CHP
Commentary

​Today the Liberal Finance Minister unveiled a budget that predictably ratcheted up the red ink on the ledger, revealing a $29.4 billion deficit, while claiming to be fulfilling the expectations of the Canadian people who elected Mr. Trudeau and the Liberal team.

When we think of healthcare and preventive strategies to improve health outcomes, we usually think of habits and substances that directly impact physical health—things like smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, high-sugar diets, fast-foods and junk-foods, lack of exercise, exposure to the elements, poor ventilation, inadequate sleep and poor hygiene.

A state of emergency was recently called in a First Nations community in Northern Manitoba. Rampant suicide has devastated this community, and they are calling out for help to stop this tragic trend.

​It’s impossible to avoid. If you’re interested in world affairs and are following developments in the nation to our south, you must have an opinion or at least an impression of the brash and bombastic Donald Trump. From the first news stories of the billionaire businessman’s run for the presidency, his unpredictable, off-the-cuff remarks have been front page news and oft-retweeted soundbites.

It’s been 28 years since the Supreme Court of Canada took away a woman’s right to choose. Oh, somebody framed the argument well: “A woman has the right to choose what happens to her body.” What they haven’t said is that you only have the right if you choose to kill your baby.

​While travelling on the connecting flight to Vancouver this morning, my plane hit a patch of what is euphemistically called “turbulence.” We dropped suddenly, “fetched up” abruptly, the plane shuddered violently, and then we continued on our course.

Imagine paying no interest on a mortgage . . . no interest on a car loan, no interest on a farm! Imagine the possibilities!

​As I write this, Canada—under the direction of our new Prime Minister— is hurriedly preparing to welcome Syrian refugees by the tens of thousands and Canadian military bases are being turned into domestic refugee camps.

​Shakespeare’s famous line, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” may be true as regards the perception of our physical world by our senses but the descriptive terms used to categorize human behaviours certainly affect our attitudes towards those being described.

It’s a non-negligible amount of work to read the news sometimes. There’s not only watching for media bias and looking for “the spin,” there’s also watching for misleading words that misdirect us as to various mis-implications in the article.

Alberta has recently released its new mandatory guidelines on sexual diversity in schools. NDP Education Minister David Eggen said the new guidelines ensure the “safety” of transgendered students.

In any great endeavour—such as running a country—people want to know how much is being accomplished. In Canada today, it behoves us to also find out how much is being “un-accomplished.”