Thursday, November 26, 2009

Canada: Still Laughing At Us, And With Good Reason

Maybe our neighbors up north are trying to do us a favor and all, but it was distressingly easy for Canadian comic Mary Walsh to take up her Marg Delahunty persona (you know, Canada's answer to Stephen Colbert) and punk Moose Lady into saying Canada should dismantle a health care system that's light-years ahead of what we have here.
The action was documented on Tuesday night’s “This Hour Has 22 Minutes,” but four days later, Walsh was still marvelling at her close encounter with one of the most controversial politicians on the planet.
“We told her we’re from Canada, and we’re just looking for a few words of encouragement for the Canadian conservatives who have worked so tirelessly to destroy the socialized medicare that we have,” Walsh recalled Tuesday from St. John’s.

“Four huge big burly guys started pushing, and I pushed back, but I got her attention, and she told us to keep the faith, something like that, and said we’re all trying for the same thing.”

After being kicked out of the book-signing, Walsh and her crew then waited outside at a loading dock close to where Palin’s bus was parked. When Palin emerged from the Borders bookstore, Walsh said, Delahunty — dressed in a more toned-down version of her trademark warrior princess costume — called out to her.
“Hey, remember us, we’re the Canadians! We came all the way here from Canada!” Delahunty yelled. “When we asked you that question, we didn’t hear your answer.”

Palin strolled over, looking down on Walsh and her crew to tell them that “Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”

“Basically, she said government should stop doing the work that private enterprise should do,” Walsh said.
It's mind-numbing how ignorant Palin is about anything not involving GOP talking points and field-dressing ruminants.  Out of the 19 wealthiest countries on earth, we have the worst health care.  Dead last.  19 out of 19.  The other 18 countries haven't exploded yet into fireballs of socialist anarchy.  What they do have is universal coverage.  Canada in particular has a Medicare for all type system where basic care is guaranteed and private insurance picks up the rest.  It's a pretty good system (they're ranked number 6 by the way) and it's the kind of system that would work here.

But not if you're Moose Lady.  No, they should dismantle it and have free market stuff like we do.

I'm sure they'll get right on that.

1 comment: