So - Klein Might Break With the Federal Health Care Act

Ralph is once again musing out loud about the prospect that he _might_ decide to do something that breaches the tenets of the Federal legislation that backs our Health Care system.

Of course, once again, we get to see Ralph doing the classic 'float a trial balloon' tactic that he has used so many times in the past.

I'm starting to see a pattern here - and it's a cynical pattern. Raise the issue enough times, and the people opposed to it are going to eventually just go "yeah, Ralph, whatever - we've heard this before". Ralph will then take the silence as acquiesence on the part of the public.

Remember, the Ralph of the 1980s, who was mayor of Calgary through the 1988 Olympics, is long gone. That man would periodically open his flap and make some pretty rude noises (anyone else remember the infamous 'bums-and-creeps' speech?)

I keep asking myself "where's the pod?" every time Ralph opens his trap these days. Gone is the man who could say something mildly foolish and have the people laugh it off. Bumbling Ralph has been replaced by a man whose verbal bumbling is only surpassed by the darkness of the shadow that he casts upon our landscape.

Says Ralph when challenged on privatizing Health Care:

"I'm not saying we're going that way unless the people want me to go that way," he said.

Ralph - do I need to point out this is an election. State your #!%!#@$ direction, and let the population _TELL_ you what they think at the polls. Prevarication and evasiveness is simply disrespectful to the people of this province, and the process of democracy as well.

Don't tell me you are going to "bend to the will of the people". That's the biggest crock I've ever heard. You don't bend to the will of the people unless there is a firestorm of controversey that threatens to burn down the legislature. That is not consulting with the public, nor is it leadership that suggests any kind of useful vision.

A captain of a ship guides the ship to its destination by knowing what the destination is, not by blindly drifting along and changing direction at the whim of the wind and tide. (Those few captains that used to do that usually found themselves walking the plank after the crew mutinied...)

Where Health Care is concerned, along with my vote, I will align my vote with the party that seems to have a vision for health care that extends beyond the current fiscal quarter.