Lets do this in chronological order

8 years ago: Had a physical done, nothing special came of it
7 years ago: Family doctor moved to the other end of town, a 1 hour drive when there is no traffic
7 years ago: Attempted to get new doctor and not allowed by Canada’s health care system – If you have a doctor, you cant get another, there is a doctor shortage
7 – 1 year ago: Been going to a walk-in clinic when ever I needed to see the Doc, every time I am asked, who is your family doctor, I say, its doctor XYZ, and my file at the doc is updated
1 year ago: I tore my achilles tendon, had surgery, followed up with surgeon, did not see my family doctor, no need to go across the universe when I am dealing with the surgeon direct
2 month ago: Needed to get a test done, called walk-in clinic, got appointment, went, waited a few hours, saw doc for 5 minutes, super rushed, no time to talk, did test, and waited 2 weeks for the results. Was told I was lucky to get them that fast, good news (no issues).
2 weeks ago: Decided to finally go see my Doc for a general check up.
2 Weeks ago: Called for appointment, and Doc said. You have not been here in our office for more than 5 years, you are no longer our patient
2 weeks ago: I asked where are my files? We don’t have any files for you. What happened to all the health records I have been send you for 8 years now? We reject them, we have no history on you. 8 years, poof, gone…..
2 weeks ago: Attempted to get a new family doctor.
2 weeks ago: Finding new doctor, no possible, there are no doctors available

So here I am, no medical history, no doctor, must go on a waiting list….. In the mean time, go to a clinic or emergency room.

1 week ago: We got a cat, our neighbor’s dog found her, and our neighbor asked if we wanted her, yes was the answer, we got a cat, called her Stella

1 week ago: Called a vet ( A private service in Canada), appointment was set up for the same day

1 week ago: Stella got a doctor who gave her a FULL 1 hour checkup, shots, full test, results in for all the work by the second day.

1 week ago: Stella got an online user id/password where we can go online and check her test results, track her history, and in case we decide to go to a different vet, move her profile and not a single piece of data is lost.

Canada is the only country that treats cats and dogs better than humans. The fact that I can not get health care and my cat can is a big failure in human care. Sad for a country that claims to be the beacon of Human rights in this world. I know social nut jobs say we need a single payer system, but please justify why my cat can get health care on demand but not me?

Canada also happens to be the only country, where you can not purchase a legally available service with your own money. Money that you legally earned, paid taxed on, and saved. In Canada you can buy pot with your money, you can do/buy a lot of illegal/under the table things with your money. You can waste it all at the casino, you can spend $500000 on a car if you want, you can do it all, except the one thing that is the most important to you, your family, and your existence, look after your health.

Canada, in the words of twitter. #fail #doublefail, #triplefail

                          

For people like me, not born in Canada, the images that come to mind when someone learns of Canada as an outsider are, a Mountie, a Lumber Jack, a Fisherman (including ice fisherman) etc…. Hard working, working against all odds. Damn it, its -40 degrees and still outside chopping down a tree

What is happening to this hard working nation is puzzling. It has now come to be acceptable that hard work, skill, achievement, are all wrong and must be punished. We see it in sports. It has to be fair they say, everyone gets a chance. Ok fine, that’s why there are different leagues and levels, if your kid is not ready for prime time, let them play in an entry league. It was bad enough that a school in Ottawa does not permit blocking in the game of basketball so that every one has a chance to score.

Give everyone a chance that is fine. But the latest edition is concerning. According to the league rules for Dragons soccer in Ottawa Canada, the Nations proud capital. You are not allowed to win and run up to score beyond 6 goals. That is fine, mercy rules have been in place in the past and are the right thing to do if the game is not close, why rub it in. However according to the rules:

Respect your opponent: do not run up the score. and then it gets better “To prevent running up the score, a five-goal differential is the maximum allowed. If at the end of a game there is more than a 5 goal difference in the score, the team that scored over 5 goals will have the results recorded as a loss when the game is recorded at the office.”

www.dragonsoccer.ca/handbook/2010%20Handbook%20ENG.pdf Read them for yourself.

WHAT? If you win by a lot you lose? WHAT? What does this say to our kids? Winning, being good is not only not welcome, its punishable? Don’t win kids, winning is bad, because if you win you are going to get punished? It says don’t work hard, don’t build skill. Just be average, actually forget average, all you have to be in life sun is pretty bad, because the worse you are, the more likely someone else will be punished for it, and you will just be ok.

Screw that, if that is what we are teaching kids now, Canada will not be competitive in the long run and we are going to breed a new generation. Forget Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Whatever. Canada’s next generation if this continues is Gen L. A bunch of losers

Bravo. Kumbaya.

                          

I am not going to ask you for money, I am not asking you to fill a petition, I am going to ask you however to read this, think it through and comment.

Lets get to the point. We all, people and governments have failed and failed tremendously at helping people who need our help the most. Its 2009, how could the world be so blind and oblivious to world?

I will pick on Canada, because I am Canadian, but Canada is no different from any other wealthy nation, I bet you the stats I will be providing you shortly are the same for any G20 country.

The great white north, Canada the beautiful, Canada the resourceful, Canada the great, and yes Canada the cheap. Canada established a foreign aid policy some 40 years ago stating that Canada will contribute 0.7 of a %percent of GDP in Foreign aid every year.

Canada has FAILED to meet its commitment every year ever since.

Here is what is shocking and sad, lets take 2006 for example. In 2006 Canada  contributed 0.28 of a percent of its GDP on Foreign aid, or 3.1 Billion. In the mean time and in the same year Canadians  spent more than 4 Billion on PETS, 1.3 Billion alone on Pet Food. So there you have it folks. Canada and Canadians, spends more on dogs than on ending poverty. Bravo Canada. Same goes for every other G20 country.

I am not criticizing or passing judgement on pet owners. I understand the attachment and benefit that comes from having a pet. I am simply drawing out an observation, Surly as a society we can do better than we have so far.

All it takes is 30 Billion a year to end poverty, 4% of the bailout folks. For sure that is less than what the G20 spends on Pet food. What is the solutions? Need your feedback please. Pet owners chime in.

Should we force governments to contribute an amount equal to the amount spent on respective pet industries? Other suggestions?

                          

I am Canadian who travels to the USA quite a lot, enough for it to make sense for me to purchase an Air Card where I can surf the web in the US from where ever. The $60 I pay a month for the service is cheaper than what I would pay monthly in airports, hotels,  Starbucks etc…

When I went sign up for the AirCard, I had a heck of a time, first I am Canadian, 2nd I dont have credit history with ATT, and 3rd I dont have an Social Security Number. The SSN was really the main issue because ATT was willing to sell me whatever I wanted and sign me up in a contract if I was willing to pay $500 upfront (which i happily did, I understand). But boy it took almost 3 hours and many calls to head office to figure out how to bypass the system and sell to someone without a SSN.

I had problems with my AirCard, and called ATT customer service, and you know this is normal for all big companies you get forwarded around from one department to the other to sort things out. That i expected and it did not bug me, what bugged me was that  every time I was passed around, the first question was, what is you SSN. MY SSN? to get tech support? MY SSN to get ATT to trouble shoot a problem come on, and every time I had a hard time because I did not have an SSN.

There has to be a better way. I know what works in Europe may not work in Canada, and what works for Canada does not work for the US, but… There is no way anyone in Europe will give out their SSN equivalent to get tech support. In Canada, there is no way, you will get asked for your SIN (SSN equivalent) to get service, as a matter of fact, in Canada new privacy laws (PIPEDA) stipulate that you dont even have to give your SIN for anything including credit application (except for tax purposed). The law states that there is other ways for verifying someone credit worthiness. As a matter of fact, if a company asks you for SIN, you have the right to deny, and they do not have the right to reject your application on that basis.

I believe its time for the US to move to a system similar to PIPEDA in Canada where simple service can be achieved without handing anyone your most personal information. A SSN is not to be taken lightly, but these days more people are asking for it and I am affraid many just give it up. I think the public will be on board, i conducted a small survey, and 86% of the respondents either indicated that they refuse to give their SSN or are uncomfortable with it.

There is a better way. but who will lead the way?