Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 16, 2005, Winnipeg, Manitoba Chance to save a life the april 14 front Page article on Organ donation included a surprising and disturbing statistic i know How Lucky i was liver recipient. According to the article Manitoba has the worst record in the country for Organ donation rates 6 per million dramatic reversal from our position As the province with the Best record of 24 per million a Mere 11 years ago. One can speculate As to what the reasons might be for this 75 per cent reduction in donations however it is difficult to understand in Light of the fact that Manitoba consistently maintains its position As the most generous province in terms of per capita charitable donations. Why Are we so generous in supporting causes with our hard earned Cash yet the opposite is True when it comes to the life giving gift of donating our organs after our deaths one persons organs can substantially alter and even save several lives. I can think of no greater gift than giving a Blind person the gift of sight giving a dialysis patient the gift of a kidney donating a heart or liver to someone who will die if they dont receive a transplant. I would ask readers to think about themselves their family members and loved ones any one of whom at any time could find themselves in the unfortunate position of needing an Organ transplant. In that situation we would desperately Hope that a generous individuals thoughtful decision to donate their organs after their death might prevent our own or that of our loved one. During our lifetime very few of us have an Opportunity to save another human beings life. After death Many of us might have this Opportunity if we Only take a moment to sign our Organ donation card and advise our family of our final wishes. What a wonderful thing it would be if next year when the statistics Are published Manitoba is again the leading province in Organ donations. We can make that happen. Sandy Tapper Winnipeg Way to go Manitoba i noted with interest the picture of the Crane putting the Turbine on the Windmill at St. Leon Man. It was noted that it was the largest Windmill farm in North America Way to go Manitoba. This is the future of Manitoba in this Century and should be accentuated by the provincial and Federal governments. Manitoba can become a world player in providing hydroelectric Power to North America. With the giant Mega hydroelectric projects in Northern Manitoba to be built in this Century and More Windmill farms in Southern Manitoba Manitoba can become a needed source of Energy that complies with the Kyoto agreement. The Sierra club of Canada has stated that the worlds Supply of Fossil fuels will be extinct by 2025. I Hope the Federal government can help Manitoba in building the Mega Hydro projects quickly so that we can extend the amount of Fossil fuels in Canada past the year 2025. The business leaders in Manitoba should have a big advantage in attracting Industry to Manitoba with the lowest hydroelectric rates in North America. The City of Winnipeg should think electric and be planning a comprehensive series of rapid transit corridors relying on electrical Energy so by the end of this Century you will be Able to get anywhere in Winnipeg quickly and conveniently on rapid transit. I Hope that the construction of the Mega Hydro projects provides jobs to our aboriginal people in Northern Manitoba and Long term employment in operating the dams and providing Security jobs to protect the dams. The Pas flin flon and Thompson will have a big advantage in attracting Industry to their communities with industries that rely on Low Industrial Hydro rates. I Hope the Chambers of Commerce in these communities Are out recruiting industries throughout the world to consider locating in Northern Manitoba. I know there is some objection to the building of these Mega projects by the environmentalists but i Hope they can realize in the Long term Hydro Energy is Good for the environment in that it curtails global warming. Once again Way to go Manitoba. Keith Fox Winnipeg sentiments hit Home the tribute Evelyn Hart made to this City in the april 13 paper deserves comment ill carry Winnipeg Gas heart in min Page d1. How she has captured the creative soul of Winnipeg her expressed sentiments could not have hit Home More closely to me. Indeed How will Winnipeg live without Evelyn Hart of course she will move on holding a place for us in her heart. And As life is we will move on As Well with her memory entrenched in ours. One More time. Bravo Buzz Crooks Winnipeg a n election is in the air. The governing party has been in Power for a Long time but it disagrees with the pundits who suggest the government has run out of steam. The dominant faction within the ruling party prefer to describe themselves As modernizes with a confident vision for the future. Their declared social aim is to create a genuine meritocracy which allows All people to achieve their full potential whatever their backgrounds. Are we talking about Paul Martins struggling Liberal minority government not a Chance. No its Tony Blairs new labour party which has just released its manifesto prior to Bri taints May 5 election. A Public policy Bonanza the document leaves All of Canadas political parties looking rather the worse for Wear. The modernizing ideas in the manifesto have some common flavours. The Overall theme it strikes has to do with putting the citizen and the users of Public services Back in the Drivers seat. The consumer must have a say in service delivery and the Power of Choice. Accordingly we read bold statements about patient Power in health care and Parent Power in schools. Patient Power Blairs party says Means building up the capacity of private and Independent health care providers and a rapid erosion of the Long entrenched government monopoly on delivery. The expansion of choices the modernizes flatly state will continue to rapidly reduce Hospital waiting lists. It builds on seminal reforms already underway in Bri taints National health service like contracting out of services and patient guarantees that will allow those denied timely services to seek them offshore at government expense. That ends the obvious conflict of interest that occurs when the same organization is responsible for funding its own services. In a self funding monopoly More Money simply has the system paying itself More instead of innovating and becoming More efficient. Splitting the purchaser from the provider changes that. Funding now flows through the patient who can choose from a variety of service providers All paid by the government. Facilities with Long waiting lists simply lose their customers to competitors. The manifesto talks of modern Means and progressive ends. The first refers to competitive delivery while the latter Means free service at the Point of Contact funded by general taxation. The platform gift of Choice and control for citizens extends As Well to schools. Parents will gain the ability to bypass local school boards and Call in a private company or Faith organization to establish Independent schools with control Over curriculum school year timetable and teachers salaries. The final touch in the Agenda promises More local input into police operations and City services. In sum new labour has moved in the direction of Bottom up government and the end of Public monopolies. It moves the welfare state from an entitlement culture where governments Are expected to provide adequate rudimentary services to an empowerment culture where citizens have the Power to choose Between varied offerings that compete with individualized services. It is government As funder and Facilitator not the sole service provider. You can have free health care but youll have to wait in line at our convenience just wont Cut it anymore. Radical stuff you say theress election talk in Canada too but none of our three traditional old line parties is Likely to offer anything As interesting. The liberals Are behind a looming old style monopoly Day care Model that will empower providers not parents. They also signed off on a massive funding expansion of the Public health monopoly and continue to run with the orthodoxy that expanding health care choices will raise costs. Next the conservatives fresh from their recent convention. The resulting policy statement skirts around real health Reform. No talk of empowerment or patient Power Here but it does mention private and Public provision where appropriate whatever that Means. We need a sixth principle in the Canada health act to entrench More funding it says. Meanwhile there is no mention of Choice or Competition. By Blairs modernizing standards it is Low powered Safe stuff. What about Jack Lay tones nip for this team Tony Blairs talk of More private sector involvement Public private partnerships and its enlightened rethinking of a More sophisticated role for government belongs on the dark Side of the Moon. The a Dps heavy connection to Public sector monopoly unions guarantees no talk of an empowerment culture modern Means and progressive ends consumer and citizen Choice or any such nonsense. It too is a party of the status quo. In Canada the policy paradigm is firmly stuck in a 1970s entitlement and spending Mode a philosophy in which patient Power Parent Power and a focus on ends instead of the Means has no place. Our political classes Lack imagination and a sense of adventure. They should look across the Atlantic. Tony Blair and his modernizing new labour government is expected to win by 110 seats. Hers my kind of socialist. Peter Holle is president of the Frontier Centre for Public policy wow. Fopp. Org m y hands Are on the computer keyboard and my mind is on values. Not Canadian values. Columnist values. When i write a column i cannot help but think about what some of my fellow columnists Are writing about these Days and to be perfectly Blunt most Are Boring my arse off. Maybe its the change of the weather or a recent bout of viruses that assaulted my sinuses. Or maybe i feel that columnists Are in Herd formation these Days and i am soon not interested in running with it. This Herd is foraging on the same food. Lots of it in this dark Forest. Its called Gomery. Day after Day columnists seize on More testimony from Gomery which appears to prove beyond a Shadow of a doubt that the natural National governing party in the name of National Unity built a Bonfire of insanity and fed that fire $ 250 million of our Money. There is no doubt that millions of dollars were scooped up by some and Guys and political Hacks and other never do Wells connected to Quebec politics. The Herd insists that this Bonfire will Burn Down the government. Some members of the Herd Are practising the phrase with All due respect prime minister Harper. Time out Here for a question to the Reader. Would you want to run with this Herd do you believe that the coast to coast outrage Over a scam will Bury the Martin government deeper than a spent nuclear fuel Rod do you believe in automatics outraged Public automatically Means Harper government please respond to the questions by logging on to my website wow. Charl Sadler. Com perhaps i am at a disadvantage in this business of running with the Herd. I rarely Trust the Herd mentality. Just because a Bunch of people Tell me that the Junos Are happening and ask Chuck can you please please pretty please get me a ticket does not motivate me to get one of them for myself. Why go to the Junos when the Yankees Home opener featuring the Boston red sox is on the tube was the Herd at the Junos who cares How often in my life do i need to hear Randy Bachman i think Randy rocks. But ism More interested in seeing a new real estate project that his brother is marketing than listening to let it rider you aint seen nothing yet. I got to see Randy Johnson hurling 95 mile per hour pitches in pinstripes. Sorry Herd. The same old same old fools logic is what the columnist Herd is feasting on these Days. Troubles in Liberal country will make this land harpers land. Methinks these columnists Are living in Disneyland. The last time i looked More than 70 per cent of the voters in this country lived in cities. Can you name me a City outside of Calgary and Edmonton where the conservatives Are popular Canadas big three Are Montreal Toronto and Vancouver. How Many seats will conservatives win in the big three can they get that number up to 10? How about we give them 30? now All they need is another 100 to have a Good shot at forming a minority government thatus called an Uphill climb. Will someone in this Herd please ask the question How come this party is less attractive to an Urban population than a Crow is to a worm Why is it that in the cities outside of Alberta the conservatives still come across As one eyed Slack Jawed Droomers carrying too much bile too much Bible and too much right Wing baloney you May say the liberals have been dishing up a lot of left Wing baloney for 30 years and Yourd be right. But the City Folk outside of Klein land seem to have a taste for that cuisine. That taste for that plate a snot been wiped out by a handful of greedy jerks in Quebec. Is it any wonder that the polls show so much of the grit vote that seems to have abandoned Paul Martin is now parked in a lot where Jack Layton is the attendant smiling Jack is looking Happy As an Atlantic Clam these Days. But that look May disappear when Many of the people now saying they will vote nip will realize that vote might end up helping to make the columnist Herd look like they know something. Do they f Ocus a 17 w Winnipeg f ree p rests saturday pril 16, 2005 doonesbury by Garry Trudeau letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from readers. They must include the authors name address and Telephone number. Letters May be edited. Letters to the editor 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg r2x 3b6. Fax 697 7412. E mail letters free press. My. Ca
Blairs path in Britain Charles Adler Charles Adler is heard weekday mornings from 9 a. M. To 11a. M. On Job. Adler on line National edition is heard weekday afternoons 2 p. M. To 4 p. M. Contact him at Cadler Job. Com Peter Holle Canada should look across Atlantic Dave caulking associated press archives Canadian politicians should take a look at Tony Blair and his modernizing new labour government. Columnists Are in Herd formation ;