Dave Yadallee's personal blog

From The Edmonton Journal:



Health cuts 'ideological choice,' crowd told



More than 500 people attend town hall session organized by Friends of Medicare



By Richard Warnica, Edmonton JournalOctober 14, 2009 6:28 AM







The Alberta government has made an "ideological choice" to blow a hole in the public health system -- a move that will raise costs and erode care, a medicare advocate warned an audience of hundreds at a town hall meeting Tuesday.



"We are trying to stop money from flowing out of the system," said David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare.



"The government is completely swimming against the current."



The overflow crowd of more than 500 had organizers scrambling to lay out chairs as Eggen took to the podium.



Lining the walls on either side of the hall, people broke into applause as experts argued that planned health cuts are uninformed, ill-timed and unnecessary.



"Alberta has less excuse than anywhere in the country to cut back," said Dr. Micheal Rachlis, a family doctor turned health policy analyst who spoke after Eggen.



Rachlis called plans to delist services and shut beds a breach in the "spirit of the Canada Health Act," one that won't save any money in the long run.



If the government really wanted to reduce costs, he said, it would expand coverage to include more drug coverage and community care and reform the way doctors and other health professionals are paid, not allow more private delivery.



"I think the best argument against going private is Tony Soprano's," he said: "Fuggetaboutit--you don't need it."



Diana Gibson, research director at the University of Alberta's Parkland Institute, told the crowd that the government is trying to use public relations to make health-care problems disappear.



"It appears with a couple of press releases, we can magic away nursing shortages," she said.



The crowd appeared to be overwhelmingly supportive of the speakers' messages, with some saying they were alarmed by stories of coming cuts and closures.



"I'm concerned by what I'm hearing in the media, but I'm also concerned by what I'm seeing," said Bill Davidson, who runs a boarding house for patients who fly in for treatment from the north. "I'm seeing new places getting built, but not enough staff going into them."



Others were there to protest plans to reduce beds at Alberta Hospital, an acute psychiatric care facility.



"I think it's an outrage that they're closing that mental hospital," said Shirley Lewis.



"I just feel like it's going to spiral into an even worse situation," said Agata Nowinka, a fourth-year medical student who worked at Alberta Hospital this fall.



The government has said it won't close beds at Alberta Hospital until new spaces for treatment are opened in the community. But that doesn't mollify Nowinka.



Acute psychotic patients often need constant intensive care, she said. "That just can't happen in the community. It's like sending your car to be treated by a hairdresser."



Eggen said the government is using the economy as an excuse to do what it wants with the health-care system.



"It's a business choice and an ideological choice," he said. "You blow a hole in the middle of your public health system and private health care will enter."

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal



End of Quote



NOt only PC ideology but also WRA ideology - Mark my words!!

From CBC's Website :





Voter support plummets for PCs, Stelmach: poll

Last Updated: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 | 6:02 PM MT

CBC News



Political support for Alberta's Progressive Conservative party is dropping at a dramatic pace with a majority of respondents in a new opinion poll disapproving of Premier Ed Stelmach's leadership.



If an election were held today, the Tories would still lead with 30 per cent support, followed by the Wildrose Alliance with 22 per cent, according to the survey conducted by Return On Insight, a strategic research consulting company.



The Alberta Liberals would place third with 18 per cent support, followed by the Alberta NDP with nine per cent, and the Green Party of Alberta — which was deregistered as a provincial political party in July — with four per cent.



'Much of the disenchantment rests with the perceived lack of leadership by Premier Ed Stelmach.'—Bruce Cameron, pollster



About one in eight Albertans, or 12 per cent, said they were undecided, while five per cent mentioned other parties.



The survey of 802 Albertans was done between Oct. 2-7 by phone using a random dialing sample. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.



Among decided voters, the Tories received only 34 per cent support, compared to 64 per cent in January 2007, the poll found.



"The historic dominance of the PC party in Alberta is being threatened by a newly emerging three-way split in voter support between the PCs, the Liberals, who are holding onto their core voters, and the Wildrose Alliance, who are benefiting directly from the collapse in PC loyalty," said Bruce Cameron, the pollster behind Return On Insight.



Fifty-seven per cent — almost six in 10 Albertans — disapprove of Stelmach's performance. In comparison, Liberal Leader David Swann received a disapproval rating of 43 per cent.



Tories in freefall



"The party is in a virtual freefall in terms of public support and confidence," said Cameron, who said he is not a member of a provincial party.



"The difficult economic situation and the resulting budget deficits no doubt played a role in this decline, but much of the disenchantment rests with the perceived lack of leadership by Premier Ed Stelmach."



The Tories won 72 of 83 provincial seats in the March 2008 election, but the Wildrose Alliance captured Calgary-Glenmore — held by the Conservatives for 40 years — in a September byelection.



Paul Hinman, the Wildrose Alliance's only MLA, was sworn in on Wednesday.



Stelmach faces a mandatory party leadership review on Nov. 7, while the Wildrose Alliance chooses a new leader on Saturday.



The premier will be addressing Albertans about the recession in a televised speech on Wednesday evening, followed by a fundraising dinner for the party in Red Deer.



End of Quote!

David Swann there is a lot of work to be done!!

Friends of Medicare has a Health Care Town Hall with Guest Speakers Dr Michael Rachlis and Diana Gibson the Tuesday 13 Oct 2009 7 p.m. at the Polish Hall across from the Royal Alex Hospital 10960 104 Street Edmonton; Free Parking. More Health Cuts? Wrong Way!!!

From http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Liepert+tweaks+style/2088843/story.html



Liepert tweaks style





By Archie McLean, Edmonton JournalOctober 10, 2009 7:06 AM







Alberta health policy? Full steam ahead.



Minister Ron Liepert's personal style?Well, maybe that needs a little tweak. "I'm constantly being told by certain people that I need to put a more human face on things," Liepert said in an interview on Friday. "And if that's what's required, I'm quite prepared to try to do that."



Liepert has come under criticism this week as the face of health reform in the province. Former Tory cabinet minister Ernie Isley called for him to be fired, and a CBC poll suggested 54 per cent of Albertans believe he is doing a poor or very poor job.



But Liepert stressed that the government's health policies are not his alone, and said he stands by even the most controversial decisions taken since the last election, including the decision not to redevelop Alberta Hospital.



Alberta Health Services said in August they would not redevelop the hospital for the mentally ill and would close roughly one-third of the 400 acute-care beds. The news release was issued late Friday afternoon and was vague about future plans.



Stakeholders, including physicians at the hospital, were furious and said they weren't consulted. Dr. P.J. White, the physician originally promoting the plan, later expressed concern that AHS was "rushing at breakneck speed" to close the beds, which had jumped to 246.



After weeks of public outcry, the government struck a panel that will look at implementing the plan. Liepert said the problems were the result of poor communications.



"Hindsight is great. I think at the time what Alberta Health Services was doing was saying, 'Look, here's the three-year plan ... no patient is going to be moved until the appropriate care is in the community. The forensic unit is not going to be closed, there will still be an Alberta Hospital, those who need institutional treatment will still receive it at Alberta Hospital.' But those messages didn't get through."



Liepert is embarking on a six-week tour around the province to talk to people about the government's health-care reform. One notion he wants to dispel is that the changes involve more private health care.



"I don't know how much more clear I can be, how many more times I have to say it, we are clearly standing behind a publicly funded health-care system," he said.



But Liepert said that privately funded is different than privately delivered, which is already common in the province.



Liepert said he wants to talk with as many people as possible.



"When I have the opportunity to meet with groups, there's generally a much better understanding about what we're trying to do."



amclean@thejournal.canwest.com

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal



2 options : Have Liepert ejected from caucus or have a byelection in Calgary West

From The Edmonton Journal :



Wildrose Alliance vies for second place in Alberta: poll





By Trish Audette, edmontonjournal.com October 8, 2009 5:57 AM



EDMONTON — The Wildrose Alliance party could be Premier Ed Stelmach’s primary competition if an election was held today, according to a poll released Wednesday.



A telephone survey of 1,201 eligible voters conducted over the weekend shows the Alliance and Alberta Liberals in a “statistical dead heat,” vying for second place behind the governing Tories.



“You have to keep in mind the Conservatives still lead in all categories,” said political scientist Faron Ellis of the University of Lethbridge, who conducted the poll. “The barbarians are not at the gates of the legislature just yet.”



But increased media attention after former Alliance leader Paul Hinman captured Calgary-Glenmore in a byelection — and ahead of the fledgling party’s Oct. 17 leadership vote — has led to a new level of support for a party that “up until now (was) a very fringe element,” Ellis said.



Across the province, the poll suggests 38.4 per cent of Albertans would vote for Stelmach’s Tories today, compared to the 52.7 per cent who supported the party in the 2008 election.



Alliance support was at 21.5 per cent in the poll, up sharply from 6.8 per cent of the votes the party took in the last election.



The poll had the Liberals at 20.8 per cent, the NDP at 10.7 per cent and other parties at a total of 8.5 per cent. The Alberta Greens were deregistered this summer.



“The existing opposition parties don’t have a lot of good news in this poll, unless they can count on vote-splitting in Edmonton,” Ellis said.



In the capital — the only place where the Alliance falls well behind both the Liberals and NDP — the poll shows Tory support at 34.5 per cent, the Liberals at 27.5 per cent, the NDP at 17 per cent, the Wildrose Alliance at 13.1 per cent and other parties at a total of 11.1 per cent.



Edmonton’s numbers are markedly different from Calgary’s, where the Tories polled at 38.2 per cent, the Wildrose Alliance at 27 per cent, the Liberals at 20.7 per cent, and the NDP at 6.6 per cent. Other parties there polled at 7.7 per cent.



Across the province, the Alliance curried slightly more favour among men, middle-income voters, people 65 or older, and people who identify themselves as religious. University grads were least likely to favour the new party.



In analyzing the data, Ellis concluded that the governing Tories face “growing political unrest on their right flank.”



Still, much of the Alliance’s future success depends on whether the party can field candidates in ridings across the province, and the outcome of a leadership race between Mark Dyrholm and Danielle Smith.



“One of the problems this party’s going to have is, they’re going to go down the populist road,” said Ellis, who was a federal Reform party member. He said he currently holds a Wildrose Alliance membership for research purposes and works with the federal Conservative party.



“If you’re Conservative, you can look at these numbers and say, ‘Conservatives are ahead everywhere, good news,’ ” Ellis said.



Stelmach’s Tories have likely seen similar results in their own post-byelection polls, he said.



The Wildrose Alliance claims it now has 11,670 members, up from 1,800 in June.



Alliance president Jeff Callaway said Ellis’s results are not surprising, as the party has done its own internal polls in ridings across the province. “The results are consistent and in some instances even better,” he said. “I think once we get our leader crowned Oct. 17 in Edmonton, it will be one more step closer for us. It is exciting times for the party.”



Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann said it’s important to remember that polls are a snapshot and reflect what people say at the time they were surveyed.



“Of course, the focus of this time was the real upset in Calgary-Glenmore, where most of the Conservative vote went away from the Tories and to the Wildrose Alliance,” he said. “I think anyone who studies political science will also recognize that with a party without a leader, there is a strong tendency for people to give them the benefit of the doubt and to assume something about their policies which most people don’t know anything about yet. There is this strong honeymoon effect.”



Swann said he thinks the numbers will change once the Alliance has a leader and voters see where the party stands on issues such as deregulation, health care, environmental stewardship and human rights.



Tom Olsen, director of media relations for the premier’s office, said Stelmach “does not take for granted” his role as the premier of Alberta.



“To that end, he is committed to continue providing good government to the citizens of Alberta,” Olsen said in an e-mail. “The premier has also been known to say the poll that matters most is the poll that occurs on election day.”



The provincial poll, conducted by students at Lethbridge College and Athabasca University, has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error for the Edmonton data was five percentage points, 19 times out of 20.



with files from Florence Loyie



My comments are if you look at the my Calgary Glenmore post, I was right!

FRom the Leg:



Tune into Alberta Prime time tonight at 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm on channel 9 (Access Television).



David will be featured in a 5 minute segment talking about the political climate in Alberta, specifically what role the Wildrose Alliance plays and what role we play as the Official Opposition. David will be doing a one on one interview with Jennifer Martin.

check it out at the Edmonton Journal .

Ernie Isley announces membership in Wildrose Alliance . About that 70%+ Ralph Klein was talking about. I knew the supports of Ed Stelmach in the last leadership race. Nice to be socialable butdoes it pay off?