A Grumpy Gal from the East Coast

What a frustrating federal election campaign this has been. Though a huge proportion of Canadians are genuinely concerned about climate change and want politicians to act, most parties have done their level best to either dismiss those concerns (the CPC and PPC) or convince the electorate they have meaningful plans for tackling climate change when they don't (the Liberals and the NDP). Most frustrating of all, the only leader telling the truth and offering concrete proposals for addressing the problem, Elizabeth May of the Green Party, has been largely ignored - particularly by pundits and the media. This despite the fact that she's so highly regarded by voters of all political persuasions. I can't help thinking the Greens would garner a lot more attention if their leader was an old white guy. As I've been heard to say often, never underestimate the effects of sexism and misogyny. After all, we've only ever had one female PM and no longer have any female Premier...

I found myself at a walk-in clinic at our local hospital this past week and - wow - was that an interesting experience! I'm tempted to rant for a bit about how inefficient the registration process was, or how frustrating it was to wait for nearly 5 hours when there were only 8 people ahead of me in line. Seriously? But that wasn't the most interesting part of my visit to the clinic. The most interesting part was the conversation amongst the 25 or so people in the waiting room that day. I should probably set the stage by noting that I live in a small Nova Scotia town, where there's a severe shortage of family docs. Most of the people waiting had family doctors until recently, but then their docs got sick or retired or moved away and they weren't able to find new ones to take them on. Needless to say, the long wait fostered a good deal of discussion about the challenges facing our health care system, and about past and present unsuccessful attempts to address them. ...