Debbie Doubletalk's Dismal Developments

Life sure is tough when you're Dalton McGuinty's Health Minister. At first you think, "Oh wow, I'm helping sick people get well and they'll all love me for it!" but nobody ever tells you that sick people are always wanting things. Always complaining about "wait times" this and "ER lineups" that.

The nerve of these ingrates! You're spending all kinds of money that you don't have trying to keep the system from collapsing entirely and they're not happy. Sure, you try and distract them by talking about how it's all Mike Harris' fault and how we don't want "U.S. style healthcare" here, but that doesn't always work, and when you complain to your boss, he's all like, "There's definitely more to be done!"

So all you can do is put on a happy face and bravely soldier on, ignoring the abyss before you. Debbie Doubletalk is a whiz at this, but deluding yourself only gets you so far. This week, we had:

-The ongoing saga of Jill Anzarut, the mom who can't get a breast cancer drug because her tumour is too small. Ombudsman Andre Marin is investigating, which is always bad news for the government. For her part, Debbie Doubletalk said she wouldn't help Anzarut get the drug, then she said she would. I guess health policy can be determined by what shows up on the front page.

-There was some unpleasantness are the Ontario College of Denturists this week- it appears that "improper comments were made by the regulatory board regarding race, religion and sex."

-There was also some unpleasantness with the Niagara Health Service interfering with local hospitals and closing maternity wards. A whole bunch of local mayors, city councillors, and Liberal MPP Kim Craitor (!!!!!) complained to the government.

Debbie Doubletalk ordered an investigation into the College of Denturists, but not into the NHS, suggesting that so long as your local healthcare bureaucrats aren't making overtly racist comments, things are generally OK.

-Meanwhile, just down the 401, enough Winsdorians have gotten mad at Dalton and his collaboration with paid-up Liberal donor/"developer" Lou Vozza that Deb Matthews axed.....someone who isn't Vozza. "No reason was given" for the dismissal, so I guess you can make your own up. Mine would be that someone didn't pay their protection fees this month.

If Deb Matthews doesn't stop this bleeding soon, Dalton will have to give her the boot just like he did with Smitherman and David Caplan, and then we'll have an epidemic of failed Liberal health ministers in Ontario.