The leaders of the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties went to opposite ends of P.E.I. Thursday to discuss the same issue, rural health care.
'We're asking for an opportunity to make our community hospitals work.'— Liberal Leader Robert Ghiz
Liberal Leader Robert Ghiz was in West Prince, in Alberton, accompanied by local candidate Pat Murphy. Both Ghiz and Murphy are on record as being strongly opposed to the PC plan to build a single hospital in West Prince, and close hospitals in Alberton and O'Leary.
Ghiz said Thursday he would put a 30-month moratorium on construction of the new hospital.The Tories are ready to break ground on a new hospital in West Prince. The Liberals want to give the current hospitals another chance.
(CBC)
"We're asking for an opportunity to make our community hospitals work here in this region of the province," said Ghiz, "and we're asking for 30 months to give us the opportunity to go out and make sure that we put the resources necessary into seeing if we can make these two hospitals work for the people of West Prince."
The Liberal plan for new resources for the hospitals includes a $1.5-million rural doctor recruitment program, and a new emphasis on nurse practitioners.
New doctor, seniors home for Souris
In the eastern part of the province, PC Leader Pat Binns was in Souris, where he faced the inevitable question of whether he would re-open the emergency department there, one of two his government closed during its last mandate.
Binns said he would not.
"The medical staff here, the doctors, have been pretty clear on this," he said.
'[The doctors'] position is they cannot adequately do justice to running an emergency.'— PC Leader Pat Binns
"Their position is they cannot adequately do justice to running an emergency department plus running their own practices, the clinics and so on. They would not be providing the service that people want, and it really goes back to them."
Binns announced a new seniors home for Souris, and said there would soon be another doctor setting up practice in the town.
P.E.I. Votes 2007 Headlines »
- P.E.I. tide paints province Liberal red
- P.E.I.'s Liberal party cruised to a surprisingly easy victory in Monday's provincial election, crushing the governing Progressive Conservatives and reversing the seat count from the previous legislative session.
- Hasty promises, desire for change sank P.E.I. Tories
- Pat Binns and his Progressive Conservatives went down to defeat in Monday's Prince Edward Island election, at least in part because of how two campaign promises fed into Islanders' growing appetite for change.
- Liberal wave fails to flood Eastern P.E.I.
- Progressive Conservative candidates picked up all of their handful of successes in the eastern part of Prince Edward Island on Monday, as Liberals swept the rest of the province.
- Liberals sweep crucial districts
- The Liberal party took every key district they needed for victory Monday night, and then some.
- 6 ministers defeated as P.E.I. cabinet trounced
- Six of Pat Binns's cabinet ministers fell and two were re-elected as P.E.I. voters bounced the Progressive Conservative government out of office Monday night.
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