Political Priorities

Things can get pretty miserable when ancient faux pas come to light at the most inconveniently vexing of times. Something like kicking a man when he's down? Sometimes, though some people deserve a good posterior whacking.

It's just that poor old Michael Ignatieff has caught a few too many for his comfort, of late. Things are set to change, however, with the investiture of a proven and able public relations manager. Too late, alas, to alter statements made in the distant past, coming back to haunt him now, however.

But, as one of the Liberal leader's stalwart apologists loftily declaimed, when enquiries about Mr. Ignatieff's previously indiscreet and ungenerous observations about the British Monarchy were put front and centre: "The leader is focused on the issue of H1N1. Right now, Canadians are worried about lines for flu shots, not lines of succession. This is not an issue Canadians are focused on."

Priorities thus having been set, the eye and ear turns dutifully to that top-of-mind-topic. The House of Commons emergency debate on H1N1 revealed some interesting little tidbits. Preceded by hysteria-prone Vancouver Liberal MP Hedy Fry complaining that an H1N1 clinic be set up instanter on Parliament Hill to inoculate parliamentarians because of all that hand-shaking they engage in.

Not to be outdone, Carolyn Bennett, she of the mockingly disgusting flyer intimating body bags, not H1N1 vaccines can be anticipated to solve any health problems for First Nations communities under this Conservative-led government has done her enlightened bit. Doing her leader right proud.
Not to be outdistanced by the distaff side, Bob Rae ventured his august opinion that had the government ensured H1N1 vaccine was available sooner, 13-year-old Evan Frustaglio might not have died; such is the fallout of an uncaring, unprepared, and forewarned government. But then it is understandable that such a horrible event could occur, when you have a government concerned, as Liberal president Alf Apps is quick to explain, that there is "some clinical cost-benefit analysis, premised on the theory that expense could be avoided if demand for the vaccine were suppressed and access to immunization for most was made well nigh impossible."

These statements give slander a good name. Nasty, small-minded and viciously casual with reality. And the truth lies mortally wounded from one stab after another, with Liberals lining up to inflict the final, wrenching, arterial bloodletting. Rational decision making on the part of the Chief Medical Officer along with provincial counterparts agreeing that the country's seasonal flu vaccine had production priority, simply because it kills 4,000 Canadians a year, as opposed to the 101 having perished from the effects of H1N1 to date.

And the unadjuvanted version taking precedence because WHO understood that this was safer for pregnant women and young children than the adjuvanted version ordered by Canada as a more effective vaccine, interrupting the greater production of that immune-boosting vaccine. That interruption has now passed, and production has resumed, ensuring that anticipated amounts of vaccine will be on hand to inoculate all Canadians who wish to take advantage of vaccination against H1N1.

In any event, according to statistics gleaned thus far from eight provinces a mere third of the initial vaccine supplied by the federal government over the last several weeks had been used by week's end. In Ontario alone the Minister of Health confirmed that out of 2.2 million doses received from federal health authorities, a mere 300,000 had been administered to the most vulnerable among the public. How is that a signal of tardy response by the federal government?

And, despite Mr. Ignatieff's stout assertion that Canada has fallen behind other countries such as the United States, the fact of the matter is in the U.S. with its far greater population a mere 25 million doses have been shipped in comparison to about 7 million in Canada. Comprende?