B.C. Politics Thread

[Boudrias]

17 minutes ago, Warhippy said:

The thing you touched on is one I have wondered why the media and polls have not covered.  in BC we do have some very small amount of green seating on the island.  But by and large the only true and consistent bleeding of votes will come at the hands of the conservatives by former BC Liberal/BC United candidates who are still running and who are the only other centre/centre right option.  1000-2000 votes per candidate can be more than enough to completely tank the BC Conservatives and allow a few more NDP candidates to come up the middle.

 

I honestly wonder why nobody is speaking of this, as those former candidates are far more widely placed in the province than the fewe small and negligible green candidates.

This is the weakness I see in the Green strategy. They want their members elected to provide influence in decsion making in a minority government. Yet they are running candidates where they have little chance of electing an MLA. My thought wa that they should ID half a dozen ridings and focus their campaign there. I do suspect that Greens that strategic vote will vote NDP. 

 

I agree that 1000-2000 votes could easily make a difference. There is what, half a dozen ridings with Independent candidates. 5 ex-Liberals. Some of those candidates will have campaign teams and a core of supporters. If the BC Cons have any hope in these ridings it will be the strength of their candidates. BC United was imploding for a reason and these Independents might suffer for that. I could not support BC United because I thought the corruption exhibited in the hockey bags of cash was not punished anywhere close to enough. People deserved prison time and didn't get any. 

[JoeyJoeJoeJr. Shabadoo]

I'm all for private clinics as long as they are staffed with "doctors" like this. 

 

NDP: BC Conservative Jody Toor calls herself ‘medical doctor’ but doesn’t have medical degree

 

In reality, her education is a doctorate in “integrative medicine” from Hawaii-based Quantum University, an online school that offers “degrees in natural medicine based on the science of quantum physics.”

The NDP pointed out: “Quantum itself makes it clear on their website that they are “NOT ACCREDITED” and “graduates are NOT physicians or naturopaths.””

Toor’s online biography says “As a Quantum Practitioner, Dr. Toor also utilizes elements of quantum physics to help her patients realize their greatest potential.”

Here are some of the foundations of Quantum University:

“We believe in the reality of the field and subspace as the optimal source of healing.”

“We believe in using a model of medicine based on the concepts of bio-terrain and subtle energies.”

“My objective in creating Quantum University was to update the medical and natural curriculum with the last discoveries in Neuroscience and Quantum Physics into a coherent and practical multidimensional model of Integrative Medicine.” (Website)

Exams at the university are online and “are not timed and consist of true/false and multiple-choice questions.” A student who fails an exam can reattempt it after 12 hours.

 

https://voiceonline.com/ndp-bc-conservative-jody-toor-calls-herself-medical-doctor-but-doesnt-have-medical-degree/

[bishopshodan]

10 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

is that guy going to be the new health minister setting policy? Dunno, maybe he watches too much Rogan.

 

Things like the infographic above are why I don't trust the NDP to get it right. It's highly slanted, very pro-union and misleading. Just pumping more money into the unions isn't the sole answer to the really wide range of problems BC has, and I don't see Eby putting forward anything innovative on healthcare. 

 

Maybe you can show me differently? where's the plan for rural health? 

 

I thought we were discussing trustworthiness of the two leaders.

 

I learn a lot about the med world from you, so I dont have the desire to challenge you on it.

 

Isn't the Con platform based on a 5% growth too? 

 

Anyway, I think the reason I quoted you was just that It seemed to me that you were painting Eby and Rustad with the same brush.

I see it as a sliding scale, maybe neither can be trusted but one is a striaght up liar in the viens of an Amercian MAGA type. The other is, Eby. 

[Gurn]

one great thing about the election getting close to done.

 

I won't have to listen to the Conservative Party of BC, bullshit me about how:

when they cancel the carbon tax, I'm going to pay less at the pump.

since I know that the Feds will just put that tax back on, and then the feds get  the money, and not my province.

[Coconuts]

8 hours ago, Northern_Nuck said:

   I’d rather private than none. Right now lots of northern communities have 8-16 hour emergency waits due to staffing/facilities shortage. 
   
  My mom works in Fraser Health now and has said the difference between the lower mainland and anywhere else in BC is like 1st and 3rd world conditions. 
 Alls that I know personally here is that if you better not get hurt/injured/sick, because your chance of getting in, is not good 

 

I'm aware, I've spoken to rural and remote communities experiencing disparities in healthcare, but I'm still not convinced privatization is the answer. It'd more than likely just result in a two-tiered system. "A vision of private clinics coming to the rescue of public health care implicitly assumes that a host of doctors, nurses and other professionals are sitting on the sidelines and can only be activated by for-profit clinics. In reality, the number of health care professionals is limited.". 

Want improved care? Increase BC's output of health professionals, do more of what the NDP's already been doing and find ways to draw health professionals to BC. Do more of what BC's already doing, provide incentives for health professionals to move to rural and remote communities. I live in Dawson, one of the issues that's happened here is doctor's keep leaving, is a private clinic going to set up in wee ol' Dawson over a larger community that can drive more revenue? Are they going to set up in areas smaller than Dawson's 11-13k where there's even less population to drive revenue? Yeah, I'm skeptical. 

 

https://www.policynote.ca/privatization/

 

At the end of the day private organization's primary motivation is to drive profit, that will inevitably favor those who are already affluent, these folks could simply jump the line. And it already involves corners being cut in other health related areas. It'd also draw health professionals away from the public sphere, which is an issue in itself, or have them billing both publicly and privately 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/long-term-care-providers-report-1.6977987

 

Here's more, the bit about the Cambie case is particularly enlightening. Thankfully the supreme court struck it down. 

 

https://www.bchealthcoalition.ca/anti_privatization

 

https://www.savemedicare.ca/end_of_the_cambie_case_is_a_win_for_public_health_care

[Bob Long]

11 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

 

I thought we were discussing trustworthiness of the two leaders.

 

I learn a lot about the med world from you, so I dont have the desire to challenge you on it.

 

Isn't the Con platform based on a 5% growth too? 

 

Anyway, I think the reason I quoted you was just that It seemed to me that you were painting Eby and Rustad with the same brush.

I see it as a sliding scale, maybe neither can be trusted but one is a striaght up liar in the viens of an Amercian MAGA type. The other is, Eby. 

 

I don't like them for different reasons. I like Sonya, but she has no chance.

 

I did hold my nose and picked NDP in my riding, not because I like Eby, he's too far left and not a great leader imo. But Rustad is a proven liar. So that was my view and choice. 

 

[bishopshodan]

2 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

I don't like them for different reasons.

 

I'm just poking you here but I see a statement like this similar to..

 

Poop and cold weather. I dont like them for different reasons, but I tolerate one and would even go for a walk in it.

[Bob Long]

3 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

 

I'm just poking you here but I see a statement like this similar to..

 

Poop and cold weather. I dont like them for different reasons, but I tolerate one and would even go for a walk in it.

 

thats extremely accurate 

[Coconuts]

Just look at how things have been going in Alberta. 

 

https://www.bchealthcoalition.ca/opinion_for_profit_surgeries_won_t_reduce_wait_times_or_cut_costs

 

https://calgaryherald.com/news/alberta-surgery-long-wait-times-ahs-chartered-sites

 

October 9th, 2024

 

"The excessive stresses of COVID-19 saw multitudes of health-care workers either leave the province or the profession altogether, Parks said. And many of those who are left in Alberta, he added, have been lured away from the public system into chartered private surgical centres as part of what the UCP government dubbed the Alberta Surgical Initiative." 

 

"But Parks said those same private facilities can also continue private surgeries for out-of-province patients — those willing to pay and jump ahead in the queue. And it remains unclear what percentage of surgeries at the chartered facilities are actually publicly funded and how many are paid for privately, Parks added."

 

"At the same time, health care staff are flooding into the private facilities, Parks said, because the work is less stressful and more predictable, meaning public hospitals are losing staff and resources."

 

"“If you have the choice of working in a chartered surgical facility, Monday to Friday, it’s very organized, with predictable schedules, working 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s very straightforward care."

 

"“Or, compare that to working in a hospital, which means being on call, going in at 3 a.m. to do unscheduled, unpredictable trauma care."

 

"“So, obviously, many health-care workers are choosing to move to the chartered surgical facilities.”"

 

"As a result, hospital operating rooms are often sitting empty, Parks said, with not enough staff to book orthopedic surgeries in a public setting."

 

"A study released by the Parkland Institute in May 2023 found that the Alberta Surgical Initiative and its emphasis on surgical delivery in private facilities haven’t had the desired effects."

 

"The report’s data — obtained through Freedom of Information requests, statistical analysis and research literature — showed the initiative has diverted too many resources from the public system and, as a result, has failed to increase provincial surgical activity from pre-pandemic levels and has failed to improve surgical wait times."

 

"“Alberta has now among the worst performance in reducing surgical wait times in Canada,” said the report’s author, Andrew Longhurst, a health and policy researcher with Simon Fraser University."

 

"Instead of providing a solution, the growth of the for-profit sector is creating a whole new set of problems, Longhurst added, including exacerbating AHS staffing shortages and constraining surgical activity in public hospitals."

 

"“There is a limited pool of specialized health-care professionals,” Longhurst said. “Outsourcing surgeries leads to competition between public and for-profit sectors for the same professionals.”"

 

"Since the introduction of the Alberta Surgical Initiative in 2019, the Parkland report concluded that the number of contracted surgical procedures performed in chartered surgical facilities has jumped from 29,052 to 43,078, an increase of 48 per cent."

 

"In the meantime, AHS facilities — which were already operating at only 70 per cent of their capacity — saw the number of surgeries performed decline by 12 per cent, the report states. And by prioritizing for-profit surgical delivery, nearly 30 per cent of public operating room capacity remains unused."

 

"Last fall, Premier Danielle Smith said the role of AHS would be spread across multiple new service delivery agencies, such as moving underperforming urban hospitals to third-party providers or directing more surgeries to chartered private facilities."

 

"But Chris Galloway, executive director with Friends of Medicare, argued that instead of prioritizing private surgical facilities and dismantling AHS, the UCP should fund public operating rooms to do more procedures and hire more staff."

 

"“We have the space, we could be using it right now. We could be doing more surgeries, opening our operating rooms 24/7. But we just don’t have the staff,” he said."

 

"“We are in a workforce crisis across the country. But other jurisdictions, other provinces, are acting with robust plans in terms of recruitment, retention, incentives and connecting that to training."

 

"

But Galloway pointed to the UCP government’s 2023-24 Annual Report on Health, which shows the proportion of surgeries being completed by private, for-profit facilities in Alberta grew from 16.2 per cent in 2022-23 to 20.5 per cent in 2023-24."

 

"At the same time, the data shows Alberta saw an actual drop in surgical procedures, with 4,800 fewer surgeries being completed in the public health-care system last year compared to the previous fiscal year."

 

"“The government’s own data clearly shows that expanding for-profit surgical facilities has led to reduced surgical capacity in our public hospitals, with thousands fewer surgeries being completed in the public system last year,” Galloway said."

 

"“A private surgical centre doesn’t create more nurses, doctors, anesthesiologists or any of the other health-care workers necessary to provide surgical care."

 

"“Instead, private facilities siphon limited health human resources out of our public system, regardless of when and where they’re most needed.”"

 

"The result, Galloway said, is a growing number of Albertans who either feel forced to pay for private surgeries, or Albertans who cannot afford them left to wait and suffer."

 

There's more, I'd encourage folks to read the whole article.

[Duodenum]

13 minutes ago, Coconuts said:

Just look at how things have been going in Alberta. 

 

https://www.bchealthcoalition.ca/opinion_for_profit_surgeries_won_t_reduce_wait_times_or_cut_costs

 

https://calgaryherald.com/news/alberta-surgery-long-wait-times-ahs-chartered-sites

 

October 9th, 2024

 

"The excessive stresses of COVID-19 saw multitudes of health-care workers either leave the province or the profession altogether, Parks said. And many of those who are left in Alberta, he added, have been lured away from the public system into chartered private surgical centres as part of what the UCP government dubbed the Alberta Surgical Initiative." 

 

"But Parks said those same private facilities can also continue private surgeries for out-of-province patients — those willing to pay and jump ahead in the queue. And it remains unclear what percentage of surgeries at the chartered facilities are actually publicly funded and how many are paid for privately, Parks added."

 

"At the same time, health care staff are flooding into the private facilities, Parks said, because the work is less stressful and more predictable, meaning public hospitals are losing staff and resources."

 

"“If you have the choice of working in a chartered surgical facility, Monday to Friday, it’s very organized, with predictable schedules, working 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s very straightforward care."

 

"“Or, compare that to working in a hospital, which means being on call, going in at 3 a.m. to do unscheduled, unpredictable trauma care."

 

"“So, obviously, many health-care workers are choosing to move to the chartered surgical facilities.”"

 

"As a result, hospital operating rooms are often sitting empty, Parks said, with not enough staff to book orthopedic surgeries in a public setting."

 

"A study released by the Parkland Institute in May 2023 found that the Alberta Surgical Initiative and its emphasis on surgical delivery in private facilities haven’t had the desired effects."

 

"The report’s data — obtained through Freedom of Information requests, statistical analysis and research literature — showed the initiative has diverted too many resources from the public system and, as a result, has failed to increase provincial surgical activity from pre-pandemic levels and has failed to improve surgical wait times."

 

"“Alberta has now among the worst performance in reducing surgical wait times in Canada,” said the report’s author, Andrew Longhurst, a health and policy researcher with Simon Fraser University."

 

"Instead of providing a solution, the growth of the for-profit sector is creating a whole new set of problems, Longhurst added, including exacerbating AHS staffing shortages and constraining surgical activity in public hospitals."

 

"“There is a limited pool of specialized health-care professionals,” Longhurst said. “Outsourcing surgeries leads to competition between public and for-profit sectors for the same professionals.”"

 

"Since the introduction of the Alberta Surgical Initiative in 2019, the Parkland report concluded that the number of contracted surgical procedures performed in chartered surgical facilities has jumped from 29,052 to 43,078, an increase of 48 per cent."

 

"In the meantime, AHS facilities — which were already operating at only 70 per cent of their capacity — saw the number of surgeries performed decline by 12 per cent, the report states. And by prioritizing for-profit surgical delivery, nearly 30 per cent of public operating room capacity remains unused."

 

"Last fall, Premier Danielle Smith said the role of AHS would be spread across multiple new service delivery agencies, such as moving underperforming urban hospitals to third-party providers or directing more surgeries to chartered private facilities."

 

"But Chris Galloway, executive director with Friends of Medicare, argued that instead of prioritizing private surgical facilities and dismantling AHS, the UCP should fund public operating rooms to do more procedures and hire more staff."

 

"“We have the space, we could be using it right now. We could be doing more surgeries, opening our operating rooms 24/7. But we just don’t have the staff,” he said."

 

"“We are in a workforce crisis across the country. But other jurisdictions, other provinces, are acting with robust plans in terms of recruitment, retention, incentives and connecting that to training."

 

"

But Galloway pointed to the UCP government’s 2023-24 Annual Report on Health, which shows the proportion of surgeries being completed by private, for-profit facilities in Alberta grew from 16.2 per cent in 2022-23 to 20.5 per cent in 2023-24."

 

"At the same time, the data shows Alberta saw an actual drop in surgical procedures, with 4,800 fewer surgeries being completed in the public health-care system last year compared to the previous fiscal year."

 

"“The government’s own data clearly shows that expanding for-profit surgical facilities has led to reduced surgical capacity in our public hospitals, with thousands fewer surgeries being completed in the public system last year,” Galloway said."

 

"“A private surgical centre doesn’t create more nurses, doctors, anesthesiologists or any of the other health-care workers necessary to provide surgical care."

 

"“Instead, private facilities siphon limited health human resources out of our public system, regardless of when and where they’re most needed.”"

 

"The result, Galloway said, is a growing number of Albertans who either feel forced to pay for private surgeries, or Albertans who cannot afford them left to wait and suffer."

 

There's more, I'd encourage folks to read the whole article.

The Alberta system is a big reason why BC is getting so many new doctors. They all want to work here after Smith and co. screwed up Alberta.

 

The divide between BC healthcare and Alberta healthcare will grow, especially with another NDP term and more doctors coming here. People from Calgary and Edmonton will be flying to Vancouver to get their procedures done.

[Coconuts]

4 minutes ago, Duodenum said:

The Alberta system is a big reason why BC is getting so many new doctors. They all want to work here after Smith and co. screwed up Alberta.

 

The divide between BC healthcare and Alberta healthcare will grow, especially with another NDP term and more doctors coming here. People from Calgary and Edmonton will be flying to Vancouver to get their procedures done.

 

Which is really sad, the people they elected have really let them down

 

I fear that'll happen in BC if the Cons get in

[NewbieCanuckFan]

4 minutes ago, Duodenum said:

The Alberta system is a big reason why BC is getting so many new doctors. They all want to work here after Smith and co. screwed up Alberta.

 

The divide between BC healthcare and Alberta healthcare will grow, especially with another NDP term and more doctors coming here. People from Calgary and Edmonton will be flying to Vancouver to get their procedures done.

To be fair to Smith, she was born brain addled.  How else do you explain in the past taking a pro-Poutine/Anti-Ukriane position in a province where a good chunk of the population can trace their ancestors to that region.