Went to see Sicko. No, this is not a review. If you’re like most of us and appreciate the magnificent benefits of Medicare go and see it. The movie will reinforce you. If you’re like some I know who think the American system is better, go and see it. It may help to clear your mind. If you’re among those who want to privatize our system go soak your head in logic. Private enterprise should be about creating capital, not sucking off the public tit.
Back in July 1962 I did a stint at the Montreal bureau of United Press International. As an editor, my job was to process copy that came in from all points in the country and file it on the national and international wires. The missives from Regina and Saskatoon sizzled with acrimony.
The CCF (NDP) provincial government of Tommy Douglas had embroiled the province in considerable debate because it had imposed a government sponsored health care system on its innocent constituents. Doctors, insurance and drug companies, others in business, and the media allied with them, vehemently opposed the system with much the same foolish arguments that we hear being peddled south of the border today.
The propaganda was so intense that the CFF (NDP) was turfed out in the next elections. When the shock was over, and common sense prevailed, the birthmother of Canada’s Medicare was voted back in and with an exception or two run things in Saskatchewan to this day.
One of the most bizarre allegations made by the opponents of Medicare was that it was a Communist plot to undermine the moral fibre of the country. Today it is amazing that anyone could say something so foolish and be taken seriously. But then there was much nodding of heads. The claim was as silly then as it would be if one were to say today that True North is part of a Communist conspiracy. The difference is that in 1962 there would be enough paranoids excited by the Cold War to give it weight; today, the response would be something like, nudge-nudge-wink-wink, what Communists?
We have an interesting piece by the redoubtable Christopher Hitchens. He deals with the new doctor’s plot in England and Scotland. He writes of the Hippocratic Oath, doctors of the right, doctors of the left, and this new crop of medical fanatics. Don’t miss it.
There’s much more but I’ll sign off by referring once again to Michael Moore. You’ll find an item below about Moore making a $12,000 donation to a blogger who has consistently attacked him. I don’t recall that until now we’ve made comment one way or the other about the filmmaker but considering the above mention today perhaps he could send True North a $12,000 cheque just to reinforce our good will. $12,000 would make a night and day difference in the publishing of True North Perspective. Heck even a couple of dollars would help.
Looking forward
Carl Dow
Editor and Publisher
True North Perspective