Turns out having a governing party dominated by MAGA-influenced anti-vaxxers and ideological privatizers like Premier Danielle Smith isn’t actually good for health care!
Who could have seen that coming?
Alberta’s United Conservative Party seems to have been having trouble coming up with outrageous stuff to attack Ottawa about this week – since Monday they’ve only put out a news release about a minister going on a two-day junket to Montana, another on how the government will pay (only) half the cost of a new therapeutic pool in a rehab hospital, and one about a new website touting pipelines. Not exactly earth-shattering stuff.
But when the UCP decided to stop flooding the zone, it looks as if the zone decided to flood itself. On the health care file alone, yesterday was a busy day.
Measles was back in the news, reminding us that it may be a new year, but it’s the same old measles epidemic that embarrassingly got wildly out of control in this province thanks to the UCP government’s hostility to vaccinations and its shambolic response to the more than 2,000 cases of the highly infectious disease since North America’s worst outbreak started a year ago.
At one point last summer, the number of reported measles cases in Alberta actually surpassed those in the entire United States, and, as we all know, Robert F. Kennedy’s American health care system is no slouch when it comes to ignoring sensible public health measures and spreading ridiculous lies about vaccines and immunization.
This is something the U.S. secretary of health and human services shares with Alberta’s premier, a former right-wing talk radio host who frequently expressed her skepticism about COVID vaccines and enthusiasm about quack COVID cures on the air.
As of this week by the sound of it, though, the U.S. had pulled ahead … microscopically.
According to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control yesterday, there were 2,144 confirmed cases of measles in 2025 throughout the entire country – which has a population of approximately 343,000,000 souls.
Meanwhile, in approximately the same time frame back here in Wild Rose Country, there were 2,008 cases – among a population just a hair over 5,000,000.
That’s an impressive accomplishment. No one can say the Alberta Advantage isn’t very real … if you’re a virus.
Meanwhile, last night The Globe and Mail reported that a group of Edmonton doctors have called on the provincial government to declare a state of emergency under the province’s Public Health Act because there’s no more room for patients in the city’s hospitals.
Moreover, the Globe discovered that the Edmonton man who died waiting in the Emergency Room of Covenant Health’s Grey Nuns Hospital on Dec. 22 wasn’t the only person who died there the same day. “He was actually one of three people who died in the Grey Nuns ER that day,” wrote journalist Alanna Smith.
Covenant Health, owned by the Roman Catholic Church, is held up by the UCP as a model of how public health care should be run while the government’s massive “refocusing” of health care is concentrating on breaking up Alberta Health Services into smaller and easier-to-privatize chunks.
The story, which is unfortunately behind a paywall, is pretty dire. It quotes Dr. Paul Parks, president-elect of the emergency physicians section of the Alberta Medical Association and a sharp critic of the UCP’s health policies, saying “emergency and internal medicine physicians in Edmonton have exhausted all options to meet patient demand.” He noted that the so-called refocusing of the health care system has left hospitals in a state of constant chaos.
The story also quotes the press secretary for Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange – one of Alberta’s four health ministers under Premier Danielle Smith’s bizarre restructuring program – blowing off Dr. Parks’ concerns. “Calls for a ‘state of emergency’ are misguided and would add nothing to what is already being done,” sniffed Maddison McKee.
In addition, the Globe sought out Raj Sherman, the former Alberta Liberal Leader and ER physician, who still practices in a public hospital in Stony Plain, a town just west of Edmonton. Dr. Sherman was probably not the most accomplished politician in Alberta history, but he is respected as an emergency physician. “I have never seen it this bad in 35 years of front-line medical practice in the Emergency Department,” he told the newspaper.
So it’s bad, mostly thanks to the UCP. And since it’s respiratory disease season, it’s quite possible it’s going to get a lot worse. But, hey, at least the worst measles outbreak on the continent finally appears to be petering out on its own.
When it comes to spreading infection and bringing health care to the brink of collapse, Danielle Smith’s Alberta punches above its weight!
Ah yes, Premier Ditzy, and the apple dumpling gang. Recommending cures like ivermectin, raw garlic for blocked arteries and heart disease, and leaches for blood letting, What’s next dumping Polio vaccines because Edmonton has large supply of unused iron lungs at the Aberhart Sanitarium on the UAH Campus from the 1950’s epidemic.
I hope those rural voters that assured the UCP their majority are very happy when they find the rural ER’s of Hinton, Edson, Mundare, Athabasca, Drayton Valley, Fox Creek, Brooks, Lloydminster, etc. shuttered and locked for lack of staff. And more deeply satisfied when they are told their ill friends cannot be air or road transported to any major hospital because Premier Ditzy’s new plan has caused the total collapse of a once functioning health system. The Premier’s smiley response no beds, because we have no front line staff, and our admistrators have no experience running and managing a healthcare service.
I have says Marlins, let’s separate.
Ah yes, Premier Ditzy, and the apple dumpling gang. Recommending cures like ivermectin, raw garlic for blocked arteries and heart disease, and leaches for blood letting, What’s next dumping Polio vaccines because Edmonton has a large supply of unused iron lungs at the Aberhart Sanitarium on the UAH Campus from the 1950’s epidemic.
I hope those rural voters that assured the UCP their majority are very happy when they find the rural ER’s of Hinton, Edson, Mundare, Athabasca, Drayton Valley, Fox Creek, Brooks, Lloydminster, etc. shuttered and locked for lack of staff. And more deeply satisfied when they are told their ill friends cannot be air or road transported to any major hospital because Premier Ditzy’s new plan has caused the total collapse of a once functioning health system. The Premier’s smiley response no beds, because we have no front line staff, and our admistrators have no experience running and managing a healthcare service.
I have a plan says our Ditzy, let’s separate.
Smith has a first/second? agenda here.
Shill to her separatist base how broken socialised healthcare systems are… while breaking the socialist healthcare system
It’s the same playbook the neo-cons are using in Europe to a lesser extent. Ford is doing it in Ontario.
Gee, d’ya think the corporate oligarchs could possibly have an international playbook they’re following?
Smith gets added bonuses. She lets the feds get shellacked by the international media for a problem she caused (I wonder why she was so quiet about that all week?) while she tells her Maple MAGA base that it’s also the feds fault she doesn’t have enough oil since the prices tanked to pay for it and the feds fault because they won’t further fund her money-losing project.
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Dear Albertans, a word of advice. I know you think you’re only good enough to be oil jocks but you could be so, so much more if you applied some of that grit to actually learning some useful trades, businesses and professions.
The feds have offered you a way. Bring them some viable prospects with financial projections backed with some private funding and they’ve promised to help you.
You don’t have to be oil jocks forever. Or you can be part-time oil jocks and go to college to be something more then hire all your friends.
It is beyond the pale that Albertans are subjected to cruel anti-vaccine programs imagined by those who are supposed to govern for the people by the people. Evidently, those special conservative individuals who call themselves UCP are anti-science and anti-egalitarian because they think that they are superior as per their beloved brethren Nick Fuentes, Stephen Miller, and Donald Trump et al. Stated another way, the anti-science and anti-vaccination people are ensuring that people do not get medical care when needed, so people are suffering and dying. In fact, three people have recently died while waiting for medical help in the emergency department at the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton. In Alberta, “the only good patient is a dead patient”, said one health care worker, a proud UCP supporter. People are dying because of the UCP people. The UCP is killing citizens; they are fully responsible for the unnecessary deaths that occur in this province because of their cruelty; their malfeasance – a deep desire to hurt others where ever and when ever possible so that they can feel superior. The UCP and their MAGA supporters want to destroy Canada (a country that once mostly embraced a shared common good toward egalitarianism), kill those who subscribe to the public trust meanwhile destroying the Earth through global warming denial, deliberate inaction and actions that destroy our ecosystem. The UCP are made up of supremacists who are hell bent on destroying plurality, democracy, decency, justice, and peaceful existence – they are all about profit, money and their own gain. UCP supporters support world destroyers some of whom are convicted criminals, but that does not matter to UCP supporters because they are too stupid to realize that they are stupid. If Poliovirus or any other number of pathogens become viral, people will be dropping like flies and the UCP conservative people will be dancing on the graves of the dead and dying. The UCP are murderous seditious traitors to their fellow humans, society and the planet.
There are interesting developments being reported around the work being not done to recall Minister Neudorf. Decamping to Montana for a few days should help further avoiding the questions about who is behind the stalling to get the petition going at all.
What will Danielle Smith do next to “protect” children? It would be incredibly stupid to attack trans kids at the moment. She’s already made them second-class citizens by taking away their Charter rights, so what’s the point? Why stop at trans kids when you can “protect” an entire generation? Perhaps she’ll cancel meningitis vaccines to align Alberta more closely with the US. Seems plausible and quite likely. Protecting kids sure is scary. You might be inclined to think her actions indicate that she doesn’t actually want to “protect” them at all, and that up is down, in is out, etc. What did the song say? You’ve got to be cruel to be kind. This is that. Alberta has no problem with rampant childhood diseases that main and kill. It’s cruelty in the name of kindness, or something.
As for the ER deaths and the obvious massive (intentional?) systemic collapse of our health system in preparation for sale to US companies in time for the planned invasion of Canada, or what have you, is it possible that one or more of them was a dissected aorta? I know that there is an illness circulating right now that no one is supposed to mention because we are living in the post-science, post-fact, post-truth era, but until we acknowledge that we are still living in a world-wide pandemic that is still killing people with great regularity, we will not be able to properly deal with the matters at hand. For your consideration:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8817949/
“The ECG can be completely normal in aortic dissection…”
https://emergencymedicinecases.com/ecg-aortic-dissection/
Let us not lose our humanity, Alberta. Real people with real families are dying as a consequence of our government’s actions and inactíons. You and your family could be next. We are heading down the path of no return. Have a nice day!
Dr. Parks was interviewed the other day on this subject here:
https://youtu.be/nZIUpRIY-c4?si=t9U9Py7jpOysV-wI
Once again, Smith is pandering to the extremists who have taken over her party. I suppose she owes her political resurrection to them. Without the anti vax crowd so stirred up by COVID, Kenney or someone similar might still be in charge of the UCP instead.
Now there is the separatist element she is also pandering too. However a bunch that can not run a health care system probably can not run a country well either.
The UCP will of course likely again express surprise and denial about the state of health care. Although between dismissal of proper health procedures and neglect it is no surprise it is in a shambles now. Add to this no new hospitals have been built in Edmonton since the 1980s. The UCP owns this problem also since they cancelled the new one proposed in 2018.
It is especially bad that Smith and her bunch seem to be driving our health care into the ground even faster than similar zealots running the US health system.
And this is why the child-free should never hold public office — they are no more than children themselves, and any notion of responsibility is going to be seriously f’d up.
Two of them in a row. What luck!
What nonsense. Take a look around please. All of these lunatics in the UCP (with the exception of Danielle Smith) have children. And obviously people with children can be just as cruel and malicious and the child-free. Perhaps even more so because they take their cruelty and maliciousness out on their own children.
Correction! My comment should read: … “What nonsense. Take a look around, please. All of these lunatics in the UCP (with the exception of Danielle Smith) have children. And obviously people with children can be just as cruel and malicious AS the child-free. Perhaps even more so because SOME OF THEM take their cruelty and maliciousness out on their own children.”
AP readers can watch a recent 30 minute interview with Dr. Parks by going to “Energi Media”on Utube, and watching the “Alberta Heathcare Collapse” episode.
After years of trying, the UCP has finally succeeded in destroying heathcare in Alberta.
You could try the article here:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-edmonton-doctors-call-on-alberta-government-to-declare-state-of/
Danielle Smith’s end goal is the same as her hero, Ralph Klein. Weaken the public healthcare system in Alberta so much, so that the excuse comes to have it privatized. Nothing is surprising with the UCP anymore.
O’h please you Albertans; keep up the good work and export your disenchanted medics to BC!
TB
Rather than privatizing health care, I think it should be nationalized.
In September 2025, in Edinburgh, Scotland, my partner had a medical emergency. At the hospital, he was seen within 20 minutes. There were fewer than 15 people waiting, and all were seen quickly. Within an hour, he had blood tests and a CT scan. Within two hours, he had been admitted to hospital and given treatment. The hospital was spotless, and there was a public cafeteria offering healthy food, with lower prices for staff.
In 2022, he had a different medical emergency in Northern Ireland, and received similar, also excellent, treatment.
People don’t seem to remember that we used to have that level of care here.
If Alberta (and Canada, for that matter) want world class health services, it will cost. We need health care staff – doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, EMTs, hospital lab technicians and pharmacies.
Little by little, each part – the cleaners, the laundry, the food service – each has been parceled out to whoever can offer the lowest price. Visiting a family member recently at the Grey Nuns, I saw exhausted medical staff just trying to keep up with the sheer numbers of patients. And they were still kind, and still smiling, and apologizing for the hallway health care.
Is all of this Danielle Smith’s fault? No, but she has the power to fix it. The fact that she keeps trying different forms of administration rather than putting money where it is most needed (actual health care staff) just shows that she is more interested in power than in working for Albertans.
Useless Clowns Pretending much like MAGA……the destruction and privatization of public institutions is what the Corporate sponsors of this government want……is it what you want????the erosion of democratic principles and institutions???it’s time for the collective voices of canada and alberta to silence the corporates voices of the corporate state……the squeaky welfare wheel of rich CEO’S as henchmen to Billionaire bosses forever dictating policy to elected bought politicians…….Let’s not forget that Corporate Welfare is socialism…..there is nothing wrong with creating jobs with public money……but accountability must be first and foremost……smith and present company are nothing more than an extension of CEO henchmen Billionaire buddies siphoning off the heritage fund…..if it still exists that is…….enough is enough…..should I say UselessCP…
Apparently retired doctors in Edmonton have been urging people to Google the interview on the internet to see how bad the mess is in our healthcare system is because of Smith.
“ Alberta Health Care Disaster an Interview With Dr.Paul Parks”
He is proving what Dr.Sherman has been saying. Don’t get sick.
I think it’s important to recognize that while it is the physicians getting all the attention in the media and on social media, other health care professionals have been speaking out on this issue for far longer. But physicians are at a distinct advantage in going public, because by and large they are not Employees. Nurses and allied health professionals have to be very careful in speaking publicly, lest they find themselves caught up in the employment law doctrine of “fidelity” to their Employers, and end up disciplined or even terminated for cause.
To get around that, many have their unions speak out on their behalf, and they do so quite effectively — full disclosure, I am a member and former Board member of one of those unions.
But the problem is, this government is so rabidly anti-union that it largely dismisses and discounts those interventions. So, the public and the media are left with the impression that it is only the doctors that have concerns. Nothing could be further from the truth — it’s just that we are screaming into the teeth of a hurricane, and nobody can hear us.