Legal Commentary

'Call a Canadian'?

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

I can’t decide if this is smart politics or an invitation to thousands of horrible intrusions on the private lives of innocent people.

Call a Canadian : Effect Measure

Back in the days when Quebec was a referendum in the Province on whether to secede from the rest of Canada, there was a campaign from outside to call a Quebecois to tell them that Quebec was a valued part of the country. People dialed their own phone number but with a Quebec area code. Mr. Link suggests that Americans start a similar campaign to Call a Canadian:

Want to know what universal single-payer health care is really like? Do people die on gurneys waiting for operations? Would you pay through the nose in taxes? Is it really worry free? Instead of listening to “experts” from the health insurance industry, lobbyists, the government, or even Michael Moore, why not call an average Canadian and find out for yourself?

Substitute your area code for a Canadian one listed below and call your own phone number. Introduce yourself and ask the person at the end of the line what they think about their health care system. Ask about their own experience. The service, the price, the choice, whatever.

Then make up your mind if single-payer universal health care is a good idea for the USA.

Canadian Area Codes:

• 709 Atlantic Time plus a half hour
• 506 and 902 Atlantic Time
• 819, 418, 581, 450, 613, 514, 438, 343, 416, 647, 905, 289, 705, 519, 226, 807 Eastern Time
• 204, 306 Central Time
• 867, 780, 587, 403, 587 Mountain Time
• 250, 778, 604 Pacific Time

Somehow, I just can’t shake the idea that most foreigners would just as soon not find a strange American on the line quizzing them about health care (or anything else for that matter).

Full post as published by Discourse.net on May 07, 2009 (boomark / email).