Waiting Times?

This morning my mother informed me that one of her bosses had cancer. She said that they found in right away when conducting the colonoscopy and stated that it was possible the cancer had been there for roughly two years. She then said "Can you believe that they are now going to make her wait another two weeks for a scan?" and my automatic reaction was well that is not too long is it. And then I thought just wait one second, did I honestly just think that two weeks was not a long time for a person with cancer to wait. It led me to think why I was thinking that way, and then I remembered, wait times in this country have been so long for so long that I've become acustomed to them, so acustomed that when told that a cancer patient who could have been living with cancer for over two years would have to wait another two weeks did not seem like something to make a fuss over. To me this is tragic. This is something to fuss over.

This incident this morning reminded me of an article in my last Maclean's that I had meant to write a blog about. Paul Wells, who writes an opinion piece every week, wrote an article about the fact that one of Stephen Harper's 'priorities' has disappeared titled "Stephen Harper's new game: Hide-the-Priority". The article is eye opening. He points out that Stephen Harper, in a recent article in a Conservative magazine, listed a completely different fifth priority than what he campaigned on. I know many of you will not remember what Harper campaigned on but the premise was that he had five priorties for Canada, all of which he would tackle in his first year as PM. I would like to quote from the Wells article, here he is discussing the list featured in the recent conservative magazine.

"The fifth item in his list was never among the five priorities the Conservatives campaigned on. The fifth Conservative campaign priority was: "work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Time Guarantee." Harper has replaced it with this business about "strengthening our country...And it's not a typo."

This is shocking to me when such a large percentage of Canadian citizens view health care as not a fifth priorty but more often the first priority. I'm certain many citizens voted with this priority in mind, feeling safe that Harper would look after it. It seems as though he has not.

Now, before I get a bunch of Conservative flak about what I'm writing, I understand some other notable things have been happening within the country and around the world that the Prime Minister has had to focus on but that does not excuse the fact that he is blatantly ignoring this priority he once had. The fact that he is listing his priorities as, and I quote, "cleaning up the federal government, cutting taxes, cracking down on crime, supporting families, and strengthening our country at home and around the world" is not acceptable

All I am asking, Mr. Harper, is what happened to establishing a wait times guarantee?

For those who are interested, the Wells article is available online, click below

'Stephen Harper's new game: Hide-the-Priority'