tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667348909154981284.post7634852152697408504..comments2024-03-20T06:55:57.193-07:00Comments on Born to Blog by Beth Kaplan: Beautiful downtown Ottawabethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09122791819498272634noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667348909154981284.post-91581429991112632582012-04-27T04:13:17.028-07:002012-04-27T04:13:17.028-07:00Patsy, thank you for sharing that wonderful memory...Patsy, thank you for sharing that wonderful memory. I would have loved to shake his hand too, so I`m glad you did it twice, for us all. And hello, anonymous - of course I`m aware of other marvellous health care systems, particularly in France as I hear all about it from my friends there - and I`m grateful, as the piece above ends, for the contribution of tax-payers. I was thinking of my friends and family to the south, who were not lucky enough to have had a Tommy Douglas, and who are so incredibly far from that kind of idealistic, generous, far-sighted, sensible and wise political figure now.bethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09122791819498272634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667348909154981284.post-53659527981369697962012-04-27T03:23:56.133-07:002012-04-27T03:23:56.133-07:00Geez, you'd think that Canada was the only cou...Geez, you'd think that Canada was the only country on earth that has, what you call a "free" health care system. The model was, no doubt, adopted from Britain's cherished NHS (National Health Service), created in 1948. France, too, offers universal health care which was assessed by the World Health Organization in 2000 as the "best overall health care" in the world. Japan, Sweden, and the Netherlands also provide health care systems to their citizens comparable to that of France's.<br /><br />And nothing, I'm afraid, is free. All of these systems are publicy funded; this means that costs are paid through funding from income taxes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-667348909154981284.post-9861161046580306912012-04-27T00:35:55.957-07:002012-04-27T00:35:55.957-07:00i once stood in a line at a theatre reception (for...i once stood in a line at a theatre reception (for the opening of the play "Paper Wheat" at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa) to shake hands with Tommy Douglas, a man who had rescued for me the entire political system. I wasn't even a member of the cast of the play, only in the theatre because I was rehearsing some other play, and someone I knew was in the cast, but when I had reached the small and smiling man and shaken his hand, I had to stop, turn back and ask to do that again, because it was so important to me to acknowledge the event, and the first time was like a rehearsal, a staged event. And he laughed, and shook my hand again. And I will always be grateful for that opportunity to say thank you, thank you, you have restored my faith in humanity, in the ability to act without ego, for the greater good. Thank God, if that's the word, for Tommy Douglas and all those who worked with and for him, for the straightforward value of offering a hand, the hand that belongs to all that is good in human beings.Patricia Ludwicknoreply@blogger.com