Archive for the ‘National’ Category
Canada’s Rowdy Parliament Could Keep Talent Away
Friday, March 19th, 2010
Canada’s Rowdy Parliament Could Keep Talent Away, Warns Legislator
By Matthew Little
Epoch Times Staff
PARLIAMENT HILL, Ottawa—“Parliament is sick.”
That is the diagnosis of Dr. Keith Martin, Liberal MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca who sat for the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties before crossing the floor to join the Liberals.
He’s not the first to come down hard on the behaviour of MPs representing Canadians in the House of Commons—and he likely won’t be the last if nothing changes. As it is now, Parliament’s most popular hour, question period (QP), looks like a schoolyard shouting match where there is as much insultest debate.
It’s a level of decorum far below that of any comparable Legislature and an embarrassment to all Canadians, Martin says.
“It desperately needs to be changed because if it doesn’t, serious problems in our country will not be dealt with,” Martin told the Epoch Times on Tuesday. (more…)
Discussing Maternal Health on CTV Power Play
Thursday, March 18th, 2010Liberal attacks PM for ignoring contraception
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
by Jane Taber
Stephen Harper signed on to the G8 leaders’ document in Italy last year calling for improvements to maternal health that specifically included contraception and reproductive health services.
And although he has chosen maternal health as his signature initiative for the upcoming G8 summit in Muskoka, he is not including contraception reproductive health issues.
Two of his senior ministers have said that contraception isn’t part of the initiative as the policy is aimed at saving lives. International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said today the government is not “re-opening the abortion debate.”
Keith Martin, Liberal MP and MD, is angry.
“Harper signed on to an agreement of all the G8 leaders to invest in family planning so he has backtracked on that …,” says Mr. Martin. (more…)
Keith on CBC Power and Politics – Maternal Health
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010Harper government backs away from birth control
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Helping women abroad doesn’t include support for family planning
Toronto Star
Susan Delacourt – Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government appears to have decided that birth control is not part of its plan to help improve the lives of women and children in developing countries.
Opposition critics are accusing Harper of caving to his social-conservative political base at home, at the expense of foreign aid that makes a real difference in the well-being of women and their families. (more…)
Let’s end unhealthy finger-pointing
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Let’s end unhealthy finger-pointing
The Province
March 15, 2010
One of the problems with the debate about our financially troubled health-care system is that we spend too much time comparing it with the U.S. system . . . and not enough with those that work better than either.
As Dr. Keith Martin, the Liberal MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, makes clear, neither Canadian nor American health care is the best in the world. Far from it.
Martin says that, relative to its population, the U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, or $7,439 per person. Canada ranks fifth, with per-capita spending of $3,895.
Yet, he points out that, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada and the U.S. rank 22nd and 28th respectively in infant-mortality rates, and 8th and 24th respectively in overall life-expectancy. (more…)
The unconscionable global toll of death during childbirth
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
As Printed in the National Post February 4, 2010
Every minute of every day, a woman dies giving birth. The toll is staggering: 530,000 pregnant women a year perish, 95% of them in developing countries. Remarkably, 80% of these maternal deaths are from five entirely preventable or treatable causes: sepsis, hemorrhage, eclampsia, obstructed labour, or as a consequence of a septic abortion.
For every death, dozens of women sustain life-altering and irreversible injuries. Many develop obstetric fistulae that leave them incontinent of urine and feces, and pariahs within their own developing-world communities. (more…)
An International 911
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
The world needs a central command-and-control centre to respond to disasters quickly and orderly.
Five days after the massive earthquake hit Haiti, little aid was reaching the beleaguered people on the ground. Access to crucial medical care, food, and water was scant. Extractive efforts beyond what the people were doing with shovels and their bare hands were largely non-existent. Haitians, starving, dangerously dehydrated, and exposed to a withering sun, were dying by the thousands. This, despite the fact that large quantities of donated emergency supplies were sitting on the tarmac of the country’s main airport in Port-au-Prince.
CBC’s At Issue Panel
Friday, December 11th, 2009PETER MANSBRIDGE (HOST):
Yeah, the perils of being an opposition leader. Rex, most underrated [politician this year]?
…
REX MURPHY (REPORTER):
Peter Stoffer and Keith Martin. There are certain backbenchers who, by virtue of their personality, their tone, they’re civilized people that do a lot to ransom all the other activities on Parliament Hill. Those backbenchers, like the one that Allan mentioned, they do a lot to keep the system in motion. And these two, in my mind, Martin and Stoffer, are fairly equivalent.
