Dog Whistles

I see that Alberta's "PC's" are busy pandering to their base.

The recent delisting of Gender Reassignment Surgery cannot be even close to actual, meaningful cost cutting.

Consider the following:

Cutting the service will save Alberta Health and Wellness about $700,000 each year out of its $12.9-billion budget.

So, in cutting GRS from the budget, the province saves a grand total of 0.005% of the total health care budget. Anybody with a grain of sense understands that in a budget of billions, that amount is pocket change - it's nothing more than margin of error.

This is not cost savings in any meaningful sense - this is the Stelmach Tories playing to the "base" - the same bunch of ignorant clods that PMSH plays to when he accuses Ignatieff of lacking a moral compass (an absolutely nonsensical statement, really, but coming from PMSH, not one that surprises me).

It's becoming all too clear that Ted Morton has far more influence than he should have at Stelmach's cabinet table - or either that, Stelmach is just as hostile to anything he doesn't understand.

Cutting GRS is not responsible budgeting, it's pandering - and it's done at the expense of people that they don't think can hit back.