The Black Rod

It's hard to say who's the most contemptible--- Nahanni Fontaine, Manitoba's "Families" Minister, or Wab Kinew, Manitoba's Premier? The day Charlie Kirk was murdered, Nahanni Fontaine showed the compassion she's known for, by sharing an Instagram post by one of her contacts in the United States. "Charlie Kirk was a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, Islamaphobic, sexist, white nationalist mouthpiece who made millions of dollars inciting hatred in this country...I extend absolutely no empathy for people like that." wrote  "che jim", a self-described comedian and "indigenous cultural consultant in drug and alcohol sobriety". That just about covers every single far-left bugaboo except Nahannie's favorite---colonizer of stolen land. The purpose of reposting a message is a) to demonstrate you agree wholeheartedly with the message, b) to distribute the message to as many people as you can, and c) to earn brownie points from your r...

The grand love affair is over. No, not Harry and Meghan. We're talking the Manitoba NDP and the Manitoba Nurses Union. It was a match made in woke heaven---the NDP's sweet-talking Wab Kinew and a giddy, love-starved union walking hand-in-hand while whispering sweet nothings to each other. But what began with canoodling during the 2023 election campaign has, alas, ended in a slow slide of recriminations, broken promises, and enough gaslighting to illuminate foggy London. At the start, the future was so shiny. Magic Wab would walk the land scattering fairy dust everywhere.  Emergency rooms would burst from the earth and rivers of nurses would flow to depleted hospitals and nursing homes.  Such (election) promise.  And, oh, the months of pillow talk... The NDP announced with great fanfare that they would immediately begin "fixing "healthcare" by conducting "listening tours". They would visit health-care centres across the province to hear from nurses, doct...

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...

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 ...