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Michael Ignatieff is smart guy. No matter what else you think of him or his policies, you cannot plausibly deny that he is extremely intelligent. So I am puzzled by his recent comments on health care reform.
Dr. Ignatieff says that he will make Health Care a priority for his hypothetical Liberal government. He also attacks Mr. Harper by saying, “"Four years of this Conservative government, we've really done nothing substantial on health care."
Maybe Dr. Ignatieff should take a second look at the Constitution Act. The federal government isn’t supposed to do anything on health care. That is a responsibility of the provinces. If he wants to make health care a priority maybe he should run to be premier not prime minister.
I find it bizarre that a leader of a liberal democracy is being attacked by the opposition for obeying the constitution.
I say again that Dr. Ignatieff is a smart man so I have to assume that he has some basic knowledge on how the Canadian federal system operates. This means that I have to also assume that is comments about health care are not really policy declarations but empty political rhetoric.
This assumption is reinforced by the nature of his proposals. Dr. Ignatieff starts off by saying the current system is unsustainable. Then he says that he won’t make any substantive change except for refocusing on preventative care. The idea being that it will lessen the health care demand which is straining the system.
Preventative care is good and all but it isn’t really a solution to the looming health care crisis. The population is aging and older people will always need more health care. How exactly do you prevent people from getting old?
So with no power to reform health care and no real reforms being proposed, Dr. Ignatieff thinks he can win the next election on health care rhetoric alone.
I think the Canadian people are smarter than that.
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7 comments:
I'm still waiting for this 'smartness' to reveal itself. I guess my definition of smart is different then yours.
Maybe Iggy should also consult with former PM Paul Martin since it was he who "fixed Health Care for a Generation". Gee, how time flys.
Iffy is iffy on healthcare,
doesn't have a clue which position to take.
Charest brought in a new health tax in June this year.
First Iffy ran out to give Quebec Premier Charest the thumbs up
"In our opinion, what counts is maintaining universality of access to the system.
We believe, and it's a question of details, that Quebec's propositions conform to the Canada Health Act."
a few days later...(his coalition partner disapproved, eh)
the total flip flop:
"I want to make it very clear that our party, and I personally, am a passionate defender of the Canada Health Act," Ignatieff told reporters following a caucus meeting Wednesday.
"If the government of any province were to introduce user fees, it is our belief that that would be in contravention to the Canada Health Act and we would oppose it."
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100415/health_userfees_100415/
We've already got him on tape, from a few weeks ago, saying something along the lines of: "I don't CARE about jurisdictional issues, health care is too important, blah blah".
And he is also showing his ignorance, when he talks about "more schools and fewer prisons".
Iggy is even babbling about the re-negotiation of the health accord, which expires in 2014 ! Saying: "who do you want negotiating, the party that introduced health care, or the guy [Harper] who wants to tear it down" (or similar gobbledygook).
This fluff is all we're going to get from the guy. Because Donolo has to work with what he's got--Iggy is nowhere near a policy wonk. If he gets too specific, he will be ridiculed, when he is exposed as not knowing the details of his own policies.
Put it this way: Iggy's "trust" and "competence" numbers are already low, so Donolo won't have him saying stuff which will make them even lower. His "vision" numbers aren't quite as bad, so keep him talking rhetorically (i.e. using "schools" as some kind of metaphor for his caring governance).
"No matter what else you think of him or his policies, you cannot plausibly deny that he is extremely intelligent."
I keep hearing this. Could you please provide an example of something Ignatieff has said that seems out of the ordinary intelligent? I would sincerely like to be as impressed as you and others are, I don't want to be left out of that club.
''...If he gets too specific, he will be ridiculed, when he is exposed as not knowing the details of his own policies...''
And that works, for now, but during an election campaign (maybe earlier) Donolo will have a disaster on his hands.
Actually, it doesn't really surprise me that he doesn't care about jurisdictional issues. Leftism is, in large part, a philosophy based on the idea that if you can just find people smart, noble, and good enough, and put them in charge of everything, then the world will run better for it. Rules, procedures, and the like don't exist to restrain how much government can interfere, because that might stop good people from fixing the world when they get into power. Rules aren't there to restrain the government, they're tools of the government for fixing everything. It doesn't surprise me that they don't care about rules that get in the way of their plans to have government fix everything, be they ever so fundamental to the law of the land.
I've seen him lecture in an academic context. He is a smart man, but being smart doesn't mean that you are knowledgeable about everything and capable at doing anything.
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