Canadian Socialism

You remember that line about African socialism?

"What's mine is mine — what's yours is ours."

What, then, is Canadian socialism?

"Our healthcare system is yours — my healthcare system is in the US."

An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors. [The Canadian way of treatment would have involved breaking bones.]

"This was my heart, my choice, and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

No, sir, this is not your heart, your choice, or your health. This is Canada's heart, Canada's choice, and Canada's health. Under socialism, you are the property of the state.

You did sign away your right to get the best possible health care for yourself when you agreed to become an agent of the system, when you entered politics as a welfare-state conservative. Talk the talk, walk the walk, break them bones.

"I would've been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that. That's public life," he said.

Well, you would have been rightly criticized. Canuck Six-pack would have died waiting for the bone-breaking treatment.

(Why is it that socialism and brutality always go hand in hand? Oh, yes, socialism consists of brutally forcing me to pay for your stuff. Trying to force me, that is. Even a system of brutality can be gamed.)

"I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but" I don't use it.

"God forbid for the Canadian public I won't be around longer than ever." That might open a spot in the line for Canuck Six-pack to survive. And we can't let that happen, can we, eh?

Gentle reader, the next time you fall for a line about the common good, remember: "All good is common, but some folks' good is more common than others'."

(Actually, there is no common good. There are only individuals, and only very few if any things are good for all individuals. Oxygen comes to mind. But I digress.)