It takes a special kind of political acumens for a regional Canadian politician to make news headlines both north and south of the border, but Danny Williams has done it.

The Blogosphere across North America lit up a few weeks ago with the news that the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador was heading to an undisclosed American medical facility for a no-further-details-given heart surgery last week. Canadian progressives are chastising Williams for bailing on his at-home medical options while American opponents of healthcare reform get a new scapegoat for why a public option doesn’t work.

Simplistic? Probably. Williams’ people were less than helpful when the news broke, initiating what CBC reporter Janyce McGregor called a “cone of silence” about the matter.

What we do know is that after “weeks of consultation” with doctors, Williams decided to head stateside for the surgery which was apparently unavailable in his home province. This was according to Deputy Premier Kathy Dunderdale, for whom the odious duty of informing the media fell.

The exact nature of the heart surgery was not revealed, but it was said that it would take the Premier from three to 12 weeks to fully recover. Also kept secret was the name and location of the facility that Williams was treated in. Dunderdale did say though that answers concerning the nature of the procedure, as well as the reasons why Williams headed south to have it, were to be given sometime last week, but that never happened. He did however learn that the Premier is doing “very well” (and naturally our best wishes go out to him).

As to whether or not the Premier will be going “out of pocket” for his own medical expenses, Dunderdale didn’t know about that either. “I would expect that he is eligible for all that the rest of us would be in terms of our own private insurance or government insurance and I’m sure if there’s anything over and above that the premier will certainly take care of it himself,” she said. I certainly hope so. The guy’s worth like a quarter of a billion dollars thanks to his private legal practice and business interests.

We all know that the nature of media abhors a vacuum, so let the rampant speculation and demagoguery begin courtesy of ring-wing bloggers in the U.S.

“But I thought the Canadian system was so much better,” said the headline on redstate.com. “We keep hearing how terrible and awful the American health care system is compared to the Canadian one. So why is he (Williams) coming here?” Sarcastic comments followed below with one individual identifying himself as “NeoKong” observing “That’s like the Premier of China coming here for a decent egg roll.” A fellow named Michael Dugas added that “They (Canada) have the very best waiting lists of any country anywhere.”

Sarcasm was not limited to the Americans though. “Guess this means the procedure was not available ANYWHERE else in Canada either, huh,” a man named Jon commented on the St. John’s Telegram website. “Instead, he has the ability to use his cash to jump the line by going to the U.S. where there are shorter lines,” he added.

Then there are the conspiracy theorists. Jim, a reader of the U.S. political magazine Politico, commented on Ben Smith’s blog saying that “Danny Williams is known for trying to embarrass the Canadian government.” Jim refers to the Premiers occasionally tumultuous relationship with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which includes, but is not limited to, his “Anyone But Conservatives” (ABC) campaign in the last Federal election.

Adding insult to injury is that this is the second high-profile slight against our healthcare system in as many months. In January, UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar told the Canadian Press that it was a “miracle” that he survived a digestive disease after he fell ill during a hunting trip to Canada.

Lesnar was diagnosed with diverticulosis, a condition where a kind of growth appears on the colon, while at an unnamed Canadian hospital last July. During a media conference last month, Lesnar told reporters that the worst part of his illness was the standard of care he got in Canada. “They couldn’t do nothing for me,” he said. “It was like I was in a Third World country.”

While at the hospital, which was either in Manitoba or Saskatchewan, Lesnar was treated for his diverticulosis with antibiotics and pain medication. He was also given a small procedure where a six-inch needle was inserted into his stomach to “drain three pockets and withdraw 14 cubic centimetres of fluid.” It was also suggested by the doctors that Lesnar have surgery to treat the disease and remove the diverticula. Lesnar instead checked out of the hospital and had his wife drive him to the Medcenter One hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Well, if Lesnar didn’t think much of the surgery-pushing witch doctors of the Saskatchewan and/or Manitoba healthcare system, then Lord knows what he must have thought when the quacks at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic also suggested surgery. Galled, Lesnar instead went home, “hit the gym” and put back on 30 of the supposed 40 pounds he lost while in the Canadian hospital. Lesnar says that he was given a clean bill of health by doctors shortly after the new year. “Basically the doctor said you’ve got a lottery ticket, this is unbelievable. We can’t believe you didn’t need surgery,” said UFC president Dana White.

So if anything, the saga of Brock Lesnar proves that the Canadian healthcare system is no match for the power of denial and a home gym. Or perhaps Lesnar simply believes in declarative coined by Virgil from his poem Aeneid, “mens agitat molem,” or mind over matter.

But back to Danny Williams, a man not entirely unfamiliar with controversy of his own making. In 2008, Williams got caught using a hand-held cell phone while driving, a no-no in Newfoundland since 2003 and just a few months after the provincial government suggested that all provinces issue similar bans. It took him a couple of days to respond to the media then too, saying in a brief news release that “Despite the fact that it was an urgent call, I acknowledge that it was inappropriate to talk on my cell phone while driving, and I certainly accept the associated consequences.” Sadly, it will probably take more than a $400 fine and four demerit points to satiate the masses, that is unless Williams explanation is really, really good.

The difficult question is who does this do more damage too: Canadians and the perceptions we have of our own healthcare system, or the pursuit of healthcare reform in the United States?

As pointed out on Tom Clark’s Newsnet show Power Play, many Canadians have no idea how far the reach of private medicine has permeated our egalitarian access healthcare paradise. In other words, Williams isn’t the first person of privilege to seek healthcare state-side, and he probably won’t be the last. Earlier on the same program, Dr. Robert Roberts of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute said that to his knowledge, there’s no heart surgery that can’t be done Canada, although certain procedures may be done with more frequency in the U.S. In other words, while keeping in mind that we still don’t know the exact procedure, Williams was simply using his money to get faster access, or “Queue jumping” as it were.

“Queue jumping” is not in itself a crime, and for the cynical masses not altogether unsurprising, but in this case it is a sucker punch to our American cousins. As they struggle to secure some form of publicly-run healthcare, Williams’ trip fits perfectly into the narrative that Canadian healthcare/lines for access is so bad that Canadians have to head to the U.S. for better/faster treatment.

Of course, this narrative sidesteps the word access, or rather that in the American system, money equals access. Williams is wealthy, so he has options and if progressives in the U.S. want to turn the PR on its head they should be asking “Why does a Canadian get better access to care than one out of six Americans?” You know, the ones that have no healthcare whatsoever.

But despite the politics of the issue, Williams, in this instance, seems more a victim of his own hypocrisy. During his infamous ABC campaign, Williams told the St. John’s Telegram about the Harper Conservatives that, “In a majority government, let’s see where medicare goes at the end of the day […] Nothing would be safe, quite frankly, when it comes to going after sacrosanct principals. That’s one that would be right in his crosshairs, no doubt about it.” While many wonder if there might be truth in those words, having come out of Williams’ mouth they now seem nothing more than fear mongering and political grandstanding.

Williams is also a victim of his own quiet. Like the cell phone affair, Williams’ “cone of silence” has done more harm than the infraction. Leaving aside the confidentiality of medical treatment, leaving on a jet plane under the cover of a hasty press conference held by your deputy, was probably not the way to do this. Of course, openly telling the public where you’re going for a week and why would probably not have done him any favours either.

What’s worse is that in all of this, Williams may have helped the one person he detests (in a political sense) the most: Stephen Harper. Did anyone talk about public anger over proroguing the week he headed south for surgery? Only if prorogue has a secondary meaning as a surgical procedure one gets performed on their heart.

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Tags: danny williams, healthcare, premier of newfoundland, stephen harper

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 6:28 pm and is filed under health, Provincial Government, united states. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.