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The Quebec government is taking emergency measures after the protests are becoming increasingly confrontational. Some say the measures go too far.  What do you think?

Are there limits to reasonable protest?

Who should back down in the Quebec student protest?

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• Davide Mastracci
  Second-year student in political science and history at McGill university.
  
  
• Alexandre Meterissian
  Chief Executive Officer Prince Arthur Herald and recently graduted student at McGill
  
  
• Joel Westheimer
  University Research Chair in the Sociology of Education, Professor of Education at the University of Ottawa.
  
  
• Barbara Kay
  Montreal-based columnist for the National Post newspaper. Just published:"Unworthy Creature: A Punjabi Daughter's Memoir of Honour, Shame and Love" by Aruna Papp with Barbara Kay.
  
  
• André Pratte

Chief Editorial writer, La Presse and author of a biography of Wilfred Laurier in Penguin's Extraordinary Canadians series.

• Special Report: Quebec Student Protests
• Quebec's student crisis law stokes unrest
• Quebec emergency law goes 'very far', ex-judge Gomery says
• Student leaders, unions slam proposed Quebec law
• Montreal bans wearing masks at protests
• Montreal student protest ends with 122 arrests
• Masked student protesters storm Montreal classrooms

• Editorial: Democracy or anarchy? It's time to take a stand
• Students vow to defy Bill 78
• Special law under debate
• Night march by student protesters stretches for more than five hours
• Unions, bar association disagrees with government's plan to suspend classes
• Montreal student protests: Ending term comes at a price

• Emergency bill would see Quebec student leaders fined up to $35K for blocking classes
• Controversial Quebec protest bill could pass tonight after debate
• 'A declaration of war': Quebec students rage over huge proposed fines
• 122 Quebec protesters arrested in raucous night before proposed strike-breaking legislation
• Graeme Hamilton: The 'silent majority' is starting to pipe up against Quebec tuition protests
• Tasha Kheiriddin: It's time for Charest to call an election

• Editorial: Charest should not back down
• Charest launches legislation to crack down on student protests
• Quebec's anti-protest legislation tramples basic rights: legal experts
• Protesters storm Montreal university, gang up on students in class
• Conservative Senator tries to get sons' school to open in Quebec

• Chantal Hébert: Quebec's streets not unique in staging discontent

• Quebec's protest crackdown: It's not just rights that make it wrong

• Students should be angry about what universities teach them, by Ian Hunter

E-Mail

There are no limits to any kind of protests.

If the Arab spring is any indication, people including the Montreal protesters will keep on protesting, defying any law that prohibits them. Same goes for that unnecessary anti-masked protestor law those right-wingers in Ottawa want to pass.

Governments are suppose to listen to citizens. If governments don't listen, these protests will continue. I think it's time for Charest to just give into the students' demands before the situation gets worse.

Scott,
Toronto

Canadians that have good jobs such as people working in health care and education are wondering why anyone would protest in Canada. Other Canadians such as those who have lost jobs in forestry and fisheries, know that by saying nothing they lost everything. Student protest would mean change and it may help all the lower class.

J. Campbell,
Miramichi, Mew Brunswick.

For far too many years now Canadians and their Governments have failed to ask themselves the following question:
"Should one generation consume beyond its means and either expect or hope that the next generations will somehow pick up the tab?"  (Chris Martenson.)

G. Steele,
Vancouver, British Columbia.

I know it's not the same thing, but it has the same ring to it. And that's not the kind of Canada I want to live in. It may be naivety, but I like to think of Canada as being a calmer and more peaceful country than that.

It's hard to know who is overreacting, the government and police or the students. I live on the other side of the country and can only see the events through a media filter. There's a juicy spin either way- radical and violent fire-setting students or abusive authoritarian knee-jerk lawmakers.

But sitting here in Victoria, where the city is in a Victoria Day Weekend mood and atmosphere that's the exactly opposite of that in Montreal at the moment, I think that students have a point, the government has a point, and to quote Robert Fisk when asked about another even more tangled conflict 'some ask me if the Palestinians are the bad guys, some ask me if the Israelis are the bad guys, if the Americans are the bad guys, if the Muslims are, if the Christians are, and all I can say is 'believe me, they're ALL bastards.' "

Everyone's overreacting, everyone's a bit right and a bit wrong. And I'm glad I'm not Charest right now.  Or one of those students who just want to get to their classes and finish their year or degree.

Julia Claire,
Victoria, British Columbia.

For the record I will say that in 1980, my last full-term post secondary investment in myself was more than Quebec students will pay in 2015. 
 
I do believe however that there is more to this than a complaint about tuition increases and this has been shown in everything from from the occupy movement, last year's Vancouver riot and the G-20 demonstrations to the funerals of Maurice Richard and Pierre Trudeau.

There is an awful lot of pent-up emotion deeply embedded in the hearts of Canadians and we do not often deal with it until it seems possible to do it publicly. Those thousands saluting at the train stations between Ottawa and Montreal and those other thousands gathering at the eternal flame and the peace tower, standing line line for hours to pay respects to a man they may even had scorned years before were finally grieving for all of the sad events in their life. 

And anger and frustration at really never actually getting ahead in this world boils and festers internally until it finally has a spewing point like a G-20 or occupy rally or a student protest over some very meagre tuition increases. We need to grieve and we need find benign ways to vent our rage before we go torching mailboxes, smoke-bombing subways and spoiling tourist seasons.

By the way, that three grand I spent in 1980 was the best investment I ever made and I quickly paid back the bank in the field in which I had studied - music..
 
Thomas Brawn,
Ottawa, Ontario

The Government of Quebec should have known that this would happen! Whenever they have tried to raise tuition fees in the past (and this has occurred in France as well) students take to the streets and don't back down. Look at the backlash that took place with the internet privacy bill the federal government tried to pass. They backed that bill 110% until they saw exactly how outraged the people were. The Quebec Government should take that example and back down, at least temporarily, look over this bill and entertain possible alternatives.

I would like to stress the fact that the student protesters are not fighting for themselves. Even the first year students will only feel a slight inconvenience as the tuition begins to rise over seven years. They are fighting for our children. Those are the people who will be affected by this and the students are fighting for them.

Emily-Jean Gallant,
St. John's,newfoundland

In Mexico, a poor country, higher education is of quite good quality and is free. Ten years ago the government tried to impose small fees. There was a national student strike and the government backed down.

High tuition is not an economic necessity, as is easy to show, but a debt trap and good technique of indoctrination and control. And resisting this makes good sense.

Mary reid,
Fort Ware, British Columbia.

Clearly the students have a right to protest as they wish. However they must accept the consequences. If they commit crimes, they need to be arrested and prosecuted and of course they will forfeit their tuition for this term.

If the people of Quebec are willing to pay the taxes to support the demands, on their own with no financial support from transfer payments from the ROC, then they can go with that.

However, as long as much of the social programs are paid for by non-Quebec tax payers, they have no case or right to anything.

Gary Williams,
Edmonton, Alberta.

What is missing is a readiness by government to talk, to explain and to convince.  Not only to talk "unless." Therefore the stand-off has become non-verbal. One third of students is a large group. Students are being treated like 2-year-olds in tantrum mode.

But these are our young who will carry on our ideas. They are intelligent and are worth talking to.

Ursula Litzcke
Vancouver, British Columbia.

The protests in Quebec are a symptom of the utter frustration felt by many ordinary Canadians. The Federal Government, contrary to the wishes of most Canadians, are pushing through legislation which radically affects the environment and social programmes. Everything is being done to assist the foreign takeover of all our resources, just to enrich the few. I would much rather identify with the student protesters than certain duly (or unduly) elected members of Parliament who are dismantling Canada as we know it.

Margaret Ouwehand
Kitimat, British Columbia.

I fear greatly for this once proud land. That so many supposedly bright young minds could be led like bleating sheep to decry the very engine that has made their absurd dreamily low tuition come to an end and that their supposed governmental leaders over the past 10 years have made this calamity possibly by pandering to them.

What can you do except to giggle at the irrationality of it all. Even a dog knows not to bite the hand that feeds it.

Crandell Overton,
Comox,British Columbia.

Before people jump on Charest's or Harper's bandwagon they might consider the words of Benjamin Franklin who said it best: "They that can give up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Frank A. Pelaschuk
Alexandria, Ontario.

I've just completed my second year at Trent University, majoring in political studies. I don't condone the violence or intimidation toward other students that has been committed by some protesters, but I strongly disagree with the Charest government's move to remove the students' ability to strike by suspending their academic year. This sends a message that student voices are not valuable within our democratic society. Not only is it disempowering, it's belittling.

As a student in Ontario with friends who are struggling with student debt, to the point where they may have to take a gap year just to pay text book, tuition, and living costs for 3rd year, I believe the students have good reason to protest. The ideology supporting accessible education represents a viable and important argument.

Jennifer Lawrence,
Ottawa, Ontario.

I have a small business preparing personal tax forms and consider that I know the tax system fairly well. I am astonished that to the best of my knowledge, nobody - students, government or media have made the point that tuition fees are subject to tax credits on the tax forms - especially schedule 11 on the Federal form.

In Quebec, a student might claim up to $3680 in addition to the fees paid. The final amount is then multiplied by 15%. In Quebec, as much as $927 might be obtained this way. If the student cannot use it, no problem, unused amounts can be transferred to a supporting person or saved for future years. The Quebec form has a slightly different approach but similar amounts are involved. One can reasonably assume that with fee increases. tax credits will also increase so why all the fuss?

Graham Spence,
Montreal, Quebec

s a BC resident, but student at McGill, I've been witness to the student protests this year.

I have to say that the actions of the students are pretty appalling, especially given the rate of tuition that they currently pay. I can understand their reluctance to pay more, however in a time when economic concerns are paramount, education costs money. I believe that the students of Quebec feel entitled to the education that much of the rest of the country subsidizes, and that they don't see this is disappointing.

The part that angers me is that these students have interrupted class for people who are willing to work for their education and have little regard for the safety or well being of the rest of the city.  These students are quick to make their voices heard, but are even quicker to squelch dissenting opinions, such as the students they have labelled as scabs. 

Moreover, I doubt most of them have considered where the money for the city response is coming from. The province will need to step in soon to help the city of Montreal pay for the costs associated with policing this matter. Extra police presence, overtime and helicopter surveillance have all been required to manage this ridiculous issue. The people of Montreal are caught between the students and the province, neither of which has incentive to move.

If I could speak directly to the students, I would suggest that they stop complaining. Other students around the country have it worse than you, and you are simply increasing the cost that is deferred to other people. Even if the student movement is successful in freezing tuition, that money must come from somewhere.  You will be taxed. Your parents will be taxed, and the more damage you do to the city the worse it will be.  -What you're doing is not fair to the people who actually pay taxes to subsidize your education, an education you're sacrificing to strike. 

You cannot complain about the government's actions to silence your voice, when you endanger the safety of the very students you have claimed to stand for and the city that has to bear the weight of your folly.

Prove your protest is constructive, prove it is peaceful, then maybe people would be willing to listen. Currently, you sound and act like whining children, and I'm ashamed to be a part of the same institution as some of you.

Jared Sheridan,
Montreal, Quebec.

There are those who make much of people hiding their face to be anomynous when they exercise their democratic right to protest but when we vote we do so without anyone being able to know how we voted or if we voted.

The Greek problem is that the public is being asked to pay for the abuses of other people. I see violent times ahead.

Tom Hickie,
Fredericton, New Brunswick

I would like to toss a wriggling rat into the riotous litter box. The damage and policing costs incurred as a result of the students' hooliganism should be taken out of the budgets of the universities. Newton might have appreciated seeing his law of cause and effect being used as a tool to prevent future (civil) disharmony in our universe.
 
On another note, the Quebec student riots were a reminder of the following:
(1) those linked by social media can easily be mobilize;
(2) violence is difficult to stop once it starts; and
(3) duplicitous politicians are ineffective leaders.

Organized demonstrations can garner media attention and thereby gain public support if the activists have a reasonable cause, self disciple and articulate leadership. When vandalism is condoned by silence and inaction, the original issues get hijacked by those hell-bent on senseless violence The Quebec Liberals, who have lost their credibility because of perceived self-interest, ineptitude and dishonesty, lacked the moral authority to defuse the long drawn out crisis.

Lloyd Atkins,
Vernon, British Columbia.

I believe in these times, government has lost connection with the people they are supposed to represent. It seems like we are more viewed as adversaries Peter McKay can commandeer helicopters at any expense, government  business travel to the U.K. needs to be "plusher" than 5 star, cost of airplanes can be explained in the fine print and now free speech must be quelled by violence in the streets.

This idea that since student expenses are lower in Quebec than anywhere removes the justification for protest, is ludicrous. In other words here in BC, we'regetting ripped off, so its only fair everyone gets equally ripped off?

Our family experience with Post secondary ed was startling. You wanna apply, well, that will be $100's. Oh you want to put your name in for housing, additional money. None is refundable. Oh by the way, UBC is in "high class" West Point Grey and the housing has to be "fair market value". Exactly which market is that? The student housing I don't believe is open to non-students. That leaves students that are notoriously poor. Local upper class don't want to live in student housing and  we peasant class certainly can't afford to live in W.P. Grey. so who is the fancy pants that is willing to pay the high cost if we don't?

Well, higher education indeed. We've just been "educated" to the higher cost of going to school there.

Let the students protest and let the government sit down and calmly work out the details and throw some of that policing money at the tuition.
 
Orv Harder.
Langley, British Columbia.

Students are not permitted to wear masks, yet the police have at times refused to wear any i.d.'s on their helmets and even cover their badges so as to make identifying them later all the more difficult. Wearing a mask should not be seen as a de-facto indication that one is intent on committing a crime, but is perhaps an attempt to not assist the police in their building a dossier on each and everyone of us. The verve the police show in these matters is, frankly, quite chilling. Remember that the police are supposedly there to maintain order, not to dole out punishment on to those they might have idealogical differences with.

Aidan McCarthy,
Ottawa, Ontario.

Where do the student negotiators get the idea that they represent the Entire Quebec student body? Only about 12 schools out of 40 schools in the province are boycotted. The great majority of students do not support boycotting of classes. This protest is not Democracy in action. This is more-like  a hijacking of a plane by a handful of passengers, while most of the passengers want to continue the flight.

Instead of marching and breaking things and getting hurt, they should stay inside the schools 24/7. If genuine, it will gain support.

George Znoj,
Montreal, Quebec.

I ask that our leaders offer "a cooling down" period, freeze the tuition rates, sort out the underlying issues through some of kind of independent enquiry as Quebec has done to address other issues of potential social conflict on multi-cultural policy. After all, compromise is the cornerstone of our society. I believe more in principles of responsibility more than just rights, but we do have history of civil unrest and insurrection. I just hope calmer heads will prevail and an honest process of public engagement to prioritize our social/economic goals not just in Quebec but across the country.

Reg Whiten,
Moberly lake, British Columbia.

Remember that there are thousands of students studying at Quebec universities who come from outside of the province. These students already pay much higher tuition fees and are in effect subsidizing the university education of students who reside in the province. They are caught in the middle of this debate and it would be interesting to hear more about their predicament too.

K. McKenna,
Toronto, Ontario.

I think that until the legislatures all across the country are really representative of their populations through some sort of proportional representation, trust between those populations and their legislators and executives will continue to be, at times, on quite shaky grounds. FPTP was a good system 200 years ago, but with communications and transportation as advanced as it is today, for a majority government to be legitimate and trusted, the popular vote for that government  should also be a majority. 

Changes were made off and on during the 19th century in the UK to bring us to more-or-less where we are today, but other changes are needed now to keep democracy really up-to-date.

Ian Cheeseman
Victoria, British Columbia.

You should be aware that free education elsewhere does not come "free". There are always  conditions attached. It could be a year of compulsory unpaid military or social service or a selection process that greatly limits the number of students accepted as in France. It irks me to hear people extol the existence of free education elsewhere without providing the whole picture.

Christiane Dufour
Saint-Lambert, Quebec.

What will happen to higher education when all who aspire to such have $100,000 loans upon graduation? None, except the very wealthy will have education for the love of learning. That is certain.

Why is that wealthy people automatically think that austerity is the best answer to global financial problems? We live in a country ruled by a party with less than a40% share of the vote. Yet there are sweeping changes and cuts being made to every department including the CBC. How do we make ourselves heard to people that choose not to listen to any protest. The official opposition seems to have no sense and thequiet voices there are not heard. So what is reasonable protest?

Education is viewed as an investment in many of the G-20 nations and here and in the United States seems to be seen as an investment opportunity by loan companies and all the other companies involved in the education business or at best a taxpayer expense. How does a poor student reform something that has taken centuries to evolve to its present form?

Larry Jeffers,
Graysville, Manitoba.

 I love hearing people talk about their rights, but it appears that we have forgotten what they are in this country. The right to protest is a fundamental right and requirement for democracy. It is unlimited and doesn't come with a time table. The "right" to use a park or to "live your life" is completely imaginary. That is why freedom of assembly is detailed in the charter of rights and the right to use a park or live your life and not be bothered isn't. 

People need to take a step back and a deep breath. Your rights haven't been infringed because you had a hard time parking.
 
Matthew Edlund,
Edmonton, Alberta.

When you consider the enormous number of people who have been in the streets, hundreds of thousands in fact, there have been very few incidents of real violence. This needs to be underlined.

Terrance keller,
Quebec City.

I cannot condone any aggression or violence on the part of protesters. Violent protesters are an incredibly small minority. Unfortunately, we always see a focus on these more newsworthy moments of protest in the media, particularly outside of Quebec. Some groups and associations that participate in these protests have even developed tactics to help police locate and move quickly to apprehend any protester that engages in violent acts. It is obvious to me that the majority of protesters want to be peaceful and to be heard.

The so called negotiations that took place between the government and the student associations were very short-lived. The government made one offer, the students rejected it and came back with suggestions, then talks were shut down by the ministers. Negotiations require a lot of back and forth, a lot of dialogue. So, the situation is disappointing and the government demonstrated they were not open to dialogue with a significant number of its citizens.

The recently introduced emergency law, Law 78, is clearly an infringement on every Quebec resident/citizen's right to protest, not just that of students and those supporting the current movement. The municipal by-law regarding masks is also unjust. There may be many reasons why someone would not want to be easily identifiable- it is not only because they want to break things and not get caught.  

I am a worker, not a student.

Anne Martin,
Montreal, Quebec.

A little tip for parents regarding their children's university education. Instead of telling your child you will pay for their university education tell them you will pay for every course they pass. Everybody wins.

Peter Bruvels,
Smiths Falls, Ontario. 

When will someone have the intestinal fortitude to admit that this is anarchical opportunism? Masks belong to thugs. The other arguments and  opinions are mere yap.

Jim Walsh,
Sherwood park, Alberta.

Perhaps it has become inevitable that what at first began as an issue about money, should become a more widespread and deep-seated issue about the constitutionality of the Quebec government's passing of emergency laws to quell the protests. That the issues are not quite hermetic anymore is not surprising: in the parlance of the philosopher Alain Badiou's writings, the student movement has become an "event" upon which "multiplicities" rally and come around to, the "event" itself demanding consequences.

The mistake is not in pitting rights versus other rights (which would only result in antinomies in thought and thinking), but in the calculation of pitting State power against other powers that normally do not manifest themselves to question and oppose the legitimacy of that State power. Talk about "democracy" is mere smokescreen and we know this is true because power ignores its very quality. The challenge now is to embrace this Protean creature on the beachhead if only to try to demand what it is about and to show its face, which the government of Jean Charest and a backbencher in Stephen Harper's caucus are literally looking to legislate. The challenge on the other side is of course to maintain the qualities of being Protean. And so it will go on yet.

Stephen Wong,
Toronto, Ontario.

It is my understanding that, upon the successful conclusion of the "protest" we now call the American Revolution, some 2/3 of the population left, having neither participated in that revolution, nor having supported it.

And so it is the nature of protests and revolution, that in most cases, the majority of the populations seldom lend themselves to the actions of the protesters.

Richard Weatherill,
Victoria, British Columbia.

In March of 2010, Quebec became the first province to table legislation banning the wearing of face coverings when obtaining government services, although the numbers were small and the problems largely theoretical. The move was reported as a "vote-grabbing" move due to its popularity.

So it appears highly hypocritical for callers from Quebec to complain now about a law preventing violent protesters from covering their faces. 

Andrew Ratushniak
Regina, Saskatchewan.

The Charest government handled this issue very badly he could have avoided all the loss of business by simply putting off his decision for a year after the first week of protests. Charest has been at it too long and should step down. why can't there be a province where the cost of higher education is less, giving the poor a chance at higher education?

Jay Summers,
Vancouver, British Columbia.

I just would like to mention that Quebec students are paying lower fees than other students. I do not think that it has been mentioned that Quebec has provincial taxes of 150% of the federal taxes. It seems to me that Charest has not proposed to lower the taxes in exchange for higher tuition fees.

Yvette Schenkel,
Destiny Bay, British Columbia.

 
As a former student in BC struggling with results of my student loans, I am thankful that the students in Quebec are able to finally to bring attention to a very real problem to Canada's young people.

To me, the stunning part isnt that Quebec students are causing havoc because of tuition fee hikes, but that this hasn't happened elsewhere before. Yet to be frank, I think it has taken the collapse of the world economy to highlight just how bleak the future is looking for Canadian youth. The fact is that the middle class is under assault, unemployment is high, and student debt is rising in a increasingly uncertain future. On top of this our conservative-minded governments are hell-bent on cutting our social safety nets as they expect us to pay for debts incurred by past generations. 

In spite of this reality, the message young Canada gets is to 'suck it up', as our needs are ignored.

Is it any wonder that things are getting of hand?

Aron Strumecki
Powell River, British Columbia.

Put the blame where it belongs - on the government. As for the students, no masks - this is Canada, grow up, stand behind your beliefs. Also, settle down on the violence and intimidation.  As well, let your classmates go to class. Finally, keep protesting. Teach the rest of Canada to stand up and tell the government and the other parties that we run the country, not them.

Deborah Bogaerts
Kingston, Ontario

I am appalled by the attitude of my contemporaries, I am almost 68 years old and an anglophone. We received a good education, largely at the expense of the state. I have had 3 good, secure jobs in my life time, (and several minor ones) and have retired with a very decent pension.

This is something that my children and the current crop of students will probably never enjoy with the current economic climate. We collectively have disfranchised our youth, we who invented the student protest, are upset that these students are protesting the lack of democracy.

The problem here is not the protest, it is the failure of the government to negotiate, to listen to the real problems of real people. It is true that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, we must have the will and the power to fight back. Apathy is not an option. Provincial Bill 78 and the Federal Bill C38 have all the hallmarks of corruption, (or at the very least trying, and as far as I can see, hoodwink the electorate).

Administrative waste and embezzlement in our governments and institutions is rampant and for this reason alone the Students have a point and not negotiating with them was and is the crime.

 
Alwin Cawston
Boucherville, Quebec.

When you and all our political leaders were attending university, the fees were far lower and some say incomes today are no higher re purchasing power than in the '70's. 
 

As well it is only a few years ago that good paying summer jobs were available for students and Ontario at least, used to hire a few thousand students every summer in each Ministry at a good wage. None of this exists anymore for today's students.

If a poor country like Mexico can provide free university to their students Canada is capable of doing far more for today's students. Most European countries and Latin American countries provide free University to their students. Canada should do the same providded a student has the right academic standing. Something is very wrong

Steephanie McDowall
Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• Dr David Goldbloom
  Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
  
  
• Dr Fiona McGregor
  President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.
  
  
• Marcia Thomson
  Social worker and Supervisor of Winnipeg project on mental health and homelessness.
  
  
• Michael Kirby
  Member of the Canadian Senate for 22 years, founding chair of the Canadian Mental Health Commission, co-author of the 2006 Senate Report Out of The Shadows at Last and co-founder and chair of the charity Partners for Mental Health.
  
  

• Canadians urged to support mental health plan

• A character study of mental illness and change, by Joseph Brean

• Mental-health strategy calls for complete $4-billion overhaul, by André Picard

• Rethinking mental health

• Canada falling short to address mental health needs: report
• Editorial: Improving mental health services benefits everyone

• Canadians 'empathetic' to those with mental illness, addiction: Report

• Mental health strategy needs national buy-in

• News Release (pdf)

The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH)

Canadian Psychiatric Association

Mood Disorders Society of Canada

E-mail

This is just the latest report that will get us nowhere until we face up to the basic problem of treating mental health within our current health funding models.

In Ontario there are 23 regulated health care professional and only one fully funded by OHIP and only one that somehow has a scope of practice so broad you'd need to be a genius with the ability to learn and practice 24/7 to do the job.  And Dentists can do some work under OHIP.

Psychologists can only be seen privately and usually for a limited number of sessions paid by insurance.  As well, many employers refuse to allow treatment by psychologists and allow workers to be seen only by non-regulated folk - or pay so little that psychologists could not run an office.

Most physicians these days do know they are not trained in mental health, and aren't able to keep up with PD in the fields - but they can't send poor clients to get treatment.  Psychologists are only paid 100-140 an hour (contrast that with MDs), as well Physio that would help post-injury pain that leads to depression and work loss, midwife care that can help postpartum issues - the list goes on. Even Family Health Practices hire social workers (non-regulated as health professionals) instead of psychologists who can diagnose and treat efficiently MH patients.
It's not about "counselling" nor is it about drugs - though psychiatrists who mainly offer drug therapy are funded by OHIP because they are MDs.

This isn't to criticize MDs, only to suggest that sometime someone needs to take Mental Health seriously by amending our health system to pay for appropriate and efficient treatment.  Did you know that many anxiety disorders respond so quickly to CBT by a skilled psychologist that only 3-6 sessions are needed - no drugs, no MD time.  65% of patients seeing their family doctor either have MH issues or need help to change the behaviours that lead to physical ailments - Type 2 diabetes, cancer ... Few patients can change their behaviour just by being told to do so - or even given basic instruction.  And any psychologist can spot potential suicidal behaviour AND can get the patient to the right professional to solve the problems (financial, legal, workplace) that the patient thinks he/she can solve by suicide.

Under Health Canada there is a model for funding non-MD professionals who treat FN patients - a simple application with basic diagnosis and treatment plan - and we're paid only when the patient attends and signs to document the session.  We don't need wholesale funding as with the fee -for-service OHIP - just common sense.

Christine Nash
Sudbury, Ontario

 
We have to get people with mental illness out of jail and into treatment. We have to stop mentally ill violent criminals from mixing with white-collar criminals and first offenders. The jails are full of people who could be treated. People with mental illness need three things a safe place to live, decent food and a friend. We built 26 apartments, SHIMI  Supportive Housing for people with Mental Illness in the last 5 years. I use peer support and take care of my neighbour who has mental illness. His life and mine have improved dramatically
 
Glen Muise
Sydney, Nova Scotia

 
Our present Government is spending our money in the wrong areas one of which
is funding criminal punishment many crimes are being committed by mentally ill individuals. depression often leads to addiction, etc. Crime prevention and mental health identification and treatment would be money spent more prudently. In particular with the young those abused become abusers, addicts, severely depressed, sometimes suicidal and the cycle continues. My family has been riddled by depression and bipolar illness thankfully some of us have found excellent treatment and useful resources, have been able to continue with education and leading useful lives while others, still in denial, contributing to the ignorance and supporting the stigma, may likely hit the bottom before intervention can proceed. Thanks Rex, for bringing this most important issue to the air again. The wellness of the nation is only as good as the individuals in it are well physically, and especially mentally.
 
Judith Hodgson,
Victoria, British Columbia

When the population as a whole elects to call mental illness by a less stigmatic name:  Brain Imbalance, I strongly believe that a large part of the stigma would disappear.
 

Richard Bisson

There is almost no money put into prevention and yet it's an investment that brings a thirty times return. Why is this so? It works, that's why. Prevention is long term. Canadians are short changed by our present system based solely on the newest drugs, the most up-to-date-machines. Here in Quebec mental health is just one of the neglected children .The money is eaten up by bureaucracy and jobs for the unemployable. I feel sorry for anyone that needs treatment in our province.

Ed Blais
Quebec City, Quebec

Rex, firstly thank you for this topic.  I am a Canadian actor who has lived with clinical depression most of my life.  The stigma around this illness is sadly all too real.  The attitude of " get over it, we all through hard times" is often the most people can offer.  My own experience is family members divorcing themselves from my life, because it is seen as "selfish".  All I can say is that this is an all too real an illness. The healthcare system isn't even adequate.  Most people get shuffled through a system.  But more importantly is access to psychiatrists.  Waiting lists are staggeringly long.  I. Luck, I've finally found the right drug and therapy combination, but only through years of trying. 

Homelessness is truest a problem, but don't dismiss those of us who appear to be "functional", we live in a dark cloud that is much more severe than a bad day.  I fantasize about having cancer,people would know how to accept me with that!

Phillip

Maybe the worst thing is broken dreams. When I get at the topside of my bipolar it sucks me in to thinking finally it's over and I can have life again. Then sure as hell it's just a question of time days or weeks and I'm in the cellar again.

Peter Bruvels
Smiths Falls, Ontario

I'm sure it will be a wonderful report but the present day government will implement the minimum of recommendations. They will pass the responsibility onto the provincial governments saying health care is the mandate of the provincial health care bodies and not under federal jurisdiction. Harper will pass on his responsibilities once again. Cut, cut, cut.

Ian Gill
Huntingdon, Quebec

I think prisons are full of people who are not being helped at all their crimes originated from mental health challenges that so often tormented them into unemployment poverty and addictions. If we took better care of people in struggles at the start we would be saving millions at the correctional facilities and we will continue to pay dearly if we do not offer more psychiatric assistance to them during incarceration.

Ti Eller

Instead of focusing on cures for mental illness, why don't we look more closely at the causes? Once you've dealt with the genuine mis-wirings that result in schizophrenia and the more alarming forms of psychopathy, you're looking at many people who are simply scuppered by depression, anxiety, and other disorders resulting from anomie: alienation.

Most people work from nine to five so they can buy stuff that makes them feel better about working from nine to five, or, worse, simply to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads so that they can go back to their pointless jobs the next day. They work at jobs that don't fulfil their passions and for people who regard them as economic units rather than individual human beings. They go home and overeat and watch rubbish on the box because they need to deaden their outrage and misery: a pattern of consumption that feeds into the corporations that exploit them in the first place.

The school system merely reinforces the child's role as consumer.

Hilary Knight
Victoria, British Columbia

Demographics such as First Nations, Inuit, and homosexuals among others are usually described in these discussions as "groups at risk", but for some reason no one ever mentions the absolutely undisputed fact that males commit suicide at 4 times the rate of females, across all social and age groups.

Please alert your listeners to this badly suffering demographic whose name we dare not speak.

Pearl Martin
Toronto, Ontario

Historically in our country, people have viewed physical disease as more socially acceptable to talk about, deal with and consequently seek treatment for.

I believe that mental health issues are no doubt, the biggest component in the creation of physical health issues.  We have put the cart before the horse for too many years.

When we acknowledge the importance of good mental health as the best preventive approach available for our population - we will develop a protocol that will make huge differences in the quality of health for all Canadians. An awakening to the big picture importance of mental health in all kinds of physical health issues will mean a top notch health system for Canada as well as a far less costly one that seems based totally on high priced pharmaceuticals and technology.

Lianne Morgan-Sands
Smiths Falls, Ontario

I have schizophrenia but have not been in a hospital for it in 16 years. A lot of money is potentially going to be misdirected. After a while, people often do not need therapy or just need occasional checkups providing they have good morale and peer and/or family support. One of my brothers has OCD and has been employed for almost 20 years at the same company in a classical career progression, so people with a mental illness who may or may not exhibit some symptoms may be highly employable.

Mental health should be a focus in the workplace so that people do not become overly stressed to the point where most people could not handle the job. If you are out of the job market for some time, for whatever reason, it is a lot harder to break back in. As well, most people with diagnoses who can outperform expectations of what is expected from such people tend not to disclose, but some have no choice. Human resource departments are often still in the dark ages when it comes to mental health. It matters not to many of them how you are in able to handle questions and soft skills -many assume that if you have not been recently employed fulltime that you are close to unemployable. Eventually, a lot of employable people who have experienced mental illness eventually give up. If my parents had not anticipated a need for a lot of financial means being necessary for the future, I would not be in decent financial shape, and at the mercy of strangers. I should mention that while cousins will in some cases talk with me over the phone, none has ever visited me when I had my own residence. I have a late-in-life 4 yr BA from UBC from 1999 and while it has enabled me to better cope with modern life, the stigma still persists to a large degree and to some extent is even perpetuated my some mental health professionals. I still remember the line from CAMH staff in 1990. Said one cynically "They always come back!" Not this one! I wisened up and stay on my meds and had them on a managed reduction from a high hospital dosage, enabling me to cope much better, think more quickly and react much more naturally. Sometimes mental health breakdowns occur because the family handles social issues too poorly compared to the general population.

Brent Galster
Toronto, Ontario

 
I am a Canadian currently living abroad. 

I struggled with Depression for more than a decade of my life (throughout my 30´s). My family dismissed my depression (and hospitalization) as being all in my head, and not a real health issue.  Getting over it and a pulling up your boot straps are not solutions.  We need to educate the mainstream to help them understand the real issues, so that real support can be available from those we know.  

The prescription medicine and the talk therapy were limiting in their ability to create true solutions, and resulted in relapses.  Through perseverance and determination and a doggedness to educate myself and find a solution for me.  I am healed in spite of the medical system - not a result of the medical care I received.

I entered St. Michael's Hospital through their emergency wing many years ago and found a nurturing healing environment there, during the two weeks I stayed there.  They have my accolades as a mental health wing and had a great team of nurses at the time.

Kalli C-S
Mexico

Hi Rex - this is a fascinating and worthy discussion on Cross Country Check up, but it is not about mental health. Just about every single one of your callers, and your guest, has been talking about mental illness and how to fix it. There is a need to keep mental health (think about an analogy here to public health units, that are designed to educate about health and sustain public health - vaccinations, well baby check ups, parental education, and so on) because mental illness is not inevitable - it can be prevented.

I sit on the Board of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association and we are a newly-formed organization starting on this path of mental / psychological health and well-being for all Canadians We'd love to dialogue with David Goldbloom and the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Truly, we need to figure out a national strategy for the majority of Canadians who do not spend most of their lives in a state of mental illness, just as much as we need to remove the stigma around mental illness and provide help for those who do suffer.

Lisa Sansom
Kingston, Ontario

As a psychologist with the Toronto Children's Aid society in the fifties, I once begged for help for a small boy whom I diagnosed as susceptible to violence, nothing was done.  He killed two young girls and killed again after serving a first sentence.  He had been passed from one inadequate foster home to another...  The signs were there and we did nothing, and it has not improved in fifty years!   It stresses our whole society when children are killed.  How can we spend 11-12 billion dollars in Afghanistan and Libya without thinking about the problems we already have in our own suffering Canada?  The mental health plan should include the early detection of violent children and we should treat them until we have early control of the matter, no matter what it takes.  

Worse, in the long run, in the eighties, we closed mental hospitals (because the buildings were getting costly and old) and we put our mentally ill citizens on the street, to sleep under bridges, we did not build the supportive mental health facilities that we were promised to replace them.  We are a deeply cruel society, uncaring, and all but hopeless when it comes to compassion for the unfortunate and the mentally ill.  I am deeply ashamed and it is not improving.

William Lawrence
Victoria, British Columbia

I looked up the Mental Health First Aid information that your Dr mentioned, and have a question and concern. I heard another CBC interview with this same Dr, when he noted how important it is to intervene early.  Without an early intervention, people, like my friend, might be destined towards homelessness or worse.  This Mental Health First Aid information website offers guidelines, and for psychosis notes that until the person recognizes their own condition - there is essentially nothing we can do (if they aren't at risk of harming themselves or others). Doesn't this seem contradictory? She so clearly needs help, is fumbling and flailing, and we are all to sit back and watch?  What can be done?

Lauren
Vancouver, British Columbia

Having experienced a 'florid' manic episode, I have these observations. For me, the hardest part is that I'm not allowed emotions, only 'symptoms'. I'm not allowed to be sad; I'm 'depressive'. I can't be angry, I'm 'agitated.'

Also, I'm dismayed how people frequently ignore the reality of mental illness.  A recent caller spoke of treating bipolar affective disorder by using pig vitamins.  Would anyone dare recommend treating breast cancer, for example, with that kind of bizarre, untested substance? To my horror, I'd first read of this in a well-regarded Canadian women's' magazine.

Living in a small community, it's hard to ignore a person's mental health issues, no matter how hard we try.  I have found great relief in not even trying to hide my difficulties.  By being open about it, and candid in trying to help others with similar difficulties.

It's hard for an urban person to realize how difficult access can be.  We have a 'circuit psychiatrist' who flies up to visit people who need help.  A few years ago, the only available psychiatrist evidently had his own problems, and then vanished quickly, and with no notice to patients.

Roslyn Madrid
Kitwanga, British Columbia

I believe it is time to spend more on a national mental health strategy. Speaking from personal experience I believe that strategy should not only address helping and healing those with mental health issues, it should target some of the contributing factors such as harassment and bullying in the work place (and other) the lack of understanding of mental illness and the stigma that is so often attached to mental illnesses such as depression. Employers could and should learn to distinguish the basic symptoms of depression and assist their employees in seeking assistance instead of taking other, less supportive actions.

I am please to say I have recovered from a severe case of depression. It was a lot of hard work but with excellent support from my doctor, a program of self help and some medication, I am doing very well. A part of the assistance I received was from the Bounce Back program offered in British Columbia by the BC Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association. I can't say enough about the program and the staff member who supported me. It was very helpful.

All the best and thank you for your focus on this issue.

Paul Edgington
Pemberton, British Columbia

I am an emergency room nurse and the daughter of a man who has been suffering with a pretty severe case of schizophrenia for nearly 40 years - more than my entire life.

As a front-line emergency healthcare staff member, I see people who are in many different stages of mental health - treated or untreated. Acute psychosis or people who are well-managed. In the emergency department I work in, it is like many other departments around the country. There is a room where people are locked up in a room with no windows and a camera. It is enough to drive anyone to madness, let alone sticking someone in there who is acutely psychotic. People can be in this room for days because of a lack of mental health-intervention resources. It embarrasses me having to care for people like this. I have cared for suicidal people who have been discharged from hospital because there are no beds for them, only to find out later that they killed themselves. I don't know what the answer is, but I know this is not it!

As for my dad, he has gone on and off his medications for years and in the last five years has been in and out of the mental hospital about six months each year. Family members, including myself have had to get arrest warrants from the courts when his neighbours have complained about his bizarre behaviour. We, his family, have asked for him to be put into a group home for years because he is a danger to himself and cannot manage his medications. He has been extremely lucky in that the apartment where he lives is owned by a very tolerant family member, or he surely would be on the street. My father has recently stopped taking his medications again and he sliced his throat, requiring emergency surgery. It is now that we are being taken seriously. My dad needs to be managed in a group home. He's now waiting for a group home bed to open up. That will take months.

I do not have any faith in our current government to provide the funds for these recommendations to take effect.

Louise Gilfoy
Nanaimo, British Columbia

I couldn't have my son at home because when he was psychotic and he had dangerous delusions about my other children, but it took 5 years from the time he was 14 to get him help. At times he was homeless and he sometimes had to sleep in my car. Services weren't accessible, long waiting lists, ridiculous expectations like he should remember appointment times or follow through on complex tasks he couldn't possibly carry out when he was psychotic, etc. For example, he lost all his ID and was expected to do all the paperwork and pay when he was penniless to replace it to get basic services. We got kicked out of 3 different apartments because of his extreme behaviour.  The service system is a maze. One of the worst things was how much more stress was added to our family by negative assumptions and stereotypes about the families of mentally ill people. I would in one day be called over involved for asking to know his appointment time so I could remind him, (I wasn't told because of privacy requirements), and then I was called neglectful after he missed the appointment. I can't tell you how many nights I sat up in all night coffee shops with him while he held his head wishing the voices would stop screaming and there was no place for him to go.

Diane

I am the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia (Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.) I believe that we do need and national strategy on mental health, and do need to spend more on it. The Church has a difficult history with mental illness, and in particular with mental illness that is terminal (Suicide). We have refused burial from the church to suicides and to bury suicides in consecrated grounds. We did not acknowledge mental health as something to be concerned about, and suicide was depicted as someone taking the place of God in matters of life and death. The Church has not treated the mentally ill, the survivors of suicide, or their family members well over the years. I am sorry for that, and for the Church In my Diocese I apologize for those aspects of our history. Mental health needs should be as easily understood and responded to as are the needs of the many cancers or other diseases with which we are familiar.

James Cowan
Victoria, British Columbia

I have had persistent clinical depression for 34 yrs. I have read the commission's report and it is good. One area they mention is the importance of family support. I have been lucky with good support but many others that I have met in support groups have very little or no support, maybe not even a friend.

Many of my friends have had great difficulty getting to see a psychiatrist because of shortage of doctors. So much more medical support is needed. There are three approaches that I see to get psychiatric services: a psychiatrist, a community health centre, or a hospital Outpatient Psych Team.

The third service is not well known because it is so small a service. Much more money needs to go into this area of service.

Roger Smith
Vancouver, British Columbia

In regards to your current episode about mental illness, I would like to encourage everyone who is listening that is struggling with depression to get help. My pride prevented me from doing so for 20 years. The hardest thing I've ever done in life is maintaining the illusion that I didn't need help. Putting my pride aside was excessively difficult and dealing with illness through talk therapy has been comparatively simple. I admire Clara Hughes and everyone else who talks about depression openly because they are combating the stigma that surrounds mental illness.

You can only beat darkness with light.

Dominique Liboiron
Medicine Hat, Alberta

More money needs to be invested in programs to understand mental health. A good start would be with educators and employers who face this but don't understand it. Many employers provide training around office safety, CPR, ethics, etc. Employers should be mandated to provide sensitivity training around barriers such as mental health and disability. In this day and age, mental health affects many people in the workforce or who are trying to enter the workforce.

Joanne Ahern
Washington, DC

We taxpayers must stop urging politicians to cut our taxes if we want to improve mental health problems. Taxes to pay for better treatment facilities, more therapist, affordable drugs, affordable, housing all the many factors that have an impact on how well a person with mental issues does.

Donata Chruscicki
Toronto, Ontario

I would like to here far more about dietary vitamin & mineral deficiencies as possible causes of many mental illnesses.  Particularly I would like a professional to comment on Dr. Ammen, of PBS series programs on brain imaging and his approach of first determining possible vitamin and mineral deficiencies to assist the brain to repair itself before the use of drugs.  His book "Change your brain, Change your life" suggested strongly a dietary deficiency as being a primary cause.

Gaynor Smith
Langley, British Columbia

My husband suffered from concurrent disorders - mental health problems along with alcoholism.  He tried for some time to get treatment but access to programs were very limited and doors were closed to him because he had both issues going on at the same time.  The medical system is poorly equipped to deal with multiple issues at the same time.  He was told he had to stop drinking before they could deal with his mental health issues, and he did go to detox 3 times - he tried very hard, before they could properly assess his anxiety and panic disorders.  Medications for mental illnesses often do not work if you drink. It is an impossible situation.

My husband died last July, when he was drunk.  He was 38 years old.  He hit his head, not realizing the seriousness of the injury.  He died waiting for treatment. 

The Government needs to realize that people are literally dying waiting for treatment.  The Mental Health Commission's Report does specifically identify those with concurrent disorders are part of the most stigmatized and one of the hardest populations to assist.  Investing in enhancing access and availability to mental health services is the right thing to do.  The Government needs to look at the possible return on the investment - it makes sense to invest.  Having more Canadians able to function will ultimately improve on the economic well being of the country.

Jennifer MacKenzie
Ottawa, Ontario

Nanaimo is a city of around 80,000 people.  I have known of two people who have suffered from mental illness who have died because each of them was known to the hospitals and their illnesses have not been seriously addressed.  Both people were sent home and died before the next morning.  Neither of these people would have been sent home if their mental health problems were not known.

Valerie
Nanaimo, British Coumbia

For all the thoroughness, the details and specifics of the just released National Mental Health Strategy, Changing Directions, Changing Lives, of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, there is a missing element; and it is a fundamental and an essential element. What is missing is, understanding the mind, from the inside, as the place where we consciously exist and act, the place where mental health problems take place, arise and develop. This is in contrast to equating and reducing the mind to the brain, reducing what takes place and what we do in our inner mental life to neurological and biochemical processes, denying the conscious and active human mental self, and reducing problems of the mind to neurological problems of the brain.

To deal with the growing mental health crisis, and resulting substance abuse, addiction and suicide, which are affecting all aspects of life, all areas of human activity, all sectors and levels of society and which are leading to mounting mental health care costs that are not sustainable, what is required is a paradigm change. It requires a change in how we understand and deal with the mind and mental problems. It requires demystifying the mind and our inner mental life; differentiating clearly between the mind and the brain, between mental problems, mental disabilities, and neurological problems. What is required is making mental health care, in the first instance, an individual activity and practice, not a public service. Mental health care services in turn need to advocate, promote, and facilitate individually establishing and maintaining the necessary internal mental conditions, and preventing mental health problems from developing.

In practical terms, it requires education and training in mental development and growth; providing the knowledge, understanding, and the language to understand and to be able to talk about the mind, our inner mental life, and about mental problems. What is required is education and training in mental development and growth to demystify the mind, and to empower and enable the individual, to deal with the demands and challenges of our inner mental life, and to deal in the mind with the demands and challenges of the world around us.

Axel Dorscht
Ottawa, Ontario

I'm a psychologist in private practice in a semi-rural area (Qualicum beach BC). I deal with some people with mental illness, but most of my clients are people with emotional/psychological problems that are severe enough to interfere with their daily lives. Often they are off work.

I've been there myself. A dozen or so years ago I was diagnosed with severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder. I wasn't able to work for about a year. After appropriate treatment, I got back to my old self with an even more positive outlook than I had before. Subsequent to that episode, I did not sink back into that dark place even when three of my adult children died of causes related to their addictions. I grieved of course, but I experienced no disabling depression. I have been quite public about my experiences, but have experienced no stigma.

Research has shown that when people see a psychologist even once, the number of visits they make to a medical doctor is greatly reduced. The conclusion is that more access to psychological help may substantially reduce the burden on the medical system.

Part of the education mission is to help the public, including to the medical community, to help people understand that those with severe mental illnesses are also subject to all of the other mental distresses that the rest of us are subject to, sometimes even more than the rest of us are. A schizophrenic is first of all a person. This makes him or her vulnerable to grief following loss, the stresses of poverty, and all the range of effects resulting from severe trauma. In addition they  have to deal with all the same medical conditions that the rest of us do a cancer, diabetes, heart problems, etc. Unfortunately, these very real medical and emotional problems are often overlooked when the individual has a psychiatric label.

Dr. Neill
Qualicum Beach, British Columbia

Yes, I believe a national health strategy is vital. The government should start with areas they are directly responsible for-the Canadian Armed Forces and First Nations on reserve for instance.

I have many years of contact with mental health services as "consumer" and community service provider. I remember when the psych hospitals were closed and communities were left to try and fill the gap. But while urban and rural communities are on the front lines, any programs developed are continuously under threat of funding cuts. Non-profits who engage in advocacy lose their charity status, groups that offer practical help with housing, food and contact are put out of business. Part of any national strategy must be focused on front line community needs.

There are countless people in our country both lay people and professionals who could contribute to the implementation of this strategy. It must not be top-down. It must remove barriers and obstacles. It must include mental health consumers in decision making and strategizing.

I think it's important for us to take a wide view of both the issues and the solutions. I think it is a mistake to depend only on a "medical model." Working together holds the greatest hope for change.

Anne Dolina
Binbrook, Ontario

I've struggled with depression and have done significant volunteer work in the field. The Royal Ottawa Hospital, our premier psychiatric hospital, basically shuts down for the weekend, I suppose so that staff can have the weekend off.  Meanwhile, the wards and the whole hospital has the atmosphere of a Toronto Sunday in 1955 - if you get my Christian gist!  This manufactured isolation and alienation is not helpful while treating an illness that has a large emotional component. Support resources of course are inadequate and they are targeted at the most ill.  So, a working and educated person who has a bout of mental illness and has to go on sick leave finds herself in a support group of the extremely sick who were perhaps never able to work or go to school.  This is not helpful it's supports the feeling that I am defective and alone.

Walter Wilmot
Ottawa, Ontario

A national strategy for health care is long over due, and I would hope that the national strategy ties together education of young people in relation to drugs and addiction, in addition to poverty and homelessness, and people that end up in jail for related problems.  It seems anyone walking in any downtown major city these days will see people affected by such issues.  As a simple lay person, it would seem that a lot of issues regarding mental health relate to addictive matters.  Which, I would hope, if there was better education (before kids start experimenting with drugs and alcohol and before the liberals legalize pot) this part of our societal issues could be averted before becoming part of any healthcare program or homelessness.

Sharon MacPhail
Calgary, Alberta

Until we make the medical system patient-centred rather than system-centred, we will need a thousand more programs like this before Canadian society gets out of a very dark tunnel. My mother died in hospital, as a result of the present system. The collateral fall-out on family members is horrendous.

Siegfredo Bercasio

One of the strategic directions defined in the mental health strategy developed by the Mental Health Commission concerns itself with enhancing access to needed services and supports for those with mental disorders. Less than half of persons with mental health problems seek help and this because of stigma and because services and supports are often not available.  The largest group of Canada's regulated and specialized mental health providers are psychologists whose services are not covered by public health insurance plans when delivered outside of public institutions.  This means that their services are not accessible to people of low or modest income or without extended health insurance.  One in five Canadians will experience a mental health problem in a given year and of these the most common are depression and anxiety.  Psychological treatments are among the most effective interventions for these kinds of problems and disorders.  Canada needs to do a better job at making mental health services and supports accessible to those who need them.

Dr. Karen Cohen
Ottawa, Ontario

It's the one-year anniversary of the majority Conservative government ...and also of the NDP as Official Opposition.

How would you grade their performance at the end of their first year?

With host Rex Murphy.

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• John Ivison
  Political columnist for the National Post.
  
  
• Dan Leger
  Long-time political journalist and columnist for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
  
  
• André Pratte
  Chief Editorial writer, La Presse and author of a biography of Wilfred Laurier in Penguin's Extraordinary Canadians series.
  
  
• Joan Crockatt
  National political commentator based in Calgary
  
  

• How the MP rookie class of 2011 fared in Year 1
• Harper and Mulcair clash over Tory majority record
• One year later: Have the Tories kept their promises?
• Harper's real agenda visible in budget bill, by Greg Weston
• Liberals launch 'supporter' category in bid to rebuild

• Stephen Harper's glory may be fleeting if economy fails, by John Ivison
• A year into his majority, Harper is still playing the minority game
• Stephen Harper says Tory majority has kept its promises, Thomas Mulcair not so sure
• Promises kept, promises broken: How Stephen Harper's first year with a majority surprised Canadians
• Bob Rae leaves Liberals looking for an interim-interim leader, by Matt Gurney

• Editorial: Harper government has had a good first year
• How Stephen Harper is remaking the Canadian myth
• Harper trumpets a year of being on 'right side' of economic trends
• Mulcair rallies NDP, declares 'beginning of the end' of Tory rule
• Anniversary speeches highlight Harper and Mulcair's contrasting styles
• With Rae eyeing top job, Liberals open doors to outside 'supporters'

• Editorial: Cabinet doesn't show Tories' depth

• Stephen Harper's Tories risk undermining themselves

• Demonizing the federal NDP a tricky task for Conservatives, Barbara Yaffe

• The Liberal leadership contest: who might run and what to look, by Daniel Veniez

E-mail

After one year in office Harper and his gang get absolutely zero for ethics, integrity, transparency and openness. Autocratic, untruthful, devious and deceitful, he has shown contempt for parliament, for democracy and for voters. He is a zero and he gets zero.

Frank A. Pelaschuk
Alexandria, Ontario

I was once a Progressive Conservative, even voted for Harper's right wing party once. That I can guarantee will never happen again in my life time.

This Prime Minister is the best friend and supporter Quebec separatists ever had. He is devisive and deceitful. Pick a scandal, there is one a week, from misleading the Canadian public about F-35 costs to the tune of 10 billion dollars, to the Tories' character assassination of Richard Colvin over prisoner transfers in Afghanistan, to the robocalls (which the Tories in fact admitted to in Irwin Cotler's riding) to the firing of 20,000 civil servants (I don't remember them running on that policy plank in their election last year).

David Podolchuk
Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

My concern is Canadians, like docile livestock, are being led down the garden path to a third-world autocracy. So be it if the majority of citizens who do not belong to a political party are only concerned about their personal situation and are willing to tolerate the abuse of parliament, the idea of a privileged political class, the corruption of military command and accept, without question or confrontation, the back-room and election skullduggery by a small group of individuals, whose intent is to establish political and social dominance for themselves and their leaders.

If the majority of Canadians are content to live in the memory of a once respected nation and are content to pretend that as long as the snooping eyes of the inspector and the jack boots of social conformity do not interfere with their personal lives, then perhaps we as a nation are not worthy of a successful and prosperous democracy.

The truth is, as we have seen happening throughout history and around the world today, that even though for now the eye and fist of the frightened master is focused on someone else, it is not long before he smells disloyalty, treachery and greed coming from our houses and sends his representatives to our neighborhood.

Many of our elected politicians and leaders of thought at the end of year one are expressing concern about, and exposing the corruption spreading through our political system. They are concerned about the consolidation of absolute power to a small group of individuals whose narrow ideology sees themselves as the clear thinkers and as such the rightful leaders at all costs. Yet the majority of Canadians remain in a trance. Caught by the spell of a manufactured economic crisis.

It is a powerful spell that makes us believe that each day is fraught with danger and it is safer to hide and be complacent rather than confront the corporate demons that control the economic engine of the country.

How long we as a people are willing to remain in the trance is anybody's guess. Perhaps it will be when all the resources have been stripped and the captains of free enterprise pull up stakes, or when the comforts we enjoy today can no longer be afforded by the middle class that we will be forced to wake up and see how badly we have been duped.

Like pigeons in a sting operation we are willing to tolerate the corruption of our once collective Canadian principals and instead become pariahs and subjects of ridicule amongst nations that still have principled governments.

So how do I feel after one year under the current government? I feel like I have been forced onto the couch, my arms are pinned down and the worst part of this encounter is still to come and there is no one that I can turn to for help.

Pat Sullivan
Lake Cowichan, British Columbia

What disappoints me profoundly about the current federal Conservative government is the change in Canada's role in the world. They have traded Canada's role of being a respected third party that helps resolve world conflicts, into a cheerleading role that takes steps away from advocating difficult solutions and becomes a cheerleader for one side all too quickly.

A small nation like Canada has worked hard to gain the respect of other countries in the past and by walking away from international commitments like Kyoto and abandoning a problem solving role in the Middle East, Canada has quickly been sidelined internationally.

The closer-to-home agenda of mega-prisons, costly fighter jets, reductions in environmental protection and cuts to our science and research capabilities are not where the majority of Canadians are at. Time will tell if this will cost them the next election.

Dave

What puzzles me is how the Harper majority government, which prides
itself as being fiscally conservative, has allowed such blatant luxury
spending to burden taxpayers during his first year. Fighter jets
costing 15 billion dollars more than promised, private trips across
the country in emergency vehicles to attend private functions, trips
to New York costing upwards of 50,000... It makes me wonder why
seniors' pensions and public sector jobs are what's suffering while we
continue to hemorrhage money through wasteful spending.

Mark Loggie
Miramichi, New Brunswick

Hi Rex,

I feel compelled to correct you when, in your introduction, you called the Conservative party the "PC" party. How soon we forget. This is not the proud party of Macdonald, Diefenbaker and Pearson, but the bastardized offspring of a union with the Canadian Alliance party. Don't be confused. There is nothing progressive about them. How are they doing after one year in majority? I would say they're doing exactly as they said they would for the most part, which, whether I like it or not, I must respect as the will the Canadian electorate.

Jeff Vormittag
Calgary, Alberta

Dear Rex,

Thank you for the opportunity to voice my F grade for the Conservative government. From muzzling debate in Committees and cutting short debate in the House, to  threatening non-profit groups with dissolution, the inane cuts to women's programs, aboriginal 
programs, Katimavik and other youth programs, heritage, parks, libraries and archives - I am angered every day and cannot believe the direction in which they are steering this country.

I firmly believe the Conservative stance of Canada as an energy superpower is superceding care for the residents of this country and the wildlife habitats of our coasts. The billions of dollars earmarked instead for fighter jets must be tied to the quest for arctic sovereignty where additional resources are becoming more and more accessible.

Our failing international grade on the environment is directly tied to the oil dollar signs which are clouding the Conservative government's vision.

There. I feel better. But only temporarily.

Best wishes,

Aneen Vonkeman
Lethbridge, Alberta

The Conservatives rate a "D" based on the secretive, dishonest way they operate the government. The Liberals are borderline and will need to go to summer school if they want to pass. The NDP gets a "B" for trying to represent middle class Canadians. Canadian journalists get an "F" for how they have covered the year, starting with their handling of the rookie NDP candidates who were elected last May. While they gleefully scorned Ruth Ellen Brosseau for being a politically-inexperienced single mother and service industry worker, they have been slow to admit that this young woman has turning out to be a well-liked, hard working representative of her constituents.

Denis O'Brien
Whitehorse, Yukon

Congratulations to Prime Minister Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada for an excellent first year in power with a Majority. They have maintained economic stability. Good for the Conservatives for beginning to cut the fat out of government programs. Special kudos to the Minister of the Environment for revealing to Canadians and the world that CO2 is a good, scarce (still less than 0.04% of air at sea level) and ecologically essential gas in the air which all plants, from the phytoplankton to ornamentals and crop plants, and all trees, must have for photosynthesis. Canadians are so fortunate to have the clear-thinking Harper Conservatives. The Conservative Party of Canada deserves and A+ for their first year with a Parliamentary majority.

Pav Siitam
Cobourg, Ontario

A resounding "F" for the Conservatives. Mean-spirited, narrow-minded, incredibly arrogant. So far, they've rode roughshod over democracy, parliamentary decorum, accountability, or any semblance of any attempt to cater to a wider spectrum of Canadians than their supporters and cronies. L'affaires Conrad Black, Peter MacKay and the jet fighters, ripping off taxpayers with lavish expense account usage, stifling debate, a PMO run like a branch of MI6 or the CIA... the list goes on.

A "B" for the NDP. At least they're trying to speak for and to a majority of Canadians. I think they make a fine Official Opposition and at least they seem to be the voice of conscience in an unruly and embarrassing House of Commons.

A "C-" for the Liberals. Until they acquire a viable leader who can rally the party, inspire voters and do all things magical to get this party on track, they're dead in the water. Young Mr. Trudeau is not the individual who can do this. Here's hoping the party doesn't set its sights on him. Otherwise they will pass into history forever.

You missed the Green Party. Didn't Elizabeth May count at all in this survey?

Carmel Linka
Victoria, British Columbia

"F" for Stephen Harper because of what he is doing and has done to
dismantle democracy in Canada. The long list at the top of your show is
growing in so many ways including his war on the environment and on
women; only a diligent media can make Canadian voters aware of Harper's
devious, controlling efforts to transform Canada to fit his ideology.

"B+" for the NDP in opposition who are learning fast under fire and
hopefully will be able to blow the whistle on this man.

"A" for Bob Rae who points out so articulately the PM's dirty tricks. I
hope that the left will unite and make Harper a one-term PM, whenever
he decides to call the next election which we well know is a moveable
feast, despite the law Mr. Harper put in place!

Gerri Thorsteinson
Winnipeg, Manitoba

I have to give the Conservatives an "A" while giving both the NDP and Liberals an "F" for the reason that they cannot work with the Conservatives, which holds up the parliamentary process at the expense of the nation. Canada is doing very well when compared to most other countries. The hated gun registry is gone, and the resource industry can move forward with the streamlining of the environmental assesment process while protecting the environment.  The Conservatives are creating a business friendly platform for the country which is also producing badly needed jobs at a time when we need them.

Glenn Treml
Jacques, Ontario

I agree with the caller who is talking about why the Conservatives always say that any environmental protection stands in the way of the economy. I am very concerned that the government has the power to limit environmental advocacy and limit environmental assessment as well as changing Department of Fisheries legislation that protects fish habitat such as stream banks, sloughs, dugouts, etc. that we have come to know and respect. I feel that it has taken such a long time to arrive at these places for the environment, and we are still so far from really preserving habitat and protecting the environment, that for the government to implement these measures flies in the face of biological science. I am a nurse in Calgary and find it very difficult to express any concern about these things and fear that they will be able to just ram the Northern Gateway pipeline down our throats. I feel Harper is just playing to the oil lobby and does not consider the regular Canadian nor Canadian interests. Why else would he be cutting funding to Canadian national icons such as the National Parks, CBC and Katimivik? He supports mandatory minimum sentences, yet he won't invest in a program like Katimivik that brings young people together in Canada learning about the country and working on public service projects. Lastly, I would like to say that his economic policy is promoting more income disparity in this country and that can only contribute to more social problems. I am afraid that the oil companies Will be running this country.

Jean Blackstock
Calgary, Alberta

Rex, I live in the West, British Columbia to be exact. Please don't lump B.C. in as being part of this Harper-loving "West". We are not. British Columbia is not the same as Alberta, not by a long shot. I am sure that Atlantic Canadians would be offended if they were all categorized as being the "East", indistinguishable from Ontario and Quebec.

Jim Thorne
Kitimat, British Columbia

I have yet to hear an accurate description of the government's policies. Harper is implementing a classic neoliberal agenda. Canada is heading down a path of further deregulation and privatization, and we rely for too much on stripping our natural resources for short term profit and the expense of our long term well being.

But if we need to keep this discussion light and grade this government, let me ask how anyone could give a passing grade to the line-up of Bev Oda, Vic Toews, Peter Mackay and Dean Del Mastro... need I go on?

Phil Soubliere
Ottawa, Ontario

My only hope for the country I love is that Elections Canada overturns the fraudulently, illegally, illegitimately stolen election, and that Thomas Mulcair can manage to appeal to people's sense of what we are about to lose. The Conservatives' proven venality, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and lack of respect for the environment upon which we depend, as well as Parliament itself, are horrifying.

Kev Corbett
Toronto, Ontario

Among my many concerns about the direction the Harper gov't is taking Canada, I am gravely concerned about the Conservatives' lack of transparency and accountability, their contempt of the parliamentary process in stifling debate, their contempt for the Canadian public in arrogantly withholding information to the point of deception, for muzzling dissent and their refusal to take responsibity for serious breaches of trust. I give them an F.

Mary-Lou Roberts
Montreal, Quebec

The Conservatives get an F for the environment, for democracy, for budget because they put F-35s ahead of so many more important things, for the unity of the country. They have discounted Quebec, gutted the CBC budget and ignored B.C. in their insistence on this oil pipeline. Apparently they only care about the Tar Sands and military muscle flexing.

NDP? Too early to tell. Liberals? I agree with the caller who said they're still suspended.

Leslie Hill
Vancouver, British Columbia

Could we not include Elizabeth May in our current discussions, even if the Greens don't have party status? Today's forum is focussing on firsts, and Elizabeth May certainly made history by being the first Green Party member to be elected federally. Being such a good speaker and hard-working person who is able to synthesize a lot of information in a few short sentences, I would like her to be given more time to discuss our all-important environment in this unique country of ours. Canada is likely the only nation in the world with such a huge and (somewhat) intact wilderness. Incidentally, to give more weight to my argument, I've never voted for the Greens, but I have been aware of Ms. May and her (mostly) good work for the last 25 to 30 years.

Thanks for this most interesting program, Rex.

Mary Woodsworth
Victoria, British Columbia

Harper and Corporation gets a "Z". Mulcair gets a "F". Listen closely to his words. High school dictionary. No originality and never Prime Minister material. Fortunately we have three years left for a savour to emerge. Unfortunately, foreboding is the dangers of the Harper Corporation on the founding and humanitarian principles of Canada.

Rod Malay
Jasper Bog, Nova Scotia

As Canada's baby boomers jog and rollerblade into their senior years, some experts are warning of a looming demographic time bomb. It's something Canada's health ministers will have to address in the new health accord. But before then, are seniors today getting the care they need now?

With host Rex Murphy.

                                                                                          Blog entry by Emily Burke

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• Anne Martin-Matthews
  Professor, Department of Sociology University of British Columbia and former Scientific Director of the Institute of Aging (2004-2011).
  
  
• Robyn Tamblyn
  Professor, Department of Medicine and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University.
  
  
• Réal Cloutier
  Chief Operating Officer (Winnipeg Health Region and Deer Lodge Centre) and V-P Long Term Care & Community Health Services.
  
  
• John P. Hirdes
  Professor, School of Public Health and Health Systems and University of Waterloo.
  

Links

• Seniors in need, caregivers in distress: What are the home care priorities for seniors in Canada?

• Home-care support for elderly fails caregivers, report finds
• The challenge of rising life expectancies
• To go gently into that good night: When quality of death can enhance quality of life, by Lisa Priest

• Aging costs already squeezing government budgets: IMF
• Aging population to impact economy: Bank of Canada

• 'Seniors in need and caregivers in distress': national report
• Editorial: Home care for seniors should be a priority

• Inge Schamborzki, Executive Director Health and Home Care Society of B.C.
• Canda's nursing homes
• Home-based healthcare needs more help, advocates say
• Sudbury hospital pushes home-based care for seniors
• Seniors prefer hospitals over long-term care homes
• Drummond report stresses home-based health care

E-mail

I think we all know that seniors' needs are becoming more complex. Instead of saying can we meet seniors' needs, I think we should be focusing on managing the expectations of seniors and families. I think families and health care practitioners need to have adult conversations with aging family members about what they want in their final phase of life. We already know that aggressive treatments are not leading to better outcomes for many seniors. The focus can't be on "if only we had" - it has to be to give dignity to seniors in the final phase of their life.

Our family are caregivers for a 91 old women with advanced dementia. Her 1.5 year hospital stay 10 years ago was the contributing factor to her illness. She has many changing and complex care needs - but managing our expectations has been our survival strategy.

Heather Tremble 
Oakville, Ontario

My mother is 80 years old with Alzheimers. She is in a retirement home with Alzheimer care facilities. She is approaching the time when she will need to get into a long term care facility to handle her increasing needs.

In Ontario, she must apply for a place in a long term care facility understanding that she will be on a waiting list for anywhere from one to three years! Who can predict an elderly patient's care needs accurately three years in advance? If you err on the side of caution and put the patient on the list too soon, expecting perhaps the 3 year wait, and the patient's name comes to the top of the list before they are deteriorated sufficiently to need that spot, then you go back to the bottom of the list to wait another one to three years. It's a vicious, vindictive policy that forces families to choose between putting a person in that kind of a facility before it's necessary, or risking having them unable to get a space in a suitable facility when they finally need it.

It's a bureaucratic protocol that ignores the patient as a human being, and this kind of ageist policy making is rampant in our society. 

Try finding a bench for an elderly person to rest on at a bus stop in Toronto, or any where on the city's sidewalks. The state of our overcrowded transit systems, and our pedestrian-unfriendly sidewalks makes getting around impossible for anyone who is not in robust health.

Again and again, the elderly are treated with indifference when it comes to the nuts and bolts of necessary infrastructure.

D'Arcy McLenaghen
Toronto, Ontario

My father's full life was suddenly and then agonizinly slowly cut short by vascular dementia. In our rural area of Manitoba the system is that when the patient is panelled for care you must wait for a bed in the local personal care home (you are placed in first available) away from familiar doctors, neighbors, etc.The bed was 60 km from my home and my father died there two years later. A bed never did come available in our home town. I am a nurse who knows how to navigate the system, advocate for acceptable care, and not take no for an answer. I feel very sorry for all families who have to figure out an unfamiliar system that really is very broken.

Marie Hadfield
Gunton, Manitoba

I am a social worker at Community and Home Assistance to Seniors and I was also a caregiver for my mother. I hear a great deal of stories from seniors caring from seniors, adult children caring for seniors and friends looking out for their older adult friends.

I find that older adults are having difficulty accessing services because there isn't a great deal of awareness out there of services that are needed for seniors. Family member and older adults have to navigate through the system and they are finding that there is a lot of red tape where there is a great deal of assessments in order to receive services and the services that are to be offered through the government is time limited and limited to only specific conditions and abilities.

It is difficult for seniors to remove themselves from their own home and let alone be introduce strangers in their own home to provide personal services like bathing, toileting and making meals. Seniors may feel that their privacy is invaded and because of the lack of awareness and conditioning seniors have about the future of their care, it is awkward and anxiety ridden to accept personal care from a stranger.

Adult children and older adult family caregivers find themselves having to compensate their own lives work, caring for their own children and their own personal lives in order to offer care for their aging family member. Not all of these caregivers have formal training or awareness of the services and the system. This is becoming more stressful for families and it impacts other generations beyond the aging parent or person.

Lori Canlas
Richmond Hill, Ontario

I am 82 years of age. What I need is supportive connection around me, we live near each other but we are not aware of each other or each other's needs.

There could be an agency that helps us to connect, a trustworthy agency that reveals what we need and discerns what we can do for each other. I could easily walk the dog of the elderly lady across the street when she goes into hospital, I could deliver groceries to anyone near me, drive someone to a medical appointment or pick them up after an eye operation, etc. The problem is that we do not know each other year after year. I would like to be able to call up a neighbor when I need a drive from the hospital or some cleaning that I cannot manage by myself because of the stiffness that comes with arthritis (my three children are thousands of miles away and it would not be appropriate to bring them here to do those small things, I want to save them for a serious crisis when it comes, I do not want to go into assisted living just because of small needs). Life has made us too independent, we need to learn again how to help each other. We elderly do not want everything to be done by doctors, nurses, institutions, care homes, so long as, with a little help from our immediate neighbors, we could do so much of it all for ourselves. But we need an agency to be set up to allow and encourage this neighborliness to happen to help us.

William Lawrence
Victoria, British Columbia

I am 65 years old. I, and my baby-boomer contemporaries, have been heading for old age for over half a century. Why has no government had the foresight to see us coming, and to prepare for it? We aren't exactly invisible.

I feel like a complete fool for not waking up earlier to the prospect of government inaction on good elder care. Of course, I did not think I would be facing old age entirely alone, and on a very, very low income, either. 

From what I have seen so far with my own parents, and with contemporaries, I think low income seniors like myself are heading for a truly horrible experience.

Cathleen White
Toronto, Ontario

 My parents, Mom in particular, cared for both my grandmothers, one severely debilitated by a stroke, in the 1970-1980's for several years. As a result, they both have no desire to be kept living by medical means as they age. Ideally, they will go quickly and suddenly. Watching Mom care for my gransmothers was an intense experience, one they expressely do not wish on my brother or me. I have to say I agree. I'm at the tail end of the baby boon, cognicient that life is lived in the present and with no desire to spend my last days in a home or as a burden on society.

The time to live is now and it's important to do it well. Is medical treatment always the right way to go?

Jan Creelman
Ottawa, Ontario

In my openion the only solution to this problem is to encourage and facilitate small, private nursing homes, taking care of 5 to 10 seniors. More seniors will get help and many younger people will get jobs.

Anees Shehzad
Sydney, Nova Scotia

As a senior in my late 80's living in Alberta and still on my own. I was dismayed to hear that our new Premier wants to get the private sectorinvolved in building and operating new nursing homes. Alberta has not been keeping up with new homes despite our burgeoning population.
 
Privately-run nursing homes can cut corners in order to maximize profits. They can raise rates, serve mediocre meals and cut staff, etc. I am not in favour of privately-run nursing homes.
 
Fay Reishus
Calgary, Alberta

I think one of the biggest issues is that we have 'medicalized' aging, as we are so afraid of aging, we often look at it in and of itself as 'illness', which I think makes people afraid of planning for their later years, and as such, often older adults end up needing care urgently as they are reacting to a crisis.

If we put our collective ageism aside and took a page from the book of some of the Eastern cultures, we may be able to gain a respect for aging and the aging process, and as such be able to look ahead at our and our loved ones' lives, and make decisions based on personal choice and plan which would allow both ourselves and the system to prepare for our later years.

Joelle Richardson
Calgary, Alberta

The problem with the health care system is that we treat our publicly funded health care system as a business and not a service paid for by taxpaying citizens. We have changed the rhetoric in how we talk about it, in how it has managed and in so doing have changed the way we look at this system. Instead of hospital administrators and hospital boards based in the community we now have way over paid CEO's many of whom do not know anything about the practice of medicine, we now have case managers and presidents of nursing care with community care access headed by executives. None of these people should have these titles. Our system is a public service. Yes, we want it to be accountable and well managed but business gurus who know only profit and loss, how to cut cut cut are not the people we need running our health care. Oh and the one I like best? We are stakeholders. Give me a break. We are patients who need to use this service when we are sick. There are too many executives and not enough troops doing the work.

With regards to senior care a lot of this problem could be solved by bringing seniors and home care into the Canada Health Act. Community Care Access contracts out home care to the lowest bidder a strategy which to me is tantamount to slavery for the people who are caring for seniors in  their homes. Sadly we seem to have an attitude in this country that anyone who looks after people who are ill are somehow not entitled to a decent wage for the work they do. Their work is difficult often dealing with very difficult patients (oops clients) and most often done by immigrant women and men who take the courses and are guaranteed a job when they finish the course. But wages of $12.75 per hour is not good enough.

We have had experience with seniors care over the last year and a half with two terminally ill parents and can only say that it is time to look at these services and do a thorough evaluation of how they are delivered and who delivers them.

Patricia Strung
Ancaster, Ontario

One cannot discuss senior health care without touching on the topic of end of life decisions. It is time seniors have the right to decide when and how they exit this world. As a daughter who had to watch her 89 year old mother starve to death over a period of 10 days in hospital due to pneumonia that was unresponsive to medication, I spent every evening wishing there was a way I could increase her morphine to allow her to die with dignity. Instead, I was told by the shocked nurse "no, we can't increase her morphine, she might stop breathing". Um, yes, that was my point.

Marika Stephenson
New Westminster, British Columbia

It's important to understand that there is no one solution for folks. My mother is in an assisted living arrangement and it's the best thing that could have happened for her. We are fortunate that she can afford it. But her opportunity to interact with others and healthy meals has extended her life. The care is wonderful. Yes she didn't want to go when this option was first presented but now is so very content with the arrangements.

Sheila Carson
London, Ontario

Today older adults want to live at home. To do so we need help with home-making such as meal planning, vacuuming and companionship, all social issues. However in Ontario you need to have a medical service before you can get any of these services. The focus needs to switch from medical to social to make this happen.

Older adults go into hospital with issues that can often be treated in a short period of time yet, once that occurs, they are immediately placed in Alternative Level of Care beds awaiting Long Term Care that are referred to as bed-blockers.  What should happen when older adults have been treated, they should go into rehabilitation, restoration program that focuses on going home where they truly want to be with social supports listed above. Hospitals need to address such issues now.

Today's older adults are healthier, more fit and financially able to afford additional care not covered by our present system. It is those who are financially struggling whose needs are not being met. The idea of a senior tsunami is a myth.  Dr. Michael Rachlis, a policy maker says they system needs to change from a hospital model to a home-support one but that means political intervention.  Unfortunately politicians are only there to get re-elected so are reluctant to make any changes.

My husband is 81 and I am 72. We live in our Aging in Place bungalow meaning everything is accessible. In our basement we have a one bedroom apt. Where we could have a carer live should we need one. It is not perfect but it is a solution for us.

Jill O'Donnell
Toronto, Ontario

Emily Burke (MA '09, UWO) loves being a production assistant for CBC's Cross Country Checkup because she gets to speak directly to interesting people from all over the country. She lives in Toronto and writes on a wide range of topics from municipal politics to food sustainability to all things arts and culture. She hates to go a day without listening to CBC radio.

 Emily Burke writes on what seniors really want:

"We elderly do not want everything to be done by doctors, nurses and care homes, so long as, with a little help from our immediate neighbors, we could do so much of it all for ourselves," says 82 year old William Lawrence from Victoria, BC, one of thousands of Cross Country Checkup listeners who phoned and emailed to talk about the current crisis in senior care.

Their stories helped illustrate the findings of a new report by the Health Council of Canada, which recommends improving support services for seniors, especially for the increasing number who want to live in their own homes for as long as possible rather than be moved into a nursing facility.
 

Getting a person set up with the appropriate homecare to suit their needs is a lot more complicated than simply filling out a form at the doctor's office.  Between hospitals, different government institutions, and the homecare agencies -- which are private businesses -- there are a number of players involved and each has different staff and protocols.

 
"You have to fight for it," says Anton Gudinskas, whose elderly mother needs a lot of care after a cancer-related surgery left her with a severe infection. He and his brother have had to learn what sort of help is available, and equally important, they've learned how to ask for it. It's a matter of using the right vocabulary.  Simply asking for someone to help their mother around the house was not as effective as when they starting saying, "my mom is in danger of falling" and, "my mom can't scale the tub." This emphasis on language creates a disadvantage for people who speak English as a second language.

"If we know something's available, we can get a 'no' four times. We keep asking the same questions, the same people, the same departments. We keep escalating the questions until somebody gives us a reason why," he says. They make the most of the system and are not deterred when things get confusing. "I have been called aggressive," he says. And maybe that's what it takes.

And for seniors who don't have supportive and savvy family members to help them maneuver the system and champion their cause, there's a risk of them being left behind if even sharp-minded, healthy people find homecare complicated.

"Approximately 40-50% of seniors with the most complex health needs have distressed caregivers, who report they are finding it difficult to continue to provide care, and that they have feelings of stress, anger, and depression," finds the Health Council report. For family members and partners who are acting as caregivers at home, there's a risk of burning out and putting a strain on their own health.

For 10 years, Fran Wittgens cared for her husband who suffered from Parkinson's until he passed away a year ago. "It could be very exhausting physically and emotionally."

"There are some really great services," Wittgens is quick to add, including an adult daycare program near her home in Antigonish, Nova Scotia that her husband attended twice a week. With daycare, combined with visits from homecare workers, she found she got a lot of help, but it would have been an invaluable relief to have an occasional respite at night so she could get proper rest, she says. This nighttime help was not available through homecare and she usually found it too costly to arrange privately.

Better transportation services to and from medical centres and other appointments would also have alleviated the exhaustion of struggling to get her increasingly immobile husband in and out of the car, says Wittgens.

In fact, transportation in rural areas complicates homecare in other ways as well. Simply getting homecare workers out to houses in remote locations often means those workers have to drive 30 minutes each way just to get to a session that may take as little as 20 minutes.

The homecare system has inefficiencies to overcome, but in the meantime it's clear that seniors, with the help of their families, are willing to go to great lengths to continue living at home.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this online conversation. You can still watch a replay, and to share this chat on social media, use the "Full Screen" button below.

Guests and Links       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• Davide Mastracci
  Student in political science and history at McGill university.
  
  
• Brendan Steven
  Political science and Canadian Studies student at McGill, founder of The Prince Arthur Herald and co-founder of McGill's Moderate Political Action Committee (ModPAC), an organization mobilizing students opposed to the strike.
  
  
• Yves Boisvert
  Columnist for La Presse
  
  
• Paul Cappon
  Former President and Chief Executive Officer of the now dissolved Canadian Council on Learning.
  
  

• Violent Montreal student protest results in 8 arrests
• Student protest declared illegal
• Charest calls on student group to condemn vandalism
• Quebec offers expanded loan program to ease student unrest
• Quebec tuition fight about keeping education accessible, students say
• Compare post-secondary tuition across Canada

• Brendan Steven: Quebec students must pay their share
• Counterpoint: Davide Mastracci on the case for Quebec's striking students
• Graeme Hamilton: Striking Quebec students fail the test of democracy

• Cracks start to show in Quebec's student solidarity
• CLASSE struggle in Quebec, Lysiane Gagnon
• Student protests, faculty pensions - connect the dots, by Mel Broitman

• Support for students slips in wake of vandalism
• Students don't know how good they have it, by L. Ian. MacDonald
• Student fights for right to graduate in June
• Rift surfaces over CLASSE debate
• Students' battle against Quebec heats up
• It's about entitlements, not class struggle, by Henry Aubin
• Students may have gone too far, by Henry Aubin
• Charest denounces student leaders, Marois
• Students at four CEGEPS vote on strike action
• Student group FEUQ puts pressure on Quebec education minister
• Ignoring protests won't end it, prof says

Emily Burke (MA '09, UWO) loves being a production assistant for CBC's Cross Country Checkup because she gets to speak directly to interesting people from all over the country. She lives in Toronto and writes on a wide range of topics from municipal politics to food sustainability to all things arts and culture. She hates to go a day without listening to CBC radio.

 Emily Burke writes on Canadian math student woes:

Zach Bedard learned his times tables years ago in math class, but the grade eight Markham, Ontario student is noticing a surprising number of classmates who still don't have a grasp on basic multiplication. "There are kids in my class who don't know how to multiply six times seven," said Bedard. "That seems like a problem."

Bedard's concern for his classmates is part of a larger and troubling trend across the country - Canadians performance in math has dropped over the last few years. In the most recent study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada ranked tenth place in math skills out of seventy countries, down three spots from the previous OECD survey.

Some believe the decline in skills has to do with a change in the way math is taught. For years the emphasis was on rote learning, which involves drills and memorization of multiplication tables and basic exercises. This gave students a solid foundation and taught them how to solve equations, but sometimes left them without an understanding of why they came to the answer. In the last few decades, there's been a shift in math curricula to focus on teaching the deeper concepts, using grids and colour blocks to help students understand math in visual and conceptual ways.

As Canadian students continue to slip in international rankings of math skills, more children are being enrolled in tutoring programs to get them through the school year.

Is there something wrong with the way math is being taught?

With host Rex Murphy.

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• Anna Stokke
  Concerned parent, Professor of Mathematics at University of Winnipeg, co-founder of the Western Initiative for Strengthening Education in Math (WISE Math).
  
  
• Sherry Mantyka
  Associate Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, and Director, Mathematics Learning Centre, Memorial University
  
  
• Kevin O'Neill
  Math department head, Sydney Academy High School, Sydney, Nova Scotia.
  
  

• Math education plan worrisome, University of Saskatchewan prof says (Sep 25, 2011)
• Bad math blamed on 'abysmal' university students (Sep 22, 2011)
• New math equals trouble, education expert says (Sep 21, 2011)
• Math equations that changed the world

• Why is it your job to teach your kid math?

• Canada slipping in math, science and reading skills
• Math is tougher than reading, study finds
• Math means business

• 'Rapunzel number' and the secret math of ponytails

• Plan to improve math just doesn't add up

• Big drop in math skills of entering students

• The Math of Khan

• How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education

• The Math Moron, by Emily Yoffe

• Why Math Matters

• Math Awareness Month: 10 Conversation Starting Math and Education Infographics
• You'll Need Math For That! 13 More Seriously Cool Jobs That Need Math
• You'll Need Math For That! 13 More Seriously Cool Jobs That Need Math

• The Canadian Mathematical Society
• Canadian mathematics education study group (CMESG)
• Canadian Math Links
• Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• Mathematical Association of America: April is Mathematics Awareness Month!
• American Mathematical Society: Mathematics Awareness Month - April

E-mail

I struggled with Math. I  had to go summer school in grades 11 and 12 to take Math (and English). Math is logic and rules. I put in high school year book,  in ambition and probable fate, to get a PhD in English and Math. As a training Industrial radiographer I had to learn different series of  time, distance and shielding using math.

Geoffrey Vale
Victoria, British Columbia

The absolute basics of math are not reinforced, so students are horribly disadvantaged in the world. We all know the young (and maybe not so young) cashier who cannot make change when the electronic cash register fritzes out. When I handed back quizzes in my university English classes--quizzes marked out of ten--quite a few students would whip out their calculators to determine the percentage. A young engineering student questioning his grade had no idea how to work out a percentage without using his calculator--I had to show him.

Most students will never need more than the basics of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, set theory, vectors, etc. They will need excellent mental arithmetic, a thorough understanding of banking, credit card company, and stock market practices, and training in financial responsibility. Most schools are teaching them nothing of the sort, so they are prey to the corporations, especially the credit corporations who rely upon their ignorance of compound interest.

Hilary Knight
Victoria, British Columbia

I was put into an advanced math program in 1958 taught by Mr. Batt. Future Engineers were going to be in great demand. The first thing he did for two weeks was to teach us English comprehension. How to read a math question. Periods and commas meant something and how to break down the question into manageable parts. Guess what. Our results soared.

Malcolm Barnes
North Vancouver, British Columbia

What I don't much understand Rex, is why kids in school don't start off counting money.  Every kid knows money by the time they are old enough to begin schooling. Then go from there...

Rick Weatherill
Victoria, British Columbia

The report by the Auditor-General reveals serious errors in the procurement process for Canada's hoped-for stealth fighter/bombers.
With the final price-tag now appearing much higher, the whole F-35 purchase is in doubt.

What's your reaction to the findings of the Auditor-General?

With host Rex Murphy.

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Introduction

The House of Commons has been in uproar all week with calls for the resignation of both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence. It's the fallout from a report released this past week by the Auditor General on the proposed purchase of a new generation of fighter jets for the Canadian Armed Forces.

Canada's Auditor General, Michael Ferguson looked into the various cost estimates floating around Ottawa, and he was quite blunt in his assessment that the Department of National Defence had not been completely forthcoming in its communication of the eventual total costs of Canada's planned purchase of 65 new jets. He also suggested that cabinet knew the total figure. The opposition accuses the government of actively and knowingly misleading both Parliament and the public by low-balling the costs ...because the full price would be politically unsellable.

The F-35 stealth fighter/bomber has been in the works since 1997 when 8 NATO countries including Canada pitched in together to develop a new plane that would carry them all into the future. The Joint Strike Fighter Program, as it was called, working with US manufacturer Lockheed Martin, would come up with a plane that was both cheaper and more sophisticated than if all the countries shopped around separately. It would have the added advantage of compatibility during allied combat missions.

Well the program is not unfolding competely as planned. Costs have been a constant concern, with some countries now looking to bail out on their commitments. Those same cost projections have become a political issue in Canada with the opposition saying the planes will be too expensive ...and too rich for Canada's needs. Critics said the cooperative process did not allow for competition to bring in lower cost options.

The government stance is that it is not a scandal because no money has been actually spent ...and the final costs are still just projections and therefore unknown. Furthermore the government agreed to change the procurement process in all the ways suggested by the Auditor General. The Minister of Defence Peter MacKay says the outrage is all over a $10-billion dollar gap and a misunderstanding between two different figures. One at $15-billion, the cost to acquire the planes ...and the other at $25-billion, which includes the $10-billion to cover operating costs, salaries and fuel for the 20 year life-span. He says it's the same $10-billion that the government is paying now for the existing fleet of CF-18s.

The cost of the planned purchase was an issue during the last election and the Conservatives used the lower figure as the extent of their projected commitment. The opposition said the figure was too low.

We want to hear what you think.

What is your reaction to the Auditor General's report? Do you support the idea that Canada needs to buy a new fleet of planes? Do you support the type chosen by the government? Do you think the government has been honest in communicating the details of the proposed purchase? What do you think of the opposition's call for the resignation of both the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister? Does the fact that no money has been spent mitigate the seriousness of the allegations? So long as the government follows the recommendations of the Auditor General in proceeding with the purchase will that ensure that everything is resolved ...or should some people lose their jobs over this?

Our question today: "What's your reaction to the Auditor-General's findings on the proposed F-35 fighter jet purchase?"

I'm Rex Murphy ...on CBC Radio One ...and on Sirius satellite radio channel 159 ...this is Cross Country Checkup.

Guests

• John Geddes
  Covers politics and policy for Maclean's magazine from Ottawa.
  
  
• David Bercuson
  Director, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, University and Senior Research Fellow at Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute (CDFAI).
  
  
• Elinor Sloan
  Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science, and former defence analyst with Canada's Department of National Defence and author of Modern Military Strategy published by Rutledge (2012).
  
  

• Canadians not misled on F-35 costs, Tory MP says
• MPs battle over F-35 fighter jet costs
• Tories rush to contain F-35 fallout: Government to set up new F-35 secretariat in response to report
• F-35's exorbitant cost clouds its future

• F-35 debacle sees Canadians nearly played for fools, by John Ivison
• Auditor-General's report shows flaw in Tories' reflex to never retreat or apologize, by John Ivison
• Tories freeze F-35 funds and open door to alternatives in wake of scathing AG report
• Editorial: F-35 was the right plane, but the wrong process

• Conservatives hit 'reset button' on plan to buy 65 fighter jets, by Daniel Leblanc
• Conservatives scramble to save face over fighter-jet plan
• F-35s needed to fight alongside allies, MacKay says
• Weighing the factors in buying a warplane, by Paul Koring
• Canada's long, troubled history with F-35 fighter jets

• The F-35s and other military procurement tales of horror, by John Geddes

• Time to add perspective to debate on F-35 jets, by Matthew Fisher
• Cabinet knew F-35's cost: auditor

• F-35 jet still popular with aerospace industry

• Peter MacKay on the F-35 - the full CTV QP Transcript

• 2012 Spring Report of the Auditor General of Canada: Chapter 2--Replacing Canada's Fighter Jets

The flawed process for acquiring the F-35 joint strike fighters has been known for some time to those who have been attentive to alternative media.

Apart from all the economic shenanigans, let's consider the item itself. As I understand it, the Lockheed Martin F-35 is a "first strike" stealth bomber, not an aircraft designed for defence. Similarly, although economically popular, the  $25 billion contract awarded to Halifax Shipyards is designated for "warships".

Isn't it time we renamed the Department of National Defence the "Department of War"? At least that would be truth in advertising.

Sue Adams
Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Many Canadians are wondering what our Prime Minister will do once he recovers from the shock of having F-35 egg-fool-dung smeared across his face. Rumour has it Harper is spending his Easter holidays drafting a memo for his hand-picked cabinet of yes-men. Apparently the memo will state in no uncertain terms what will happen to the next minister who gets caught screwing up and embarrassing Harper. That unfortunate minister will be spending the rest of his political career in northern Alberta, heading up a one-man environmental office mandated to monitor the tar sands development.

Lloyd Atkins
Vernon, British Columbia

Canadians cannot afford F-35s. This country cannot afford the insatiable appetites of the Department of Defence, and other government offices, to spend money. This country needs to cut such profiteering to the few, and seriously address where we can afford to spend money to benefit all. Perhaps on our future, like education. Perhaps more to our highly skilled, overworked and underpaid workforce. Perhaps more to the CBC, and perhaps more to let those who have already paid their dues retire in dignity, with their vacancies providing jobs for the younger generation. Even a few less F-35s (let alone a fleet) would go a long way toward financing such programs and a long way to reducing our crippling debt.

Paul Burris
Fall River, Nova Scotia

Why haven't we looked ten years ahead when UAV (unmanned aeial vehicle)  fighter jets will provide many times more maneuverable and cheaper fighter jets, that don't require all the expensive life support and protection systems of manned fighter jets? Will we have them first, or will the Chinese have ten times as many fighter jets with superior capabilities for less cost?

Malcolm Palmer
Edmonton, Alberta

Given the praise heaped on the recent purchase of billions (of dollars worth) of ships for the Navy and Coast Guard, why are these jets for the Air Force shrouded is so much smoke and mirrors? Too many people are trying very hard to not speak the whole truth on this issue. If it smells foul, flush it down the toilet.

Noel Roach
Toronto, Ontario

Harper's  majority government was elected under suspicious circumstances. That alone is enough to make me believe that he was capable of covering up the higher cost of the jets in order to get elected. If he really is an economist, he is either inept or he got caught in his deception of the Canadian public. Harper should resign.

Margaret Ouwehand
Kitimat, British Columbia

During the last election campaign (not very long ago), we were promised open, honest and transparent government by Mr. Harper and his colleagues. Recent events have clearly shown his government to be closed, dishonest and murky.
We were led (or misled) to expect better, not worse. Instead we've got even less than same old same old.

Walter Lutz
Coquitlam, British Columbia

I am mildly surprised at the levels of incompetence shown this week by the Conservative government, but not at all by the awkward silence of Peter Mackay nor the arrogance of the Prime Minister. Does anyone still think that Stephen Harper has any respect for democracy, or for the truth or for any point of view different from his own? Canada has sold its soul to Stephen Harper and he is remaking the Canadian soul in his own image. Yes, I think both he and the Minister of Defence should resign. But I don't think they will.
 
Leslie Hill
Vancouver, British Columbia

As a pilot who flew for eight years in the high arctic islands in the 1970s, the question I have about this purchase is this: What the heck are these people thinking? Why on Earth would we buy a single-engine aircraft for use in a country with such vast, unpopulated remote territory? Our search and rescue capabilities are one of the worst in the world, so how is the poor suck driving this weapon platform around northern Canada going to have any hope of surviving a punch out when it happens? Please note I said when, not if. To purchase a single-engine aircraft is beyond ridiculous. There are several multi-engine options availabe that would, in my mind, be far better choices. And don't get me started on the search and rescue aircraft replacement program.
 
Dennis Giraud
Vancouver, British Columbia

F-35's are a brand-new toy that the government wants to give to a small group of our fighting force. What I find disturbing is that when I questioned the purchase of this jet over purchasing safer ground vehicles for our troops in Afghanistan, I was told only that "We need these jets." and this was from Conservative politician, Conservative election staffers and Conservative voters and supporters. I personally believe that the Conservatives actually have no clue on what this country needs for its military.

Adam Riley
Dryden, Ontario

Does the military realise that in ten years time aircraft of this nature may be obsolete? Technology doubles its capability in several years. Their job may easily be overtaken by the drones that have been used so effectively in Afghanistan and the Quad Copters that were used in Libya. We do not need to, and cannot afford to, follow the U.S. lead. We need to look at what will serve Canada's needs. This can be done in a much more flexible and cost effective way.

Ivor Kopke
Brampton, Ontario

If F-18s are truly beyond or approaching their useful life, would we not get the latest version of the F-22 Raptor?

Steven Bowes
Grande Prairie, Alberta

You'd have to go back to Paul Martin's 1995 'come-hell-or-high-water' budget to find another one so anticipated. Expectations of a deep cutting austerity budget were everywhere. But when it was finally revealed, many wondered why all the concern.

What are your thoughts on the federal budget?

With host Rex Murphy.

Read more >>

Live Chat - Budget special

Guests and Links       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• Joe Oliver
  Canada's Minister of Natural Resources.
  
  
• Keith Ambachtsheer
  Adjunct Professor of Finance and Director of the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management at the University of Toronto.
  
  
• Paul Moist
  National President, Canadian Union of Public Employees(CUPE).
  
  
• Anne Golden
  President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada.
  
  

• Federal budget highlights
• Old Age Security changes confirmed in budget
• Budget shortens environmental review process
• Budget contains benefits for business
• The penny's days are numbered

• Budget 2012: A grand vision of still-big government, by John Ivison
• Federal budget kills the penny, cuts CBC spending
• Budget 2012 good news for Canada's oil sands, but environmentalists cry foul
• Breaking down Canada's 2012 budget into bite-size pieces, by Scott Stinson
• Fiscal fight left for another day, by Terence Corcoran
• Ten bucks say Harper balances the budget, McGuinty doesn't, by Kelly McParland
• Editorial: Budget puts Canada on the right fiscal track

• Budget 2012
• Editorial: A prudent, conservative budget from Harper and Flaherty
• From Harper's Tories, a budget that dials back the role of government
• Tory budget slashes $5.2-billion in spending, gives boomers a pass on OAS
• Ottawa clears hurdles to resource development
• Tories trim Aboriginal Affairs budget but find cash to boost education
• Deep cuts to military mark reversal for Harper
• CBC sees government funding slashed by $115-million
• Tories target lagging innovation with funding overhaul, by Barrie McKenna
• Small business group cheers budget's hiring credit, EI cap

• Harper's very political budget, by Paul Wells
• Responses to Budget 2012

• Flaherty delivers minority budget, by Michael Den Tandt

• Editorial: Federal budget: Lack of crisis dulls the axe

• MPs' gold-plated pensions untouched by budget, no change before next election
• Mulcair issues two budget messages: one to Quebecers, one to Canadians

• Editorial: Budget proves to be non-event

• Editorial: The pro-pipeline federal budget

• Tories careful not to cut against public opinion, by Barbara Yaffe

The New Democratic Party of Canada has chosen a new leader ...Thomas Mulcair automatically becomes the Leader of the Official Opposition and by some estimates also the unofficial Prime Minister-in-waiting.

What's your reaction? What does it mean for the future of the party?

With host Rex Murphy.

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Introduction

The leadership race for the New Democratic Party of Canada was a long one as far as those kind of races go, but last night it finally produced a winner: Quebec MP Thomas Mulcair.

He won after balloting that went all day and well into Saturday evening. He fought against the perception that he was an outsider who wants to lead the party away from its roots and traditions. Before the convention, in a move that belied the much-mentioned friendly nature of the campaign, NDP elder statesman Ed Broadbent came out firmly against Mr Mulcair suggesting that the former Quebec Liberal is intent on taking the party away from its traditions.

Well, Thomas Mulcair won, despite the knock from the party establishment, and many say he is exactly what the NDP needs to take it to the next level of achievement: government. They've been the third party for so long that to get within striking distance of forming the government means a few changes for the party.

Is Thomas Mulcair the man to do it? The biggest challenge -- as it is for any party -- is to attract enough supporters and voters to win an election. Are they now election ready?

In the last election the NDP surprised many by winning the battle for Quebec, and that support vaulted them into the role of Official Opposition in Parliament. Will that support hold, and can it be extended further into Ontario, and both the East and the West?

We'd like to hear what you think? What do you think of the new leader? Was there anyone else who impressed you during the campaign and at the convention? And if you watched the convention ...what did you think of the one-member one-vote system for choosing a party leader. Is that something that all parties should use? Is the party now in better shape to keep the Liberals at bay and close on the Conservatives?

But our first question for today is: "What does new NDP leader Thomas Mulcair mean for the future of the party?"

I'm Rex Murphy ...on CBC Radio One ...and on Sirius satellite radio channel 159 ...this is Cross Country Checkup.

Guests

• John Ivison
  National Affairs columnist for the National Post.
  
  
• Anne Lagacé Dowson
  Montreal columnist and broadcaster with CJAD, Hour magazine, and Radio Canada Montrea, and a one-time NDP candidate in the 2008 federal election.
  
  
• Barbara Yaffe
  National political columnist, Vancouver Sun.
  
  
• Robin Sears
  Veteran political strategist, now a public affairs consultant with Navigator Ltd. and a regular contributor to Policy Options magazine.
  
  

• Mulcair bests Topp to win NDP leadership
• Caucus unity a priority for next NDP leader, Turmel says
• NDP leadership vote has Liberals watching
• What you need to know about the NDP leadership vote
• NDP leadership quest has promise and peril, poll suggests

• Former MP says for Quebec, NDP must choose Mulcair
• Layton's legacy casts long shadow for NDP

• The NDP's question is the Quebec question
• The New Democrats have no shot, kumbaya, by Margaret Wente
• All parties have a stake in the NDP leadership race, Lawrence Martin
• Who can recast the NDP for Canada? Mulcair, by Jeffrey Simpson

• Yaffe: Liberals, NDP inch closer together
• Questions surround Mulcair's temperament, positions
• Yaffe: NDP, Liberal policies tough sell in post-recession era

• The NDP and the oilsands: Leadership hopefuls have made their rhetoric less scary

• Pauline Marois hoping Thomas Mulcair loses NDP leadership race, by Chantal Hébert

• The Carnival Mirror, by Robin V. Sears
• Tar Sands: Dirty oil and the future of a country, by Thomas Mulcair

• Leadership Race Candidates

E-mail

Sorry, but I don't think that Mr. Mulcair (or, should I say Monsieur Mulcair?) is really going to catch on outside of Quebec (OK, maybe in parts of Ontario, but not elsewhere).

The Canadian people are, for the most part, tired of Quebec controlling the agenda.  Couple that with Mr. Mulcair's previous comments that the Tran-Canada Highway in Quebec, along with airports in that province, should have French-only signs and you have the recipe for a failure to connect with most Canadians.  And I am certain that the Conservatives will waste no time at all in attacking him on those fronts.

I have been a federal Liberal for most of my life, but did not vote for them in the last election (nor did I support the Conservatives).  I support the NDP here in BC, but have not been terribly enamoured with the federal NDP.  Certainly the election of Mr. Mulcair is not going to aid in bringing me under their tent.

John Merzetti
Vancouver, British Columbia

I moved to Mulcair after Peggy Nash dropped off. He is in my view the best option to retain Quebec support. And again in my view, by far the best equiped New Democrat to take on Harper, i believe he will do well.

I predict that the caucus and all members will get behind the new leader, though there are some divisions. I was at the convention and while it was a long day, it was exciting.

Finally, I predict he will connect with Canadians, I believe he is the last person that the Conservatives and Liberals wanted to face.

Game on towards 2015!

Paul Moist
Ottawa, Ontario

I think this is a very good move for Canada.

I did not approve of the "establishment" bitterness in opposing Mr. Mulcair in the person of ex-leader Ed Broadbent. I think this is the first sign that the NDP is going to separate itself from union control and interference. The young people of Quebec that decided to embrace the party for the first time, if lucky to be employed, will probably never be members of a union and in this day and age a very small minority of people that are part of organized labour should not have control or veto over the progressive thinking Canadian majority.

Brant Luney
Campbell River, British Columbia

I voted online. I'm not a strategic voter but I did find it exciting to vote in the various rounds. I was surprised to learn that 50,000 or so had voted in the preferential voting so you knew that your vote wasn't necessarily counting for much. Nor was the floor crossing going to affect too much.

I think Mulcair has the presence and proven track record to pull the party together. Accused of being a strong personality but I think that's what is needed. Someone with conviction. I hope we'll be able to appeal to the Greens.

We can learn a lot from the fact that Topp under performed according to expectations and Nathan Cullen over- performed. Folks thought his proposal would be too controversial but I think it demonstrated that appreciated his human face and the absolute clarity in his strategy.

Nanci Lee
Halifax, Nova Scotia

I have been listening to the program this afternoon and I'm dismayed that no one has mentioned Atlantic Canada even once!  There are many disenfranchised Liberals living in the Atlantic Provinces who desperately want a leader who can take up our cause.  It will be interesting to see if Mulcair can build some interest here.  In my home province  of NB we are concerned about our aging  and declining population, the youth out migration, our huge provincial debt, jobs (the lack there of)  and the environment.  It would be nice if Mulcair would take a keen interest in our neck of the woods and give us a reason to vote NDP.

Jody Gorham
Fredericton, New Brunswick

The reasonable man finds the Conservative reaction disgusting and not very conducive to the future of discussion in politics. Rather than welcoming  and congratulateing the new leader and hopefully the next prime minister, the Conservative party elected to call Thomas Mulcair and opportunist with a high tax agenda. If that isn't calling the kettle black, Mr. Harper, it comes pretty close. What a bunch of cowards and bullies throwing their collective weight around. Is there anyone in the Conservative party with some manners?

Jim Van Horn
Kaslo, British Columbia

Yesterday's NDP leadership convention was an encouraging experience and ultimately led me to the conclusion that Mulcair is larger than the sum of the parts (politically-speaking et al) now being ascribed to him.

However, the reservations I had about Mulcair were cast aside hearing & watching his post-win interview with CBC's Peter Mansbridge & CTV Question Period's Craig Oliver. And reflecting on his historic NDP win in the traditionally Liberal riding of Outremont.
 
I think the NDP is in good hands, has a very sure-footed strategic and forward-looking visionary person at the helm & will be a brilliantly effective "conciliator" in unifying his Party, in giving Harper & Co. one helluva run for their money -- & along with Bob Rae will have the Conservatives on the ropes & off their game most of the time, Which in my view, means both Quebec & Canada win.
 
Mary C. Kelly
Toronto, Ontario

As an Albertan who considers himself more fiscally responsible vs conservative, I found a comment made by one of your callers to be THE key to the NDP's only chance of power. That comment, to paraphrase, was that social programs are nice IF they can be delivered without incurring debt. For too long the NDP delivered a message of tax the rich, tax corporations. With the shift of economic power to the west the NDP will need to continue to move towards the centre if they want a chance @ power. They HAVE replaced the Liberals as an alternative to the Conservatives. Now they have to find a formula that can appeal to East and West.

Mark Oxamitny
Medicine Hat, Alberta

As a Liberal, I'm happy to have Mulcair as the NDP leader, especially since he can fluently communicate in both languages. We need both him and Rae attacking the Conservatives. I don't think the Liberals and NDP should merge; I think they would make a great coalition government. Then neither party has to give up its main principles.

I really liked Nathan Cullen - who wouldn't? - but believe he may not yet be ready for primetime - I believe he will be the party's future.

Janet Chriest
Calgary, Alberta

I've always been a liberal at heart but have always had to vote NDP to elect a member to the House. In the next election I would like to be able to vote for one party - the party of Lester Pearson and Tommy Douglas; John Turner and the Lewises: Lloyd Axworthy and Ed Broadbent; Stephane Dion and Jack Layton and, I hope, Bob Rae and Thomas Mulcair.

Tom Forge
Campbell River, British Columbia

His old-school brand of politics did him in. I recently joined the NDP after years of vascillating between them and Liberals because of the 1 member 1 vote process -- what a great concept! However, as soon as I joined, my local riding association decided to endorse Brian Topp and tried to convince me to do the same and I kept getting robo calls from Ed Broadbent and Brian Topp, and that turned me off. I followed Brian during the debates and appreciated his point of view but felt he didn`t come across as a modern NDP-er and instead clung to old style NDP rhetoric. Not having a seat also did him in as the membership wisely realized that we`re in opposition now and have to hit the ground running on Monday.

Betty Chou
Hamilton, Ontario

I was at the NDP Convention. I live in David and Dalton McGuinty's riding and I've been happy with their representation, but my community association and school activities (I teach ESL to newcomer adults) have brought me into contact with Paul Dewar. He was my choice going into the convention and I was disappointed that he didn't fare better on the first ballot. I decided to support Nathan Cullen because I agree with his idea to rally together the 60% of Canadians who didn't want a Harper government and are very unhappy with the Conservative agenda and policies. Nathan had a great speech on Friday. Very forthright, pragmatic and charismatic. At the end, I decided to select Thomas Mulcair because he had a very effective, well-organized team supporting him. He's drawn together a broad cross-section of supporters and his track record of getting elected in Quebec and being a combative politician will serve him very well as he faces off against Harper and his nasty minions. And that is really what separates him from Brian Topp. I heard numerous delegates voice concerns about Topp's lack of a seat and lack of experience as a candidate. I fear Topp would have been branded negatively by the Tories before he had a chance to brand himself and I didn't want to see a repeat of the disaster that Liberals experienced with Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. I was very impressed by the people I met at the convention. NDPers today are definitely not the the starry-eyed socialists they may have been back in the '70s. Very pragmatic, reasonable folks. I think the party has a glorious opportunity now to gain support from across the progressive political spectrum. Can't wait for the next federal election!

Colin MacLean
Ottawa, Ontario 

In the past, the government has shown a willingness to intervene or even legislate ...but is that fair?
Should Air Canada employees be allowed to strike?

With host Rex Murphy. 

Read more...                                                             Blog entry by Gordie Wornoff

Thanks to everyone who participated in our online chat experiment and for the feedback to help us it a even better experience for next time.

Guests and Links      Mail       Download mp3 (right click and choose 'Save Target As')    

Listen here:

Guests

• Lisa Raitt
  Canada's Minister of Labour
  
  
• Dave Ritchie
  General V-P International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW),
  
  
• Duncan Dee
  Air Canada Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer.
  
  
• Rick Erickson
  Calgary-based aviation consultant and principal of RFP Erickson and Associates.
  
  
• Paul Moist
  National President, Canadian Union of Public Employees.

• Ottawa plans Air Canada back-to-work bill
• Air Canada stoppage during March Break averted
• Government's recent labour interventions highly unusual, experts say
• The changing face of Canadian unions
• Air Canada pilots brace for low-cost fight

National Post

• Ottawa steps in to block Air Canada labour disruption
• Ottawa had to step into Air Canada dispute to shield economy, says Harper

Globe and Mail

• Labour Minister blocks Air Canada work stoppage
• Memo to Lisa Raitt: Stay out of Air Canada's business
• I like my Air Canada pilots, mechanics to be happy on the job, by Michael Babad

Maclean's

• Why it's okay to intervene in Air Canada's labour dispute

Toronto Star

• Ottawa abuses the law by forestalling Air Canada strike

Gordie Wornoff, 31, (BJ,'05, Carleton) is thrilled to be a production assistant on CBC's Cross Country Checkup. He is a writer and woodworker living in Toronto. He specializes in reclaimed materials and artistic furniture designs. His carpentry work can be seen on Discovery Channel's "Junk Raiders," now in its third season. 

Gordie Wornoff writes on one of the lesser known consequences of the Air Canada labour dispute:

Adrienne Rosen, owner of First International Courier in Toronto, worries that Air Canada's simmering and still unresolved labour dispute could quickly chop her profits and force her to go out-of-pocket to keep clients happy.

"We really rely on Air Canada," she says. "They offer a special level of service for people like me."

Rosen is constantly monitoring Air Canada's operational systems for delays that will directly impact her cargo service which moves about a hundred packages per day; three quarters containing medical-related supplies.

 
"Even if Air Canada experiences a simple mechanical problem, we are looking for a plan B," she says, explaining that a potential strike action of 8600 mechanics, grounds crew and baggage handlers and 3000 pilots would be devastating to her business and to the Canadian public.

Rosen ships items like temperature sensors, vaccines, MRI parts, imaging parts, industrial machinery parts, organs and bloodwork every day on a "next flight out, time-critical" basis.  Her company was responsible for delivering the H1N1 vaccine a few years ago. "Imagine if there would have been a strike then," she says.

 
Rosen's operation depends on Air Canada's Expedair service which allows her fleet to drop off or pick up any cargo within an hour of touchdown.  "We don't have a lot of choices," she says.  "A 300% premium guarantees it will fly on a particular flight."

Air Canada's main Canadian competitor, WestJet, offers a similar passenger service.  However, WestJet's cargo services are outsourced to a third party cargo sales company.
"There are no guarantees of flight-specifics, no way of tracking and no level of security," Rosen says. "Air Canada is really it."

Air Canada is the default carrier for most Canadian high-priority parcels and a strike  would disrupt the economy, jamming deliveries nationwide, explains Felix Leung, owner of Toronto-based Air Logistics Services Inc., which transports medical-related cargo such as blood and organs. A strike action would "really affect the timing of our deliveries," he says, adding that his company is already looking into buying space on planes operated by FedEx and Purolator. 

 
"There are so many modes of transport in Canada," argues Canadian Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union head, Dave Ritchie,  "you've got trucking, rail, other air carriers, ships and helicopters. He says the fragile economy is no excuse to force back-to-work legislation, explaining that a damp economy leaves cargo bays in airplanes with more room than ever.

 
A worker's strike "would just mean that people would have to rearrange things - Don't forget Air Canada belongs to an alliance," he says, mentioning the Star Alliance Network, a global umbrella organization consisting of over 25 international airlines.

 
"The Star Alliance is working closely with each other so if one carrier is down, the others pick up the slack," says Ritchie.

 
Carlos DaCosta, Transportation Coordinator at IAMAW, says there are about a thousand unionized Air Canada cargo handlers across Canada affected by the legislation. 
The majority of the cargo handlers work on the tarmac and conveyor belts and the rest work as cargo agents at service counters in airports.

 
DaCosta says there are 17 airlines in Canada to choose from including helicopter couriers who routinely fly cargo out of Sault Ste. Marie to "anywhere in the bush."

He says the Tories have "saddled Air Canada with labour relations issues that won't go away for four years...what is that going to do for the prosperity of Air Canada?"

A strike at Air Canada could actually boost sales for other, smaller carriers.  Yukon's Air North President, Joe Sparling, says a strike at Air Canada could bring an increase in business for him.  His air fleet is the primary cargo carrier for northwestern communities including Edmonton, Vancouver, Whitehorse and Inuvik.

 
"Most northern capitals are not serviced by Air Canada cargo-wise at all," he says.

 
"There are very few communities with no other option," he says, wondering "why back-to-work legislation is even necessary."

 
"Air Canada has successfully established itself as a carrier that the government is not going to let fail or falter," he says.

 
Lloyd Meekis, a ground worker and cargo handler at Wasaya Airways in Thunder Bay, Ontario says they rely "very little" on Air Canada for bringing goods up from Southern Ontario to be ferried further north by his company.

It's the same story for Connie Tamoto, Manager of Communications at the North West Company which runs the largest retail operations in Canada's rural north.

 
In the case of an Air Canada strike "it would be business as usual," she says. "We're not affected at all." 

Despite being a "100% union woman," Adrienne Rosen says she feels torn, but must support the government back-to-work legislation.

 
"It's critical for essential services," she says of Air Canada.  "There's not enough people to have another national carrier," she says.

 
"Canada is vast and we need to service it."