Health Care Conferences...

It amazes me to no end - King Ralph has been one of the most vocal of our premiers about the issues of funding and structuring our national health care system for a long time. He has complained incessantly about it - lack of funding, overreaching costs, the need for "innovative" delivery etc. Yet, here we are, with a new Federal Government, under a new leader (Paul Martin), and Ralph's still playing the same petulant little games.

For the first time since Jean Chretien came to power, there seems to be a willingness on the part of the Federal Government to re-evaluate its own role in the health care game - one of the first things that the Martin government has done is put an open conference on. I don't for a minute believe that this conference is going to solve everything, but it is a start.

What's King Ralph's response? "I'll only be there for the first day" - claiming that he's got "other engagements". Is this like the "vacation" you were on during the recent First Minister's conference that you couldn't be bothered to attend, Ralph? You remember - the one where you suddenly turned up at all of these public ceremonies of one sort or another.

Of course, Ralph's been rumbling for some time about his government's own ideas for Health Care. Supposed "innovative" solutions which apparently keep dying out every time he puts them up to the litmus test of public opinion. There was a hospital to be built in south Calgary - as a "P3" project no less. For some reason, the P3 seems to have fizzled, and the CHR is busy setting itself up to build the hospital using more conventional strategies.

I think Ralph's real problem is that he's gotten so used to operating behind closed doors that an open meeting forum (particularly one with the media present...) scares him. As premier of this province, his governments do the vast majority of their work as 'order-in-council', and not in the forum of the Legislature. (One only has to look back over time to notice that the legislature sits two sessions - one in Spring, one in Fall - and the fall sitting has become laughably short. Meanwhile, all of the real announcements of what's going on seem to come out during the times the legislature isn't sitting.

Of course, Ralph's rebuttal is going to be the obvious - "You don't understand - the public parts of politics aren't where the real work takes place, so the Health Conference is a sham". I suppose there's a certain truth value to that statement. Generally thieves don't like people seeing them doing their business either - they much prefer to rob houses when they are empty.

Realistically, useful policy changes aren't going to happen in 3 days - I know this, and I don't have any illusions about it. However, it disgusts me when the Premier of Alberta can't even make the effort to try and work with a new government in Ottawa. Alberta is in the best economic straights it's ever been in - period. Now is the time for Alberta and its government to step to the table as a major player and make a difference. Crawling off to sulk, as Klein seems wont to do when he knows he won't get his way, is non-productive.

I for one, am tired of Ralph's constant whinging about the "bad old Feds". Come on, Ralph, Alberta's old nemesis - Pierre Trudeau - is dead and buried. Let's leave the wounds of that era to heal. Alberta hasn't been a marginalized player on the Federal scene for years now. Let's step up to the table, and make it clear that we are a major player in this country - one on par with Ontario and Quebec in terms of economic clout. A Premier who behaves like a petulant little child will be treated as one - and this province may well find itself marginalized again if this doesn't change.