Andrew Longhurst 🇨🇦 🍉

Eby accuses Alberta separatists of ‘treason’ for meeting with U.S. officials B.C. Premier says he plans to raise the issue when he meets with Carney and his provincial counterparts

Eby accuses Alberta separatists of ‘treason’ for meeting with U.S. officials

He would not be incorrect

www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Where does the climate movement go from here? - CCPA The following is a re-print of the December 2025 edition of Shift Storm, the CCPA’s monthly newsletter which focuses on the intersection of work and climate change. Click here to subscribe to Shift St...

There is a time for pragmatism, but there is also a time for idealism. What time is it now? By @hadrianmk.bsky.social #ClimateAction www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Bank of Canada governor warns of unusual potential for new economic shock due to Trump policy Bank ​of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem told Reuters he saw unusual potential for a new shock to the economy, given ‌elevated geopolitical risks and U.S. trade policy.

Bank of Canada governor warns of unusual potential for new economic shock due to Trump policy reut.rs/45BvNis

Health care is typically a second tier voting issue but a trend in our recent KFF polls make me think that the cost of health care may be playing a big role in the 2026 midterms.

Polls may not capture this because they limit voters to pick either "economy" or "health care" as top voting issue.

We’re just not a free country.

Any American watching this play out between regime forces and journalists overseas would recognize it for what it is.

The small but vocal Alberta separatists are being encouraged by the US treasury secretary and others

Are plans for US-style two-tier health care & private health insurance a backdoor to annex Alberta?

Join us for this important report launch webinar

Representative Ilhan Omar said that "fear and intimidation" wouldn’t make her quit public service, a day after a man sprayed her with liquid during a town hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

As the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions warns, at least 1,000 jobs are already being cut in hospitals in North Bay, Hamilton, Ottawa, Niagara and the GTA.

While these numbers may seem big, Ontario spends less than 3% of GDP on hospitals, & less than 8% of GDP on the broader health sector. Indeed, rather than helping heal the gaping wound of hospital finances and staffing, the Ontario government’s current spending plans are making the hemorrhage worse

In order to avoid cuts to current service levels, Ontario will need to increase health sector spending by $6.4 billion in the upcoming budget. However, immediate emergency funding is needed now to ameliorate the $1 billion structural deficit facing Ontario hospitals.

The provincial government should provide predictable annual funding increases of between five to six per cent in order to account for population growth, aging, and inflation. The gov’s 2025 budget plan, according to the Financial Accountability Office, only increases health sector funding by 0.7%.

As the Ontario government prepares the 2026 provincial budget, it still has an opportunity for sober second thought. As things stand, handing contracts out to investors to pull staff and resources from the public system isn’t sound health policy. It simply makes Ontario’s wait times worse.

What did this mean for patients?

Wait times increased for nine out of 11 priority procedures, including all priority cancer surgeries, which are only performed in the hospital setting. Now, Alberta has among the longest waits for key procedures in the country.

After $154m of public funding to for-profit surgical facilities btw 2019-20 and 2023-24, the initiative only added 16,493 of the least-complex procedures—an 8% increase. But hospital surgical activity declined. The initiative shifted surgeries to for-profit facilities at the expense of hospitals

To continue down this path ignores the growing body of evidence from Canada and internationally. The experience of the Alberta private surgical initiative is instructive.

For investor-owned providers, it’s a time of plenty. For public hospitals, austerity is the order of the day.

Funding decisions are political choices. And the decision to flow dollars to investor-owned facilities comes at the expense of public hospitals.

Meanwhile Ontario is expanding outsourcing contracts with for-profit surgical facilities. In December, the government announced four new private orthopedic surgery facilities as part of a $125 million scheme over two years to increase for-profit involvement.

This has caused Ontario to have one of the most below capacity hospital systems in the industrialized world. Ontario had five per cent fewer hospital beds per 100,000 people in 2022 than in 2009—based on the most recent data available.

The Ontario Hospital Association stated that the hospital sector faces a structural deficit of $1 billion and needs a predictable, multi-year funding plan. This deficit is not surprising—data reveals that the province continues to have the lowest per capita hospital spending in the country

Join me and @poliscirish.bsky.social as we unpack what’s in Bill 11 — and the arrival of US two-tier health care in Canada

#cdnpoli #abpoli

‘It’s oftentimes too late’: Health-care concerns raised at town hall in Calgary Health care concerns brought many Calgarians together Saturday afternoon for a public town hall meeting, the seventh in a province-wide series aiming to bring change to an over-burdened system.

‘It’s oftentimes too late’: Health-care concerns raised at town hall in Calgary

www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/arti...

Opinion: Shame on Hootsuite for abandoning Canadian values in taking ICE contract The company has secured $95,000 in contracts to conduct social-media sentiment analysis for the U.S. agency

www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

*Note that the CBC headline incorrectly states the waitlist doubled. In fact, the waitlist tripled or increased by 200%

In Ontario, it’s a time of plenty for private health care while public hospitals starve - CCPA Ontario public hospitals face large deficits even as the provincial government doles out more cash to for-profit providers.

www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc... 'ON spends less than 3% of GDP on hospitals, and less than 8% of GDP on the broader health sector....the ON government’s current spending plans are making the hemorrhage worse.' @policyalternatives.ca @alonghurst.bsky.social

In Ontario, it’s a time of plenty for private health care while public hospitals starve - CCPA Ontario public hospitals face large deficits even as the provincial government doles out more cash to for-profit providers.

While hospitals are being downsized through government funding decisions, #ONpoli is expanding contracts with for-profit surgical facilities. In December, the government announced four new private surgery facilities as part of a $125m scheme over two years.

www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

In Ontario, it’s a time of plenty for private health care while public hospitals starve - CCPA Ontario public hospitals face large deficits even as the provincial government doles out more cash to for-profit providers.

Ontario has the lowest per-capita hospital spending in the country. Expanding private care will worsen access. By @alonghurst.bsky.social @policyalternatives.ca #onpoli www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Today, there is a current shortfall of over 2,000 beds and that gap widens and grows over 700% to 16,000 beds by 2036

#bcpoli

Access has declined sharply

There are 58 beds per 1,000 (75+) population compared to 77 beds per 1,000 (75+) population ten years ago

Number of people waiting for publicly-funded long-term care in B.C. doubles since 2016: report | CBC News A report from B.C.'s seniors' advocate has found a ballooning waitlist for long-term care beds in B.C., saying that the province has failed to keep up with a rapidly aging population.

This is very concerning

Long-term care waitlist in BC triples since 2016

Between 2016 and 2025, the number of people waiting to be admitted to long-term care rose from 2,381 to 7,212, an increase of 200%

#bcpoli

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

After executing Alex Pretti on Saturday, ICE has shifted to primarily targeting bus stops and elementary schools in my community this week. I cannot overstate how much of the ICE activity in my community is just targeting places where little kids are.