The Conservative government came under attack over its preparation and handling of the swine flu vaccination process during an emergency debate in the House of Commons Monday evening.
Speaker Peter Milliken agreed to a debate request from Ontario Liberal MP and health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett, who led off by accusing the government of arguing over jurisdiction instead of working with the provinces to get the job done.
“It is time for statesmanship,” Bennett told the House.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the government was guilty of “an egregious lack of preparedness,” pointing out that 36 countries ordered their H1N1 vaccine before Canada did and that many had begun administering the vaccine up to three weeks sooner.
He also blamed the Conservatives for confusion over when the vaccine will be available to all Canadians and for long lineups at overcrowded clinics.
“This failure to properly inform the public has become a source of enormous anxiety to Canadian families,” Ignatieff said. “They don’t know what public information to believe and this is producing anguish. That is the direct responsibility of this government.”
[More]
Pingback: Jack’s Newswatch » Blog Archive » Sandy: Liberals resort to panic over H1N1 to fundraise
Why is it that Dr. Carolyn Bennett (of body bag fame) makes such ridiculous claims of incompetence by the government when she and her opposition colleagues couldn’t have done better themselves given the information available to all MPs and health experts before the media induced panic began?
What a joke it was – the Conservatives had nothing to offer but excuses, the Liberals had nothing to offer except “oh please let this be the 20 second sound bite for the 10:00 news” rhetorical questions, both sides complained about the other politicizing the issue while (yup, you guessed it) politicizing the issue, and anyone who watched the mess probably came out of it knowing no more than when they dialed it up on their TV or computer monitor.
The word pathetic is actually sullied by it’s use in describing last nights performance so I won’t make use of it.
Last week I watched Sean Hannity from FOX news state that he wasn’t going to bash Obama over the shortage of vaccine. He said it is not Obama’s fault that the pharmacuetical companies are falling behind on production. The panel all agreed that it was just not right to beat with that stick.
No hesitation to bash Harper by the Liberal Party and CBC and CTV over a shortage of vaccine.It is looking like politics is far DIRTIER in Canada.Is this what Canadians have to look forward to with Peter Donolo in charge?
Visitors might want to take a look at my latest post on Dr. Bennett when she was sure we would have so much extra vaccine that we could share it with the world. And,that she didn’t see any problems with getting the vaccine out to Canadians by Christmas. My what a difference two months makes.
With the above timely revelation, the Liberals tonight have to eat crow. The sheer incompetence shouldn’t be tolerated by Canadians any longer than necessary. Eighty percent marks and support for the standing gov’t which anyone following where we can go with continued good management… The EI proposal was released today amidst the faux slamming. One bad turn, and out comes another good result! It’s a kick watching the possibilities and the releases as we see we can make hay and win large with an embarrassingly competent team, presently the envy of the world.
Saw a highly commending report re Canada’s international contributions in the British press. Will go fetch it tomorrow.
Anna — You said: “Saw a highly commending report re Canada’s international contributions in the British press”
That’s great. All we hear from the Liberals is that Canada’s standing has fallen since the Tories took over. Actually everything I hear is quite the opposite.
By the way, to everyone, Jack was at a funeral today, out of town, so I have been keeping an eye on things which is why my comments are everywhere on the site.