Heartache for the socialized medicine proponents, eh?  The left has wanted us to emulate Canuckistan’s health care system, but even the “Father of Canuckistan Socialized Medicine” (unofficial title, mind you) sees his pet project as the abject failure that it clearly is.  From IBD:

Back in the 1960s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee studying health reform and recommended that his home province of Quebec — then the largest and most affluent in the country — adopt government-administered health care, covering all citizens through tax levies.

The government followed his advice, leading to his modern-day moniker: “the father of Quebec medicare.” Even this title seems modest; Castonguay’s work triggered a domino effect across the country, until eventually his ideas were implemented from coast to coast.

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in “crisis.”

“We thought we could resolve the system’s problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it,” says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: “We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice.”

Castonguay advocates contracting out services to the private sector, going so far as suggesting that public hospitals rent space during off-hours to entrepreneurial doctors. He supports co-pays for patients who want to see physicians. Castonguay, the man who championed public health insurance in Canada, now urges for the legalization of private health insurance.

Well, well, well!  Say it ain’t so!  Who’d have thunk it, a Canuck realizing the wonders of capitalism and the free market and recognizing the pitfalls of socialism?  Pitfalls like these:

What would drive a man like Castonguay to reconsider his long-held beliefs? Try a health care system so overburdened that hundreds of thousands in need of medical attention wait for care, any care; a system where people in towns like Norwalk, Ontario, participate in lotteries to win appointments with the local family doctor.
…
Sick with ovarian cancer, Sylvia de Vires, an Ontario woman afflicted with a 13-inch, fluid-filled tumor weighing 40 pounds, was unable to get timely care in Canada. She crossed the American border to Pontiac, Mich., where a surgeon removed the tumor, estimating she could not have lived longer than a few weeks more.
…
De Vires is far from unusual in seeking medical treatment in the U.S. Even Canadian government officials send patients across the border, increasingly looking to American medicine to deal with their overload of patients and chronic shortage of care.

Since the spring of 2006, Ontario’s government has sent at least 164 patients to New York and Michigan for neurosurgery emergencies — defined by the Globe and Mail newspaper as “broken necks, burst aneurysms and other types of bleeding in or around the brain.” Other provinces have followed Ontario’s example. …

In closing:

However the candidates choose to proceed, Americans should know that one of the founding fathers of Canada’s government-run health care system has turned against his own creation. If Claude Castonguay is abandoning ship, why should Americans bother climbing on board?

But yeah…let’s base our health care system on Canada’s, eh?

And the left wants us to emulate Canuckistan?  No thanks!  From AFP:

A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl’s grounding, overturning her father’s punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting “inappropriate” pictures of herself online using a friend’s computer.

The father’s lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl’s “own protection” and is appealing the ruling.

“She’s a child,” Beaudoin told AFP. “At her age, children test their limits and it’s up to their parents to set boundaries.”

“I started an appeal of the decision today to reestablish parental authority, and to ensure that this case doesn’t set a precedent,” she said. Otherwise, said Beaudoin, “parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on.”

“I think most children respect their parents and would never go so far as to take them to court, but it’s clear that some would and we have to ask ourselves how far this will go.”

According to court documents, the girl’s Internet transgression was just the latest in a string of broken house rules. Even so, Justice Suzanne Tessier found her punishment too severe.

Beaudoin noted the girl used a court-appointed lawyer in her parents’ 10-year custody dispute to launch her landmark case against dear old dad.

Got a little slut for a daughter who likes to yap on the ‘net and post skin flicks of herself for the world to see?  Sucks for you, pal, because according to the court, you can’t do a damned thing about it.

So now the Canadian government gets to tell you how you can and cannot discipline your child.  Heck, why bother raising the kids, then?  Just pop out a rugrat or two, then turn them over the Nanny State to raise.  Let them change the diapers!

Quips Ace:

A judge stepped in to basically protect her fundamental right to be sexually violated by an adult.

But something like this would never happen here if we had socialized medicine, now would it?  From Hot Air:

When people tell you how much more humane government-run health care is, ask them to explain the case of Juana Tejada in Canada. Tejada came to Canada as part of the government’s attempt to attract foreigners to fill roles as live-in caregivers, apparently to help the Canadians to save some money on wages. When Tejada herself became sick with cancer a few years after her arrival, suddenly the Canadians didn’t find her valuable enough to treat (via QandO):

Juana Tejada wants to stay – and die – in Canada.

A live-in caregiver from the Philippines, the terminally ill cancer patient will be forced to leave when her work permit expires in two months, even though her period of service here as a nanny was supposed to be the gateway to permanent residency.

Tejada has twice been denied a chance to stay, however, because her illness puts a burden on the health-care system. …

The 38-year-old came to Canada in 2003 under the federal live-in caregiver program, which grants permanent resident status to domestic workers after they complete their three-year assignments and obtain the necessary medical and criminal-record clearances.

Her cancer was found in 2006, during an exam for her immigration application. Tejada appealed to immigration officials to waive the good-health requirement for humanitarian reasons.

“While I am sympathetic to your situation, I am not satisfied that these circumstances justify granting an exemption,” a case processing officer in Alberta wrote in the latest decision. “In the opinion of a medical officer, this health condition might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health and social services.”

Got that? They wanted Juana to come to Canada so she could serve Canadians who needed home health care. When Juana got sick, the same health care service for which she worked couldn’t be bothered to foot the bill for her treatments. Juana worked and paid into that system for three years before they discovered that she would “cause excessive demand” for her treatment.

As Ed Morrissey points out, socialized medicine necessarily results in rationing health care and treatment.  Canuckistan ought to be ashamed of itself for deporting a woman who worked to provide the very health care services for Canucks that she was denied when she needed them.

Heck, they even closed the schools in Canuckistan because of too much snow!  The culprit?  I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s global “warming”…er, “climate change”!

“Mon dieu! Where eez zis ‘global warming’, monsieur?”

Canuckistan likes NAFTA.  Barry O says he doesn’t.  But Osamabama wants to curry favor with the Canucks, so he gets a little disingenuous about it.  Details:

Barack Obama has ratcheted up his attacks on NAFTA, but a senior member of his campaign team told a Canadian official not to take his criticisms seriously, CTV News has learned.Both Obama and Hillary Clinton have been critical of the long-standing North American Free Trade Agreement over the course of the Democratic primaries, saying that the deal has cost U.S. workers’ jobs.

Within the last month, a top staff member for Obama’s campaign telephoned Michael Wilson, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, and warned him that Obama would speak out against NAFTA, according to Canadian sources.

The staff member reassured Wilson that the criticisms would only be campaign rhetoric, and should not be taken at face value. 

Either Obama doesn’t believe NAFTA sucks but is willing to say it solely to appease the great unwashed that is the Democrat base; or he does believe NAFTA sucks and is lying to the collective faces of Canuckistan so as not to p#ss them off.  Either way, that makes him a demagogue and very disingenuous…a “liar”, if you will.

Back to the boardroom, folks.  In the meantime, if anyone feels like playing “Kick the Canuck” with a new moonbat my site attracted today, have at it (go through the comments…you’ll easily spot him):

http://crushliberalism.com/2008/02/08/canuck-scientist-imprison-global-warming-skeptical-politicians/

http://crushliberalism.com/2007/03/15/canuck-moonbats-attack-canadian-soldier/

http://crushliberalism.com/2007/07/30/canucks-come-to-america-for-health-care/

http://crushliberalism.com/2007/12/11/canadian-muslim-kills-teenage-daughter-for-defying-sharia/

Yeah, let’s mimic the Canadians, especially the former director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association who apparently didn’t feel that strongly about civil liberties.  From Canuckistan:

David Suzuki has called for political leaders to be thrown in jail for ignoring the science behind climate change.

At a Montreal conference last Thursday, the prominent scientist, broadcaster and Order of Canada recipient exhorted a packed house of 600 to hold politicians legally accountable for what he called an intergenerational crime. Though a spokesman said yesterday the call for imprisonment was not meant to be taken literally, Dr. Suzuki reportedly made similar remarks in an address at the University of Toronto last month.

Of course he was only kidding!  That would explain why he’s kidded the exact same way before, n’est-ce pas?

Mr. Miyagi: “Buy hybrid or go to jail, Daniel-son!”

From Canuckistan:

A Mississauga, Ont. man will be formally charged on Tuesday with murder in connection with the death of his 16-year-old daughter.

The girl, Aqsa Parvez, was in critical condition on Monday after being strangled, apparently after a dispute with her family over her refusal to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

However Peel Regional Police said Tuesday the girl died late Monday night.

Police arrested the victim’s 57-year-old father, Muhammad Parvez on Monday morning after receiving a 911 call from a Mississauga home from a man saying he had killed his daughter. He is due to appear on Tuesday in a Brampton, Ont. court.

The victim’s 26-year-old brother, Waqas Parvez, was also charged with obstructing police.

Friends of the teenager, a Grade 11 student at Applewood Heights high school, said Monday they were shocked by the attack on the outgoing, likeable girl, but said she had been threatened by her strictly religious family before.

Ebonie Mitchell, 16, a friend of the victim, said the conflict with her father over wearing Islamic dress came to a head at the beginning of this school year. “She just wanted to dress like we do,” she said. “Last year, she wore like the Islamic stuff and everything, the hijab, and this year she’s all western. She just wanted to look like everyone else.”

But if we just respect their culture (including the homicidal aspects of it), then they’d like us more and would wish us no harm, right?

Just how good is that Canadian “universal health care”?  It’s so good that…Canadians are coming here for private health care.  From Buffalo News:

Universal health care: Is it worth the long waits?
Push is on for private insurance in Canada as residents come to the U.S. for timely treatment

Canadian Lindsay McCreith came to Buffalo for an MRI after being told he would have to wait over four months for one at home. After battling brain cancer, Lindsay McCreith is ready for his next fight: He’s taking on the Canadian health care system.

His case has potential repercussions on both sides of the border as pressure grows for health reform.

It started when McCreith, a resident of Newmarket, north of Toronto, suffered a seizure last year. He was told in Canada he would have to wait more than four months for an MRI to rule out a malignant tumor.

Rather than wait, McCreith, 66, quickly arranged a trip to Buffalo for a scan. The MRI confirmed his worst fears — a cancerous growth that a Buffalo neurosurgeon removed a few weeks later.

“If I had been patient, I’d probably be disabled or dead today,” McCreith said.

Now, McCreith is suing the Ontario government in a closely watched constitutional challenge that could reshape universal health coverage in the province by striking down the prohibition against patients buying private insurance.

Let that sink in, folks. It is a crime for people in Canada for people to spend their own money (a) in any manner they see fit and (b) on their own health! And Edwards, Obama, Shrillary, et al on the left want that to come here? I don’t think so! Continuing:

On this side of the border, advocates of universal health insurance champion Canada’s popular public program as a fairer system that the United States should emulate, as seen in Michael Moore film, “Sicko.” Yet critics see the long waits for some services in Canada — mainly for non-emergency surgery — as an argument against an increased role for government in health care.

In Canada, McCreith’s story reflects a debate, intensified by the long waiting times, between those who want more for-profit, private care and those who fear the rise of two-tier medicine that undermines the public system.

McCreith offers little doubt about where he stands. “We have universal health coverage,” he said. “But it failed me when I needed it the most.”

The most common sense question is asked right here by McCreith:

“I was in the auto body shop business,” he said. “If I gave you an appointment four months away, you would go somewhere else. Why should health care be any different?”

It shouldn’t.

As Moonbattery points out, the “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” news agency al-Reuters doesn’t have a monopoly on using doctored photos to advance their left-wing agenda. The CBC in Canuckistan is getting in on the action, too.

The dhimmis at al-Reuters aren’t the only ones who know how to doctor photographs to help them spin what they cavalierly refer to as “the news.” Check out the picture Canada’s CBC used to chastise Environment Minister John Baird for trying to protect his country’s economy from the Kyoto farce (via Small Dead Animals):

Politics Watch reports:

The head of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News faced questioning from Conservative MPs on Parliament Hill Tuesday about what they called a “doctored photo” that appeared in April on CBC’s news website.

The public broadcaster’s news web site carried an altered stock photo of the Toronto skyline that was noticeably darkened and made the smog and atmospheric haze appear much worse than in the original photo.

The altered picture of the skyline accompanied a story about the Kyoto accord and was first noticed by a Canadian conservative blogger.

Tony Burman, editor in chief of CBC News, must have struggled mightily to keep a straight face while insisting that the ham-handedly doctored photo was the result of a “process error” and not indicative of left-wing bias. Anyone naive enough to rely on the MSM for information might just believe him.

Nope…no liberal media bias!

But…but…they support the troops! From the (not so) Great White North:

A soldier honoured for his military valour in Afghanistan is wondering why strangers beat him up in his hometown bar this past weekend.

“This wasn’t two guys on the ice dropping gloves and going, ‘OK, let’s go’,” Master Cpl. Collin Fitzgerald told CTV Ottawa on Tuesday.

“This was an attack — a sneak attack. To blindside a guy … and hit him with an object, there’s something wrong.”

Fitzgerald is well known in Morrisburg, Ont., a small town about an hour’s drive south of Ottawa.

He says he’d been in the bar only about 20 minutes late Friday, visiting with a childhood friend who introduced him to people as a war hero, when he was suddenly struck from behind with some type of object. Four men jumped him and began beating on him.

“They were saying ‘What kind of hero are you now?’,” Fitzgerald’s mother Arlene told CTV News.
…
The weapons instructor at CFB Trenton had his foot broken in three places and needed 10 stitches to close a cut above his right eye. Fitzgerald, 27, also suffered a broken nose and two black eyes in the Friday night attack.
…
Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean recognized Fitzgerald in a Feb. 19 ceremony for braving enemy fire in Afghanistan.

He served eight months there. He was one of the first recipients of the Canadian Medal of Military Valour, “for outstanding selfless and valiant actions” carried out on May 24, 2006, during an enemy ambush “involving intense, accurate enemy fire.”

According to the military, Fitzgerald “repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire by entering and re-entering a burning platoon vehicle and successfully driving it off the roadway, permitting the remaining vehicles trapped in the enemy zone to break free.”

“Collin was safer fighting the Taliban. At least he saw the enemy coming, or knew the enemy was there,” said his mother. “They are just total cowards, nothing but snakes,” said Gerald, Collin’s father.

Fortunately, they did arrest one of the p#ssies who did this. Man…why are “peace” activists so damned violent?