At the end of the NDP government's first full year in office (November, 2024), the Manitoba Nurses Union surveyed its members to the achievements of the new administration. The results, released last week, were a stinging rebuke to Wab Kinew and his touted reforms of health care in the province. By every measure in the survey, the NDP fizzled, flopped and failed. "Overall, grade the performance of the government in living up to its many promises with respect to improving health care and patient outcomes," asked the union. 66 percent of respondents said the NDP either failed-- and things have gotten worse-- or there was "no improvement, with things the same as before." The NDP promised they would hire hundreds of new nurses to open more beds and eliminate the mandatory overtime that was eroding nurse morale. "Grade the effectiveness of the government's staffing initiative on vacancy rates and/or nurse workload in your facility/site/program." 61 per...
The origin of the Usher of the Black Rod goes back to early fourteenth century England . Today, with no royal duties to perform, the Usher knocks on the doors of the House of Commons with the Black Rod at the start of Parliament to summon the members. The rod is a symbol for the authority of debate in the upper house. We of The Black Rod adopted the symbol to knock some sense and the right questions into the heads of Legislators, pundits, and other opinion makers.