package. The yin and yang of the most successful provincial politician of his era.

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Campbell and Williams: transfer payments as they exit

By John Geddes - Friday, November 26, 2010 at 5:00 PM - 12 Comments

Mulling over this month’s two big political resignations, B.C.’s Gordon Campbell and Newfoundland’s Danny Williams, I got to thinking about their contrasting styles when it came to federal-provincial relations.

Williams presided over an unprecedented boom for Newfoundland and Labrador, and famously fought to maintain federal equalization payments to his province, even as its oil-fueled economy outgrew have-not status.

Campbell’s run coincided with uneven economic times for B.C., and he sometimes argued for a better deal on transfers—in mainly in the context of the broader “fiscal imbalance” debate of a few years back—but he never made fighting Ottawa a major focus of his politics.

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Danny Williams: a political persona built in boom times

By John Geddes - Thursday, November 25, 2010 at 11:35 AM - 80 Comments

To hear Danny Williams tell the tale in his resignation speech a little while ago, you’d think the economic rise of Newfoundland and Labrador has been propelled by his own pride and a province-wide determination not to be held down any longer.

Not to detract from the spirit of place, but it doesn’t hurt to be riding an oil boom. These handy figures come from our friends at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers: the province collected $1.8 billion in offshore oil royalties in 2009-10; an impressive 31 per cent of all Newfoundland and Labrador’s revenues comes from the oil and gas business.

Williams was first elected premier in 2003, six years after start up of the Hibernia oil field, a year after Terra Nova’s production began, and two years before White Rose’s start up. It’s been boom times all the way.

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The league table

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 12:23 PM - 25 Comments

As a general rule, I limit the amount of polling discussed here—and avoid horse-race polls entirely. The horse race is almost always the least interesting thing going on in Ottawa.

And the following is almost definitely of questionable significance. But, for whatever it is worth, here are Canada’s most prominent political figures ranked by their most recent approval ratings (as determined by Angus Reid here, here and here). Continue…

How to act after your heart attack

By Julia McKinnell - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 10:05 AM - 24 Comments

Chris Rogers/Corbis

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams would be wise to say as little as possible about his heart surgery and recovery, according to advice in a new book on how to cope with the emotional after-effects of heart surgery through an “eight-step Cardiac Comeback Plan.”

“One day I was strong. The next day I was weak. One day my colleagues looked up to me. The next day they seemed to see me as weak and ‘damaged,’ ” writes Dr. Marc Wallack in Back to Life After a Heart Crisis. Wallack is a New York surgical oncologist who had a quadruple bypass. “Only tell people about your heart disease on a need-to-know basis,” he advises. “You do not need people talking about you while you are trying to recover. You do not need people using the details of your illness for their own personal gain.”

Before going into the hospital, pack the following, he suggests: slip-on shoes, bathrobe, baseball cap and sunglasses. “After being indoors that long, the glare of the sun can be uncomfortable, and you don’t need anything else to make you uncomfortable during that long, hard walk from the hospital door to your waiting car. You might also want to bring a puffy jacket, such as a ski jacket.” The jacket isn’t for warmth, “but to protect your tender incision area and prevent other people from getting too close to you.”

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The health debate beyond the Danny Williams story

By John Geddes - Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 10:34 AM - 123 Comments

The story of Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams’ trip to Florida for heart surgery hasn’t exactly elevated the argument about health care. To try to shift to a more useful debate, I suppose it would seem even-handed of me to insert here a diplomatic comment about how both advocates and opponents of universal insurance went overboard. But I think the mistakes mostly came from the right, in the form of hasty claims that Williams’ decision somehow proved the Canadian system is fatally flawed.

As more facts emerged, that gleeful assertion just didn’t hold up. All evidence suggests that excellent heart surgery of  exactly the sort Williams needed was readily available in Canada. The other factors that might have legitimately influenced his choice—the amenities of a U.S. hospital where the rich can pay out-of-pocket, the skills of a particular surgeon recommended to Williams by his own doctor, the proximity of a Miami hospital to the premier’s Florida condo—don’t matter much.

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Canadian health care survives Danny Williams' surgery

By John Geddes - Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 10:24 AM - 118 Comments

[UPDATED BELOW WITH SURGEONS' COMMENTS]

I haven’t heard anybody say that Danny Williams shouldn’t have been allowed to travel to the U.S. for heart surgery. As the Newfoundland premier has declared in interviews published yesterday and today, it’s his heart, his health.

But accepting the personal nature of the choice hardly ends the conversation. Williams’ decision to check into Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami to be operated on by a veteran surgeon has been seized upon by critics of public health insurance as proof of the Canadian system’s inherent weakness.

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Here's hoping Danny Williams got Canadian-style heart surgery

By John Geddes - Monday, February 22, 2010 at 8:28 PM - 80 Comments

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams has finally done an interview discussing his decision to go to the U.S. for heart surgery. You’ll recall that critics of public health insurance on both sides of the border pounced on this high-profile case of medical tourism as evidence that the Canadian system is hopelessly second-rate.

But wait a minute. I see that Williams says his problem was with his mitral valve. Now, I’m no expert, but I seem to remember reading something recently about that particular part of the old ticker.

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What the Danny Williams' case says about Canadian health care

By John Geddes with Cathy Gulli and Tom Henheffer - Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 2:03 PM - 63 Comments

No sooner did news break that Danny Williams had flown south to the United States for treatment of an undisclosed heart condition than the chronic debate about the state of Canadian health care went critical. Opponents of universal insurance—both in Canada and the U.S.—pounced on his trip as a told-you-so moment. The populist Newfoundland premier has, after all, been an ardent defender of the public system. Campaigning during the 2008 federal election to keep Stephen Harper from winning seats in his province, he warned Newfoundland voters that a majority Harper government would threaten Canada Health Act tenets like universality, public administration and accessibility. “Nothing would be safe, quite frankly,” Williams said, “when it comes to going after sacrosanct principles.”

Those principles don’t say anything—at least, not exactly—that conflicts with the right of a 60-year-old Canadian millionaire-politician to check himself into an expensive American clinic for cardiac care. And Newfoundlanders, by and large, saw it that way, leaping to Williams’ defence through talk radio, Facebook get-well messages, and letters to the editor. Some went so far as to say that what’s good for Danny’s heart is good for Newfoundland and Labrador. “I think he’s looking after his health and his best interests,” said Dean MacDonald, a St. John’s venture capitalist and old friend of the premier. “And clearly his best interests are the province’s best interests.”

Off the island, however, such stalwart declarations of support gave way to conflicting claims. Critics of public health insurance seized on this latest case of high-profile medical tourism as proof the Canadian way must be second rate—and no model for America. “This should be a wake-up call to Congress and the administration,” said a Fox News medical commentator. “It is a fact beyond dispute that the United States remains the global destination for patients from all over the world.” Canadian conservatives pounced, too. “It’s symbolic,” said Brett Skinner, president of Vancouver’s Fraser Institute. “These services are not available at all or not available on a timely basis here in Canada.”

That seemed like a reasonable conclusion to draw. Why else would Williams wing off to the U.S.? However, a chorus of Canadian physicians said they were at a loss to think of any heart surgeries, beyond rare and exotic procedures, done in the U.S. that aren’t readily available at Canadian institutes, although often not in Newfoundland. Dr. Bryce Taylor, surgeon-in-chief at Toronto’s prestigious University Health Network, said Ontario’s heart centres offer the latest techniques with virtually no waiting lists, unless a patient insists on a particular famous surgeon. Taylor was annoyed by pundits who assumed Williams went south to get some better procedure faster. “They were impugning our ability to give patients good access,” he said.

There are, of course, differences between what’s on offer on either side of the border. For example, Taylor said some wealthy patients are enticed to U.S. medical “boutiques” that advertise surgery with very small incisions and sometimes robotic equipment. But those innovations are not proven, he added, to be better for the patient. Doctors in both Canada and the U.S. are divided on them. Another difference is the deluxe service offered, for a price, by some famous U.S. hospitals, such as the highly ranked Cleveland Clinic. “It is true that the Cleveland Clinic has so-called concierge treatment,” Taylor said. “They will meet visitors at the airport in limos. I suppose that might be very seductive.”

Canadian hospitals can’t match expensive U.S. clinics when it comes to upscale amenities. Keeping pace on cutting-edge procedures is another matter. When it comes to repairing heart valves, for instance, specialists in Ontario, like virtuoso surgeon Dr. Tirone David, Toronto General Hospital’s head of cardiovascular surgery, are internationally renowned. Why don’t sick American millionaires come north for such surgeries then? Actually, they often ask to, but are usually turned down. The reason: since 2004 Canadian physicians and hospitals have generally not been insured if malpractice suits are brought against them following elective surgeries in U.S. courts, where judgements can be huge.

No matter how many eminent physicians leapt to the defence of Canadian heart specialists, news of Williams’ decision left a lot of Canadians with the impression cardiac care must be better in the U.S. Dr. Jack Tu, senior scientist at Toronto’s Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, has researched outcomes for heart patients in the two countries. Despite famously contrasting health insurance systems, Tu said there’s little difference. But in a recent, unpublished comparison, he found Canada seems to do somewhat better when it comes to patients having to be readmitted to hospital after being discharged following treatment for heart failure. In the U.S., about a quarter end up back in hospital within a month; in Canada, it’s about one-fifth.

Tu suspects pressure to keep hospital bills down means U.S. patients are more likely to be discharged a bit too soon. “In Canada, hospitals are on a global budget,” he observed. “We don’t have insurance companies bugging doctors to send people home quickly.” In fact, the issue of readmissions has prompted the American College of Cardiology and the U.S. Institute for Healthcare Improvement to launch a program called Hospital to Home, in a bid to find ways to lower that troubling readmission rate. Even the elite U.S. hospitals are seized by the issue. Last year, the Cleveland Clinic appointed a task force to study the problem. Broadly speaking, Tu said American hospitals tend to have the edge in technology and intensive care facilities, but Canada’s health system is better at caring for patients over longer periods, including after they leave hospital, and in making sure they get the prescription drugs they need.

Such distinctions in strong and weak points between the two countries didn’t figure in the Williams uproar. It came down to one rich guy’s ability to exit the system he had insistently championed. “If he wants to buy 20-year-old Scotch, I don’t have an issue with it. If he wants to spend his money on his health, I have no issue with it,” said Dr. David Gratzer, a Toronto physician and critic of the Canadian health system. “My issue is with his hypocrisy. My issue is that he says, ‘This is good enough for you, but if I run into trouble I’m taking my jet to Boston or Cleveland.’ ”

Nobody keeps track of how many well-off Canadians pay out of their own pockets for American care. Occasionally provincial health plans pay for U.S. care for ordinary people when services aren’t readily available at home. Provinces spent $1.14 million on U.S. care in 2007-08—less than 0.001 per cent of total health spending. But that’s no more precise an indicator of shortcomings in the Canadian system than Williams’ trip is. Dr. Lorne Bellan, chair of the Wait Times Alliance, an organization of Canadian doctors aimed at speeding up access to treatment, said those problems are serious, complex, and likely to get worse as the population ages.

According to Bellan, provinces made quick progress after Paul Martin’s short-lived Liberal government cut a deal with them in 2004 to funnel $5.5 billion over 10 years into cutting wait times. Queues for cataract surgery, joint replacements and other high-demand procedures shrank fast. Then the Conservatives won election in 2006 on a promise of bringing in wait time “guarantees.” In 2007, each province signed on to deliver one health service, from radiation therapy to bypass surgery, within a guaranteed period. But Bellan said these were token gestures in areas where the waits were already reasonably short. Real progress stalled as politicians shifted to focusing on issues like climate change and the economy.

At least, until the Danny Williams story. “It’s brought to light again this question of what our system is able to provide in Canada,” Bellan said. “It allows us to point out again that there is unfinished business.” Among the persistent problems, he said: shortages of MRI machines and nerve-wracking waits for surgery for serious but non-life-threatening conditions.

Officials in Williams’ office said his surgery was done on Feb. 4 and he was released from intensive care the next day. He is expected to say more about where he went and why when he comes home within a couple of weeks. Whatever his personal story turns out to be, if those details spark only another round of crude claims about complicated issues, the episode won’t have done nothing to move the Canadian health care debate forward.

Hey look, low-budget, out-of-focus pundits

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 1:45 PM - 2 Comments

Coyne v Wells returns with a discussion of Danny Williams (no, really). Plus: who’s more ticked with Jim Prentice, Alberta or Quebec?

Coyne v. Wells on Jim Prentice, Danny Williams, and sacred cows

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 26 Comments

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Another country

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 6:17 PM - 231 Comments

Ever since Danny Williams was revealed to have been seeking treatment for a heart ailment across the border, the media have been observing a strange and uncomfortable silence about the matter.

On one hand, this reticence is commendable. Williams’s preference in health care is nobody’s business, and should remain, as far as possible, a private matter between him and his God. Though some claim this is a lifestyle choice, it’s far more likely that it is a result of something beyond his control. As such, it is not a fit matter for public commentary.

But once the story has, by one means or another, entered the public domain, that puts a different colour on it. At that point, the media are not just declining to report on something: they are actively colluding in a fiction. The issue is no longer Williams’s medical inclination. It’s the media’s refusal to acknowledge reality.

It’s not as if this were twenty or thirty years ago, when the mere knowledge that someone had a preference for American health care might have been enough to end his political career, or to bring social censure and humiliation upon him. In this more enlightened age, most people are more likely to react with a yawn. It is no longer unusual to see people who openly “go south,” from captains of industry to sports stars. Many Canadians have discovered they know someone like that — perhaps even a member of their own family. All that we are accomplishing by suppressing discussion of Williams’s case is to suggest that there is something embarrassing or shameful about it. Far from erasing a stigma, we are reinforcing it.

I’m not suggesting we should go around unmasking politicians who use American health care, but who prefer not to discuss it. But this taboo on reporting things that are already public knowledge is contrary to our natural urges as a profession, and as such strikes me as unhealthy.

SIGH: For readers who are puzzled by the first paragraph, Rob Silver’s comment below is well worth reading.

Yeah, whatever

By Paul Wells - Monday, November 16, 2009 at 12:07 PM - 72 Comments

Danny Williams’ positions on important national matters continue to be random, pouty and self-obsessed.

Should Air Labrador get a bailout?

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 1:00 PM - 0 Comments

Since 1948, Air Labrador has been a crucial lifeline for a string of remote towns on the Labrador shore. Now they’re in danger of seeing that lifeline cut off.

Ironically, the blame may lie with the Trans-Labrador Highway, which was built to improve accessibility to the area. Since it was built, however, the airline says it has seen passenger loads plummet from 19,000 a year in 2001 to 5,000 last year, so it can no longer afford to offer the northern route. Continue…

"We don't need that kind of pessimism and crap coming out of your mouth"

By Paul Wells - Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 6:16 PM - 35 Comments

Danny Williams is angry at a VOCM call-in host.

The Commons: 'It gets to the point of being tragic'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 7:15 PM - 41 Comments

There is perhaps nothing more crushing for the proud man than another man’s pity.

“It gets to the point of being tragic,” Jack Layton moaned the other day, sounding more than a little sad, “that the Prime Minister will make promises that he has no intention of keeping. Can the Prime Minister tell us which of the promises that he made in yesterday’s budget … he plans on breaking in the months to come?”

Stephen Harper, understandably a bit hesitant to prognosticate these days, didn’t have much of an answer for this one. Which is getting to be an identifiable trend.

Though clearly not the best of times for this Prime Minister, it’s probably a bit premature to declare this the worst of situations. For now let us merely say that when historians take stock of Mr. Harper’s life and times, they will certainly find better moments than this. Continue…