Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Question Period: A Red Herring!

I have not been doing my question period videos lately because I switched to a Mac and my video capture software only works on Windows. I can do it, but it is not as easy as before, I need to switch from the Mac to Windows back again to the Mac. I did have the time tonight to capture some of question period and power play. Here is the abbreviated version of question period. The last bit is really funny, even the Speaker gets into the fun.



So, first up was PM Harper mentioning the protesters from yesterday, and then Clark on Power Play reminds us what happened. Seems like the NDP might have had a hand in those protests. Just a suggestion, but maybe someone should be talking to NDP MP Linda Duncan, she is very good at getting the youth vote out. Weren't a lot of those protesters from Alberta? I have no concrete evidence it was her, but it's how she ran her campaign. Besides that, if the CBC can show a protester bleeding, implying bad behaviour by the RCMP and security at Parliament, I can ask some journalist to check into her connection to the eco-protesters.

Then we get a Liberal MP, supposedly a DR., Carolyn Bennett going ballistic. She really has an irrational reaction to anything Conservative. Watch her during question period, a more sour face you will never see. Anyways, if as a DOCTOR, she is confused, maybe it's better that she is in Parliament, away from patients. Just saying.

Then we get lots of fun talk about herrings, even the Speaker mentions red herrings, and watch Jason Kenney, he finds "herring problem" pretty funny. It was a good way to round out question period.

You can see how relaxed the Conservatives are on their side and how tense the Liberals are, they didn't even smile about the "red herring" comment. Tense, tense, tense. Where was their leader today? PM Harper managed to be in the House, and I'm sure he is twenty times busier running a country. Poor Iffy can't seem to control 77 MP's, let alone his own party.

Evidence of that is how Clark got played by the Liberals today on Power Play, Joanne at Blue Like You has the goods on that event. Ouch, Tom looked like a fool and the Liberal strategist let him. Or did the Liberal strategist have no clue either? That's even worse. Even Liberals have no clue what's happening in their own party.

14 comments:

wilson said...

That Liberal strategist, it now appears, let the cat out of the bag before Ian and Jill were told Ian Davey was replaced.
He got fired on national tv.
Iffy is a jerk.
And Tomboy got played. haha

Donolo, another Chretien player, is drug out of the dust bin.
Are Libs expecting some Adscam trouble, so they want the original spin team back in place?

Ontario Girl said...

I watched QP yesterday. Dr. Bennett was purposely needling and poking a stick in Leona Aglukkaq, trying to insinuate that she was incompetant, and doing it in a NASTY TONE.
She then runs to the media(Red Star) saying she was astounded and the Heckling left Bennett shaken??

I think the astounding thing was DR. Bennett screaming "THIS IS NOT FUNNY" like a MAD WOMAN. She showed the dark side of her personality and it wasn't pretty.

Southern Quebec said...

I don't know, the H1N1 could be funny if you are a conservative. I bet the parents of the 13 year old boy who died yesterday aren't laughing...but that's just them isn't it? The CPOC screw up EVERYTHING they touch.

Shilson, you are making less and less sense, if that's possible!

Gabby in QC said...

If Dr. Bennett truly wanted to help the population, as she claims, she would personally have sought the advice of various experts in the field, analyzed and synthesized it, instead of creating more doubts in the minds of people, with her outburst in the HoC.

Does she not trust the advice of Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Dr. David Butler-Jones, http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/cpho-acsp/cpho-acsp-role-eng.php who has said time and again in press conferences held together with the Health Minister that both the adjuvanted and unadjuvanted vaccines are safe? That it is a woman's choice which one to receive, i.e. which one she feels more comfortable with?

Citing the doubts of one pregnant woman and generalizing, extending it to ALL pregnant women, is indeed scare-mongering for political gain.

Pregnant women should be following the advice of their obstetricians, not the advice of a sour and angry harridan who wants to score political points. Anyway, in the case of the woman Bennett screamed about yesterday (I doubt it is a real person, but I'll stand corrected if she is) why did she seek the advice of SIX different doctors? I've heard of getting a second opinion, but this is really going to extremes. That person is not seeking information, that person wants someone to absolve her of making her own decision.

I guess the angry MP didn't read this, published SIX days ago:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gm_WilKsg3kju8dsYz48kQz1Qu0A
"The Public Health Agency of Canada urged pregnant women who are 20 weeks or more into their pregnancy and parents of children under three on Wednesday to take or to give their kids a swine flu shot containing an adjuvant, an additive that boosts the body's response to the vaccine. ...
However, if for a particular reason an individual does not want to have the adjuvanted vaccine for the children, it is considered an acceptable alternative - although the expert opinion at this point in time is that the immune response to an unadjuvanted vaccine may be poorer than to an adjuvanted vaccine."

Nor did Dr. Bennett read this:
http://sogc.org/h1n1/factsheet/forH1N1UpdateAdjuvantVsNonAdjuvantVaccine091020-Final.pdf
“ … All countries are stating that both types of vaccine are safe.
• After discussion with the Public Health Agency of Canada, and based on the evidence for other
adjuvanted vaccines as well as experience around the world to date with the adjuvanted H1N1
vaccine, Canadian experts say that both the adjuvanted and non-adjuvanted H1N1 vaccines are
safe for pregnant women. …”

And to now make her question and the reaction of some MPs to her angry questions an issue of sexism is beyond the pale.

Doctors are in short supply in this country. Maybe the lady should consider returning to that profession … although I personally would run away from someone who doesn’t appear to know her a$$ from her elbow.

hunter said...

Gabby in QC, great information for those who want to get informed.

You would think an MP would realize the damage she could do to people listening to her. What did she tell that lady that went to six doctors? What was her advice?

If I got her as a doctor, I would run out of the room as fast as I could. Better no doctor than her, maybe that's why she's in politics!

Bec said...

frmgrl posted this link over at BLY.
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/swineflu/article/717627

Pretty much sums it up hey? (in particular for the odd name callers that frequent this site)

Gabby in QC said...

Hunter at 6:29:00 PM, exactly my point. Instead of getting together to inform Canadians, at least to point them in the direction where they can get more information to be able to make an informed decision, MPs like Bennett create more confusion for purely political gains.

Because this is a virus that apparently affects young people more than other demographics, there's a lot of uncertainty, even among the medical profession. When it was first announced here in Quebec that healthcare workers would be among the first to be vaccinated and that they would be required to do so, there were reports that many healthcare workers said they would refuse to do so.

Rather than doing some research and trying to reassure the population, or suggesting other ways of vaccinating more people more quickly, Bennett uses her ridiculously over-the-top questions to create confusion. There are other MPs who have training in healthcare, in addition to Bennett. Instead of volunteering to administer the vaccines, they try to find fault so that the Conservatives can wear whatever goes wrong. How sick is that!

Anonymous said...

"That person is not seeking information, that person wants someone to absolve her of making her own decision".

And there we have the quintessential lefty.....trust big government before your own judgement. Seek out a scapegoat before you educate yourself. It's never your own fault and it's never fair. Poor babies.

liberal supporter said...

Gabby, perhaps you could explain why some people get adjuvant and some don't in Germany.

I don't think it is out of line to ask questions about a vaccine that is barely tested. We don't have years of research like we have on such things as climate change, yet you reject that science and embrace this.

Gabby in QC said...

Liberal Supporter at 7:56:00 PM, in the first place, I don't live in Germany, and although it's a very nice country and all, I prefer to consider whatever advice is being given in MY country, by MY government officials.

I will not be following the advice of Jenny McCarthy or Suzanne Somers, who think they have the answers regarding vaccinations in general, either.

Secondly, a local ER doctor who is often asked to explain medical issues in layman's terms on a local radio station has said that the adjuvant in this case is a form of oil (unnamed) and Vitamin E, used to boost the effectiveness of the vaccine. He did say the adjuvanted vaccine would probably hurt a bit more than an unadjuvanted vaccine, but that's it.

But since you seem to prefer foreign experts to home-grown ones, here, knock yourself out:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Oh, before I forget … Let’s leave the climate change “crisis” for another day, shall we? Unlike Emanuel Rahm, I don’t believe in this: “You never want a good crisis to go to waste.”

I’d rather true crises be met head-on, with as much factual information from as many experts as possible, not from cultists who want to live in some mythical Arcadia.

maryT said...

How did this pregnant woman get to see six doctors. How long did it take her. Many people can't get in to see one doctor, and she has seen six. Were they OBYN, or family doctors, or what.
And if she got 6 different opinions then the health care crisis in Ont is worse than we think.
If Bennett is so concerned why doesn't she take a leave of absence from the HofC, and set up a flu clinic till the crisis is over.
Why doesn't she organize a clinic for all MPs as a show of faith in the vaccine.

Gabby in QC said...

MaryT at 9:41:00 PM:
"Why doesn't she organize a clinic for all MPs as a show of faith in the vaccine."

Hey, there's an idea that merits consideration!

liberal supporter said...

Liberal Supporter at 7:56:00 PM, in the first place, I don't live in Germany, and although it's a very nice country and all, I prefer to consider whatever advice is being given in MY country, by MY government officials.
I wouldn't know what it is like in Germany, I'm not a fan. But they are a democracy with a centre right government, and for some reason the government and the military get a difference H1N1 vaccine.

Which of the vaccines will Stephen Harper get?

The advice given in OUR country by OUR government officials is not based on any testing here, but rather tests in other countries, such as the one with one vaccine for the government, and one for everyone else.

Which of the vaccines will Harper get? Which will YOU get?

But since you seem to prefer foreign experts to home-grown ones, here, knock yourself out:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html
.
Nice sneer, but the WHO site does not mention the two different vaccines, nor why some people get one while others get the other.

the adjuvant in this case is a form of oil (unnamed) and Vitamin E.
The oil is shark liver oil and the adjuvant is called squalene. It is linked to Gulf War Syndrome though not conclusively proven. The US FDA has never approved this adjuvant. There are adjuvants in other approved vaccines but those are based on aluminum.

Oh, before I forget … Let’s leave the climate change “crisis” for another day, shall we? Unlike Emanuel Rahm, I don’t believe in this: “You never want a good crisis to go to waste.”.
I think you are using some form of right wing code, but since I didn't get the fax I have no idea what these references are. It simply appears that you are trying to divert attention away from the fact that climate change science is well established and has a lot of research, while on the other hand, we are being asked to accept injections of material that has only had a few trials. They aren't even testing the adjuvanted vaccines yet, only the unadjuvanted ones.


I’d rather true crises be met head-on, with as much factual information from as many experts as possible, not from cultists who want to live in some mythical Arcadia.
You'll have to decode that statement for me. It sounds like you would like to see some action on climate change, since the science is relatively mature. Yet on the other hand, you sound a lot like your own stereotype of climate scientists, claiming "the science is settled" when there is not enough data to make such a declaration about the safety of all of these new vaccines.

Are you agreeing with Obama declaring a swine flu emergency?

Anonymous said...

Good Comments...Seek out reputable advice from our professional health officials.