19 months

That's how long it took the Harper government to wreak complete and utter havoc on Canada's medical system.

When the Chalk River reactor was shut down in December, 2007, Harper and his gang of thugs had a choice. They could deal with the situation temporarily and get down to work developing viable alternatives to the aging Chalk River reactor and a looming medical isotope crisis, or they could stand around screaming their lungs out about how this is nothing but an attempt to make them look bad.

In short, the simple choice was to either govern on behalf of all Canadians or play politics on their own behalf.

The Harper crowd chose to play politics. (Original quote from the Globe and Mail, 13 Dec. 2007)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed yesterday that someone will be held to account for the shutdown of the reactor that produces half of the world's medical isotopes as his government searched for culprits to blame in its battle with the country's nuclear regulator.

"I can certainly assure the House that when this is all behind us, the government will carefully examine the role of all actors in this incident and make sure that accountability is appropriately restored," Mr. Harper said in the House of Commons.

Nothing about actually solving the problem; nothing about going into the future; nothing about actually governing.

There was a solution, perhaps even a number of them, but they were blinded by their warped ideology and their lust for blood. Typical of the type of hard-right, social conservative animal that populates the Harper party, they felt it important to present themselves as authoritarians.

They did the only thing they knew how to do and chose punishment over planning and progress. Harper fired the only person who had a clear view of the situation, claiming that Linda Keen was a Liberal appointee who was obviously trying to undermine Harper's authority.

It's worth examining for a moment the reason Harper and his circle-jerk of ministers believed Keen's motivation was anything but professional. It's because that's what they would do and they have proved it through an endless stream of advertising smearing anyone or anything that has the slightest appearance of political opposition.

Instead of spending 19 months putting together a comprehensive solution to a problem of which they were made fully aware, they ignored it and instead gave us oil-blots, crapping Puffins and criticism of anybody who actually possesses a world-view beyond their authoritarian bubble.

And now, today, we get this. (My emphasis)

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt issued a joint statement saying they are disappointed the repairs will be delayed. They said the shutdown will result in a significant shortage of medical isotopes in Canada and around the world this summer.

“I have directed AECL to give paramount priority to bringing the Chalk River reactor back to service as quickly and safely as possible and will hold AECL accountable to that end,” Ms. Raitt said in the statement.

Roger. Another splat of authoritarian garbage from yet another incompetent Harperite. No plan; no real effort; just a promise to do what the Harper sycophants do best - punish somebody.

Canadians are going to die of diseases having not been diagnosed in a timely manner because of an isotope shortage that the Harper government knew about 19 months ago. Between then and now they have produced nothing. No plan; no solutions; no action. Just threats of punishment.

This is supposed to be a group which understands how to do business and run corporations. The truth is, if they ran a large company the way they run this country the shareholders would tear their guts out at an annual general meeting.

This country is in desperate need of a government.

Now, go read Impolitical.

Isotope Shortage Tracker

Hustle on over to Impolitical where you'll find an interesting web gadget - The ISOTOPE SHORTAGE TRACKER.

Once you're into the map you can monitor updating information providing the effects of the medical isotope shortage brought about by the shut down of the Chalk River NRU reactor and the bungling of the Harper government.

You can also click on the image above to get there.

Yes, Chantal, but for one curious action

Chantal Hebert makes an interesting point in describing the words of Harper natural resources minister as typical of "back-channel conversations... assessing events and their relative place in the larger picture of... a government's work."

And, as Dr. Dawg points out there are few among us who, in what we believed to be private circumstances, could not be accused of musing on the competence of colleagues or verbalizing our personal satisfaction at the chance to turn an unfortunate event into a personal opportunity.

We would, of course, not expect those occasions to be indelibly logged into the annals of history on a recording device. Nor, apparently, did Lisa Raitt

Hebert's point is interesting, but I have difficulty with the basic posit of her piece. The, "We all do it", defence is far too lenient in this case. This was not a discussion between editors behind closed doors about a juicy news item; this was a federal cabinet minister discussing what was a building medical crisis. That it got recorded, intentionally or inadvertently, gives us a look at that cabinet minister's true motivation to deal with that crisis - and it wasn't a higher calling to public service. Private or not, the recorded conversation revealed Raitt's true character - that of a self-serving careerist.

Politicians of all persuasions and levels spend millions of dollars attempting to have their public image portrayed in a particular way. They are trying to persuade voters to see only a noble, dedicated and morally superior public servant, despite what may constitute their own true characters. If they are, in fact, self-serving careerists, that nature is buried under layer upon layer of advertising intended to steer attention as far away from that character trait as possible - hopefully to the point where everyone will believe something completely different or, at the very least, accept that the camouflage is working.

To wit, dressing up one of the outwardly nastiest and meanest politicians in Canadian history in a sweater vest, holding kittens in an attempt to portray something other than his true, and previously well-documented, self. Lipstick on a pig. Or, more accurately, false advertising.

Does this matter? Apparently it does. If it were otherwise political parties would not go to the lengths they do to vet candidates and reject those who have so little as an embarrassing moment in their past.

So, despite the "Everyone does it", defence, Raitt deserves both the scrutiny and the outrage for her words because, when she was applying to the voters she was selling something completely different. It doesn't matter who else does it. If you are in a position of having sold yourself one way, even though most might believe that to be little more than Hollywood embellishment, and it can be proved that the product is of a different standard, you deserve to be raked over the coals.

It goes further than that however. From the moment the Raitt recording started to surface somebody in the Harper ranks went into damage control causing light to shine in areas where the spin merchants like to keep it dark.

Supposedly, Jasmine McDonnell offered her resignation over leaving "secret" files laying around in TV studios. (There's a private conversation I would have like to have heard.) Offering and accepting resignations is, in almost all areas of government, the code for "Sacked", normally in a very unceremonious fashion. Yet, here was someone who was supposedly out in the cold suddenly scrambling of to Halifax to suppress the recorded conversation of her former boss.

It means she knew what was on that recorder and it is not an unreasonable leap to believe that Raitt was also very aware of the contents. It also appears that the knowledge of the recorder's contents extended to the Prime Minister's Office.

Yet, Kory Teneycke tells us that the "government was not involved" in attempting to muzzle the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. He has to say that, of course. Any proof of PMO involvement would immediately lead to charges of deliberately attempting to limit freedom of the press and a Charter violation. So, we are to believe that McDonnell was acting on her own, without her former minister's instructions, without a desperate personal order from on high. That, or she was a Conservative party member acting as a "volunteer", something Teneycke has done by pulling himself off the payroll for a day so he could roll-out attack ads.

It's too convenient and, now that Raitt has given us a further example of Harperite conservative character, far too difficult to believe.

Finally, there is this little bit of burning fuse in Ms. Hebert's article. (Emphasis mine)

So confident was she that she would overcome the problems plaguing the Chalk River nuclear reactor and the recurrent isotope shortage that results from them that she saw a silver lining in playing the lead role on the issue. (This was back in January. A successful outcome has yet to be achieved.)

That's right, it was back in January. Which means that the Harper government was fully aware that they had a massive crisis brewing. How much information did anyone actually get about the Chalk River problems back in January?

Next to none. Unless you were going here, you were getting nothing. While the Chalk River reactor problems and an impending shortage of medical isotopes loomed, the Harper Conservatives were misusing SECRET stamps, suppressing information and hiding both expenditures and facts.

That recording is more than "embarrassing" for the Harperites.

And now the inevitable tearful apology: More lipstick on the same pig. I'm speaking for myself alone when I state categorically that I reject Lisa Raitt's apology in its entirety. We already know what you are.

Coincidence? It seems the pundits are out in force trying to defend Lisa Raitt for being so... Harper Conservative. For every pundit, however, there seems to be a citizen quite willing to bite back with a much more compelling argument.

And the "sex" just keeps on comin'

The operators of the High Flux Reactor at Petten in the Netherlands are attempting to make up for the loss of production of medical isotopes created by the shut-down of the Chalk River reactor in Canada.

Petten was meeting about 60 percent of the European demand for medical isotopes and is now expected to help solve the "sexy" problem exacerbated by the hillbilly politics of the Harper government and natural resources minister Lisa Raitt.

And Raitt assured everyone that even with Chalk River down, there were other sources of supply of vital medical isotopes.

Oops! Not so fast there Lisa. A competent minister would have known this:

Officials at the main European reactor that produces medical isotopes have their fingers crossed that the shuttered Chalk River facility will be running by early next year, when they must close their own operation for five to six months.

"It would be pretty difficult to see how the medical community could manage to cope if we have to go out for a long period before the (Canadian) reactor gets back," said Kevin Charlton, commercial manager of isotope supply at the Petten HFR reactor in the Netherlands.

While Petten had been supplying MDS Nordion with a small amount of moly-99 it has now ramped up and is providing 50 percent more than prior to the Chalk River shut down.

But, there's more.

The Petten HFR is also an old reactor. In 2002 it was cited for safety issues and the reactor was shut down because of a leak. (See any similarities yet? Don't worry, you will.)

Skip forward to August 2008. The Petten HFR had been shut down for a month-long routine mantenance period when a problem was discovered in the piping systems. Instead of a 21 August restart, the reactor remained out of service until February 2009, creating a critical shortage of medical isotopes throughout Europe. Add to that problem the fact that the Belgian reactor was also shut down and, well... nuclear medicine departments all over Europe were pulling their hair out.

There's more.

The Petten HFR has a mandatory shut-down coming up. The repair that got them running in February 2009 was a temporary fix. The Netherlands government has ordered NRG, the operators of Petten, to replace the primary cooling water system by March of 2010, involving a major and protracted shut-down.

The IRE reactor in Fleurus, Belgium, has had safety issues, not the least of which was a radiological accident which contaminated workers.

Just more "sexy" stuff which the Harper government doesn't think you need to know.

Sexy?!

Ya think?

Well, let's give the conservative schoolboys a chance to wipe themselves. (emphasis mine)

In the recording, MacDonnell said the isotope issue is "confusing to a lot of people."

"But it's sexy," Ms. Raitt said. "Radioactive leaks. Cancer."

Yup. That's sexy alright. If you've reduced public service to "what's in it for me?" and you consider a cancer patient as nothing more than a political talking point at Question Period.

And that is exactly what Raitt has done. The possibility that anyone, anywhere, is suffering as a result of her failings totally escapes her.

The morbid bitch. She just gave this country the worst dose of penicillin-resistant syphilis you can imagine because she wanted the "sex".

Fix it?

She can't. She's horribly diseased.

Trying to hide something? CPoC candidates and their blogs (Updated)

BigCityLib has done the heavy lifting and pulled the veil off Toronto Centre CPoC candidate and raving nutball, Chris Reid.

Reid used to have a publicly accessible blog which has suddenly been reduced to members only. If you look for it you get this. Apparently Reid would rather not have people flipping through his archives. Too bad about Google cache and M.J.'s persistence.

Then we have Halton CPoC candidate Lisa Raitt running her Official Campaign Blog. Impressive! Except that Raitt, after realizing that the "comments" section of her blog meant people were going to actually offer their opinions on her views and those of her maximus leader, diddled with the "comment" section until (at time of writing) it vanished completely. Canadian Cynic was maintaining a Death Watch on Raitt's blog, (death being the complete elimination of the comments section of the blog), and as we can see, CC didn't have to waste much time. One day.

By comparison, and since he's running in the same Halton riding as Raitt, take a look at how Liberal candidate (and incumbent) Garth Turner runs his blog.

At least Reid and Raitt are on the same page when it comes to listening to their prospective constituents. If elected, they will absolutely, positively, 100 percent, represent everyone... who agrees with them.

On the other hand: Red Tory has a point. Until Raitt removes the word "blog" from her.... whatever that is... there is still life to be sucked out of it. In fact, Raitt might want to eliminate her "articles" thing (ersatz-blog) altogether since most of her readers are coming from the left-to-centre readership of progressive and reality-based blogs. In short, she's getting some excellent exposure as a joke.