Last week, a group representing Ontario’s Community Pharmacies sent flyers to Liberal Ridings across Ontario, suggesting those local MPPs were cutting front line health care.
Within that mailer was a quotation pulled from a letter to the editor that was published in our paper from local pharmacist Joe Walsh. Within a few short hours of that flyer reaching homeowners we received an email from Ottawa, inquiring if we knew that it looked like we were endorsing the campaign by pharmacists.
Truth be told, we knew nothing about the flyer until then and our efforts to contact the organization seem to have fallen on deaf ears. The marketers involved had a job to do and it would appear their focus dealt with stirring up as much action as they could without regard for simple professional courtesies that we would expect from an organization of that size. Certainly, Canadian Press is not in the habit of providing endorsements either, so, for the trained eye, that flyer was curious.
Regardless, the vote on the subject will take place around the same time people get their Advertiser this week. In a sense, we don’t have the option of not offering an opinion or comment, since the flyer was sent to a good part of Wellington County.
For us, we have incredible sympathy for the local pharmacists caught up in this change of rules.
The two most active stores on this issue locally have been Walsh’s Pharmacy in Arthur and Rockwood Pharmacy. Their story is quite similar in that both have moved in recent months to satisfy the growing needs of their respective communities. Both could have easily continued as they had in the past. In the case of Walsh’s, that store has served Arthur faithfully for around 60 years and made a significant personal investment in the future of Arthur’s downtown.
Both storeowners provide thoughtful service to clients and actively participate in their communities. Who could ask for a better set-up?
But, as has happened to countless other groups in Ontario during the reign of Premier Dalton McGuinty, things just seem to happen. Perhaps that statement is a little unfair, since politicians from the beginning of time have all had a knack for pulling the rug out from under citizens, but McGuinty seems to have it down to an art.
Consider the following:
Greenbelt legislation dropped on developers and farmers overnight.
Windmills dropped on citizens and approved with no meaningful notice.
Hospitals promised and continually delayed.
Minimum wages increased without real discussion, forcing retailers to increase prices, negating a net benefit to wage earners.
Health care taxes implemented after pledging, in writing, to not increase taxes.
Harmonized Sales Tax is being brought in without effective consultation and, lately, we hear an 11th hour admission that it will cost Ontario families more under that new tax.
Funding for special schools was opposed during the election and then supported after McGuinty was safely in office once more.
The clean trillium logo has all but been erased from memory in favour of a design more in keeping with the Liberal party logo.
Regrettably, as long as directly unaffected people choose to ignore what happens to others around them, this government will continue to govern without meaningful consultation.
Thanks Ken and Brenda
Little KaTy’s Variety, the convenience store of choice for generations of Elora people, has closed its doors.
While we have been unable to gather full details from its owners, Ken and Brenda Taylor, we extend best wishes on whatever the future holds for having done so much for their village over the years.
