Eight months, one budget and one contract later, Wab Kinew is staring at his worst nightmare---a nurses strike. Nurses at Manitoba's largest hospital, the Health Sciences Centre, have rejected the labour contract the new NDP government presented to them this month. Their bargaining committee has gone back to government to find some solution but the NDP has already told them there will be no more money, only words---possible changes to wording in the contract. MNU The NDP and Shared Health (Employer) has refused to work with the Manitoba Nurses Union to address concerns presented in the proposed contract. Should Shared Health Nurses vote in favor of a strike, delays in healthcare will be inevitable across the board in Manitoba. This is a slap in the face of the union's top leadership who have been Wab Kinew's biggest backers and who sold him to the public as the Great Saviour of health care in Manitoba. A nurses strike would be the second vote of non-confidence in
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.