Health Care Reform and Global Warming (and my hero Rex Murphy)

This posting could more correctly be titled “In Defence of Rex Murphy” but that would surely confuse my attempt to deal with the issues raised by Dorsal. For that rebuttal it is first necessary to redefine the ground rules here. You, Dorsal, are the Conservative which makes you more closely aligned with the US equivalent, a Republican. I, Andy Hardy, am a Liberal making me more like a US Democrat. I have stayed left of centre in my politics. You have come in from right field to take a position as second baseman putting yourself precisely in the centre of political policy thinking. As a result we find ourselves agreeing on the issue of US health care reform and applauding the Democrats for having pushed this admittedly, watered down version through the house. (Some how this doesn’t seem right but I did love the Sarah Palin line.) Before we leave the issue of health care reform in the US let me just say that I, like most Canadians am a huge fan of Obama and am elated that this victory will give his Presidency a huge and much needed boost.



But since we seem to agree on this point lets go back to the issue of who we are on this blog. (Or, if not exactly who we are, the way we lean politically)

For you it must be confusing, now that your neo-cons are acting more like Jack Layton’s band of “merry men”.


A Canadian Conservative

• Believes in: less government, lower taxes, fiscal prudence, traditional family values, tough crime legislation, a strong military, is pro business but cool to spending on social programs and support for the arts , unquestioning support of Israel, selective support for our Olympians, strong support for a restrictive immigration policy and in general a “no nonsense” approach to the business of government.


A Canadian Liberal

• Believes in: a strong central government that plays a major role in the day-to-day running of the country, taxes as high as voters will tolerate, a reasonably generous fiscal policy, any form of family you want, more emphasis on addressing social issues and the rehabilitation of criminals than on punishment, minimal military spending, more labour friendly than pro business, good support for the arts and meagre but adequate support for all our Olympians, an open immigration policy, conditional support for Israel, and, in general a more creative but sometimes controversial approach to governing our country


Unfortunately neither of our major parties addresses policy decisions relating to issues that go further out in time than the next election – witness our run - away health care costs and the reluctance of any party to even discuss the tough medicine that will be required to reign in these costs.


So Dorsal, that’s where we are supposed to line up and traditionally, that’s where your thoughts have been – are you possibly reconsidering your loyalties?

And now let’s address the issue of Rex Murphy and global warming. You do not know it but I have been involved in a heated exchange on another blog site with a radical climate change activist who pilloried my Rex for his scepticism about the science of global warming. In that sense I guess you could say that I too have moved to the centre. And all that happened prior to the debacle of East Anglia and the bogus science involved in the discredited report about the melting of the Himalayan glaciers. However, climate change is not just about global warming and I still believe strongly that we are at least contributing to the problem and that our politicians are playing Ostrich on an issue where we can’t afford to be wrong.

By coincidence Captain Ferg sent me an e mail yesterday asking me if I wanted to comment on the issue of health care reform in the US.

AH