[LabComm] A Disturbing Development

Mon Feb 27 16:20:06 PST 2006

A Disturbing Development

Dear friend,

Just under two weeks ago, people all across Canada were shocked to read about the latest actions of Gordon Campbell's government.

In the Throne Speech delivered on February 14, the B.C. Liberal government made a startling commitment to move towards two-tiered, for-profit health care in British Columbia.

Last week, Mr. Campbell's Finance Minister Carole Taylor only deepened my concerns about the direction he is taking our province. 

While showing off a pair of $600 Gucci shoes bought for the occasion, Ms. Taylor unveiled a budget that cuts the surtax on luxury cars, but does little to help working families who would were hoping for something that might help them make ends meet.

Think of what the average family could have done with $600 -- clothing for the kids, money saved for education, a month's worth of groceries. What was she thinking?

The budget offers no plan to ensure families can find and afford quality care for their children. No plan to address the devastation in communities hit by the pine-beetle infestation. No plan to reduce the taxes and fees paid by middle-income families. No plan to improve the government's dismal record of protecting children at risk. No plan to build the 5000 long-term care beds for seniors promised four years ago.

The bottom line: this budget is going to make life more difficult and more expensive for the ordinary British Columbians who can't afford $600 designer shoes. Gordon Campbell and Carole Taylor just don't get it.

But it's his plans for our health care that most concern me. For years, Mr. Campbell has attempted to privatize our public health care by stealth and neglect. Now he has embarked on an aggressive agenda to move to a US-style health system.  

It proves -- once again -- just how out-of-touch and uncaring this government can be.

This is a very disturbing development that will affect the future health and well being of average people working hard to raise a family and make ends meet in our province.

This government even has the nerve to suggest this plan -- a plan that will divide people into those who can afford quality health care and those who cannot -- is an exciting innovation for B.C.

But it's not the future. It's the past.

For-profit medicine is an old idea. A failed idea.

British Columbians don't want to return to a past where families fell into crippling debt to pay for the health care needed by a child, a spouse, or an elderly parent. That's why Tommy Douglas made sure we have Medicare.

Carole James and the New Democrats are going to fight this. But we need your help.

Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution today. While Gordon Campbell can count on big donations from well-connected friends and large corporations -- including those which could directly profit the privatization of our public health care -- the NDP needs donations from average people, like seniors, students, and parents. People who work hard to make a better life for their families and their communities. People like you.

Click <a href="https://www.bc.ndp.ca/index.php?page_id=64&">here</a> to make a donation right now.

Mr. Campbell doesn't like to listen to ordinary British Columbians. In the last election -- not even a year ago -- people in communities all around the province voted against the Campbell government because they were tired of broken promises, cuts to the programs that help the most vulnerable, and the reckless drive to privatize public assets like BC Rail, BC Hydro and public health care.

He's still not listening, and the next election is too far off. We all need to act now if we want to save public health care in B.C.

That's why I hope you will take a minute to click <a href="https://www.bc.ndp.ca/index.php?page_id=64&">here</a> and make a donation. With your help, Carole James and the NDP will force the Campbell government to listen to ordinary people, not private interests. That's going to take money -- to organize public meetings, to buy advertising, to pay for materials.

Your contribution can make a difference. Thanks to the support of people like you, our New Democrat MLAs forced the Campbell government to admit they've failed to protect children at risk. Now they've committed $421 million in extra funding -- that wouldn't have happened without a strong NDP opposition.

And late last week, David Cubberley, our NDP Health Critic, pressed the B.C. Liberal government to explain why Gordon Campbell's brother-in-law -- an avowed critic of public health care who has compared Medicare to communism -- is the only outside expert traveling with Mr. Campbell as he tours Europe to study private health care! Why has he excluded anyone who could speak to the advantages of public health care?

We need to keep the pressure on. Over the next few weeks, the NDP will be taking every opportunity to speak in support of quality public health care and expose the true cost of Mr. Campbell's health care record.

Your help is vital if we want to succeed. And we have to -- the country is counting on us.

Thank you for your support,

<strong>
Jenny Kwan
MLA Vancouver-Mount Pleasant
</strong>

P.S. -- don't forget that B.C. tax credits make it very affordable to make a contribution. For example a $10 contribution only costs you $2.50, a $20 only $5.00, and a $50 donation just $12.50.

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