Days after being warned we could be the new Greece, it seems we are now to become the new Canada as the Government looks to copy Canadian tactics in dealing with the deficit.
I always associate the North American country with brightly dressed policemen, maple syrup and ice hockey but apparently in the nineties it turned a huge deficit into a surplus within 5 years and the Lib Dem Cons aim to use its blueprint.
How the Canadians did it was by cutting the budget of everything including healthcare and education which saw hospital waiting lists shoot up with thousands of nurses losing their jobs and hospitals closing. It cut 12% of the civil service workforce and didn't replace leaving teachers with the result of class sizes growing substantially and scrapping special needs classes.
I predict riots if the Con Lib Dems did that here but the overall idea of using the examples of other countries i agree with.
France has the best Healthcare so copy that system. Finland has the best education system so have a look at how they do things and apply it here. The Netherlands the safest roads, Japan the best rail system and the Canadians the world's best banking system.
It is hard to find any 'best of' list that Britain tops so if we are in the mood to borrow things from other places, look to borrow the ideas that made these places the leaders in their field rather than struggle on with the mediocre and terrible like we usually do.
Another plus to becoming the new Canada is that everyone likes Canada and modelling ourselves on a country which lives side by side in harmony with French people may rub off on us.
Erm, let's have another look at that Greek option again.
7 comments:
Does this mean your going to embrace Hockey? If it does, you better hurry, the Chicago Blackhawks are up 3-2 in a best of seven series against the Philadelphia Flyers for the Stanly Cup. Game 6 is Wednesday night. G
Do you still have good all-in brawls during these games, Cody? Maybe it's pure nostalgia, but I seem to remember that every time I watched ice hockey on telly when I was a kid, there was some epic fight that the little referees would skate around, and struggle to contain (and sometimes not bother trying - just letting them get on with it, in their classic 'hold and hit' style).
Cheezy, Hockey is still a very rough game, in fact Duncan Keith of the Blackhawks threw his body in front of a shot and lost 7 teeth when the puck hit him in the mouth. He was off the ice for only 6 minutes. Love it or not, there is a hockey mentality that doesn't exist in other sports. It really is a combination of brawn and ballet. The out and out brawls have been toned down a little in recent years, but make no mistake, the checking (hitting) is as forceful as ever.
That Duncan Keith sounds like a real man. Bit like this former All Black captain, whose name is legend for many reasons, but this being the most famous:
"If ever there was one moment when Wayne "Buck" Shelford embedded his name forever into rugby's rich history, it was during the infamous "Battle of Nantes" in 1986.
Playing only his second Test for the All Blacks against a physically intimidating French side, Shelford found himself at the bottom of a rather aggressive ruck on 20 minutes.
An errant Les Bleus stud found its way to his groin, where it somehow managed to tear his scrotum, leaving one testicle hanging out.
This alone would leave most men screaming in agony and heading for the nearest hospital. But not Shelford.
He calmly instructed the physio to stitch him up.
The French public were gobsmacked as an over-eager pitchside cameraman filmed the stomach-turning surgery, and even more so when Shelford returned to the field and carried on playing."
This might help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2W3Qm1YTFc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf6Q6EnbcX8&feature=related
As a Canadian I would also encourage you to look at the Greek option as well.
"universal" healthcare in this nation is in such a decrepit state that patients are literally dieing in the emergency rooms. Officially now dubbed "Hallway" medicine this has now become the "norm" as droves of our own Canadian educated medical students have left in droves to live in the United States. More opportunity plus more pay. To avoid calling it hallway medicine hospitable administartors have actually created a position of "Head" nurse and placing her desk in the hallway??? Somehow this disqualifies treaments as being given in hallways.
Here we now take on the not so well educated foreign physicians from African and Asian countries who don't speak english very well and look all your symptoms up on Google in the office mandated computer. So much for one on one personal care.
The gutiing of our healthcare system has taken a very large toll in as so much that Canadians are now considering what was once unthinkable. User fee healthcare. Anything to get back decent physicians and nurses.
The (then)Liberal government of Canada had also soaked Canadians by adding taxes on top of taxes with no incentives or reductions elsewhere. Canada is now considered one of the most over taxed Nations in the G20. 54 taxes in total and counting. 4 of them alone on fuel.
So avoid our example if possible. You don't really want it. As far as getting along with the french are concerned....ask any Canadian outside of Quebec. We'd be happy to give them their 'Sovereignity" As long as they promise to build a wall around their "state" and fill it with water! :)))
"So avoid our example if possible."
I thought it was us who set the example in terms of universal healthcare, back in 1948?? (We've also got private health companies though, so if you really want to see a doctor who's got an Aston Martin parked outside, you can).
Great videos, Cody!
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