report on Wed1210 | Slide show come Wed-Night and be photographed by Robert intro Wed1210 | big show | 1211 show Wed 1212 May 25th This week will provide a more than usually healthy debate. What ails you? What ails the healthcare system? What are the issues? What can/should we do? Are you most worried about the long. slow process surrounding the building of the Super Hospital? What about the new plans for the MGH? Is it the fate of the Shriners that has you stirred up? Is the problem really not the hospitals, but as Martin Dawes suggests, should we "focus on getting the family physicians & primary care sorted out first [and treat] super hospitals as an expensive digression to the real health care debate"? Finally, what is the importance of better-than-average healthcare to the economic well-being of Montreal? Is there a quantifiable impact on our city's economy? Would biotechnology flourish in the absence of super hospitals? Is primary healthcare a drawing card for a city? Dr. Alexandra Tcheremenska-Greenhill and her husband James will be with us this Wednesday as will Nico Trocmé , the recently-arrived Philip Fisher Chair in Social Work at McGill who is reshaping the Centre for Research on Children & Families, with a focus on finding out what really works - and under what conditions in family services, and making that information readily available to all practitioners. Brian Mitchell, the Conservative candidate in the Westmount-Ville-Marie riding, will be back. He seems to have enjoyed the challenge of his first Wednesday Night and now that there seems to be a breather before the next election, he is looking to Wednesday Night for serious education on a number of issues - of which healthcare is one. Please join us and be sure to check back here for links to these and other topics, breaking news, required reading .... Hope you have had a glorious long weekend, despite the weather. Wednesday May 25, 2005 tgaz Bank of Canada holds interest rates steady Wednesday May 25, 2005 ts Canada's economy 'sound' GDP is expected to outpace global average as OECD pegs growth at 2.8% for 2005 The "marked appreciation" of the Canadian dollar has restrained economic activity, but Canada's gross domestic product is still expected outpace the global average for industrialized countries, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said yesterday. , a report every two years on the economic health of developed countries, said Canada's economy might be operating "slightly below potential, although most economic fundamentals have remained sound." Wednesday May 25, 2005 ts OECD sees slower Canadian growth Global recovery in jeopardy WASHINGTON -- Canada and much of the rest of the world will grow more slowly than expected this year, jeopardizing the global economic recovery, according to a new forecast by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The Paris-based OECD cited the strong Canadian dollar for downgrading its 2005 Canadian growth forecast to 2.8 per cent from the 3.3 per cent it had predicted in its November survey. Press Conference 24 May 2005 OECD Economic Outlook No. 77 Preliminary Edition, May 2005 Wednesday May 25, 2005 tsLeading indicator positive in April OTTAWA—The leading indicator, a forecast of economic health, rose 0.4 per cent in April, its biggest jump since last fall, Statistics Canada said yesterday. Wednesday May 18, 2005 mwU.S. new-home sales notch new record in April Wednesday May 25, 2005 cc Canaccord Capital More proof that the real estate craze is setting up for a Death-Star-like finale? Playboy's Miss May, Jamie Westenhiser, says she wants to abandon her modeling career to take up real estate investing. That is, after she uses her Playboy earnings to pay off her debts. You can't blame this 23- year-old former Hooters waitress for wanting in on the action. She is from Hollywood, Florida which has seen some of the most extreme price jumps anywhere. Wednesday May 25, 2005 tsU.S. House okays cash for embryos in research WASHINGTON—In a dramatic clash over U.S. President George W. Bush`s much-vaunted "culture of life," the Republican-led U.S. Congress ignored his veto threat and voted yesterday to extend federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Editorial The Gazette Monday, May 16, 2005 This is no way to plan a hospital The convoluted and endless planning of the new McGill University Health Centre took another sharp twist last week, as officials announced plans for major new capital investment at the Montreal General Hospital. This will involve a whole new building of about seven storeys, set into the side of the mountain, plus an addition to the existing building and renovation of all existing patient floors (NB 7-day archive of Gazette) Foreign MDs make inroads in province Number of doctors practising on rise; Couillard denies that Quebec's requirements are too tough despite physician shortages The Medical Reporter The Importance of Primary Care to Health "Primary care" doesn’t only mean having a certain kind of physician as one’s "regular source of care". It means having a doctor who functions in certain ways. This means providing access to services such that people seek care from that doctor whenever they have a new need for care or preventive services. It means having a strong relationship with that doctor, such that the doctor understands people’s needs and people feel comfortable telling the doctor about those needs. It means providing care for ALL needs that are common in the population and referring to specialists when the problem is too unusual or uncommon for the primary care practitioner to manage. It also means coordinating care so that when people do have to be referred elsewhere, the advice received is integrated into total care so that there are no conflicting recommendations that could cause harm (Importance of Primary Care to Health) Montreal Gazette, May 20 Superhospitals to share $10-million 'telehealth' centre Bell Canada donation will enable specialists to treat isolated young patients by Internet On 19 May 2005, Science publishes a study, by Hwang et al., that marks new progress -- via an improved method of somatic cell nuclear transfer -- toward the long- term goal of producing "patient-specifc" stem cell lines that might someday be used for human treatment [subscription only] BBC May 18, 2005 South Korean scientists say they have made stem cells tailored to match the individual for the first time. Each of the 11 new stem cell lines that they made were created by taking genetic material from the patient and putting it into a donated egg. Medical Post, May 3, 2005 Montreal unlikely to keep Shriners' children's hospital Search committee recommends London, Ont. for second time see The Shriners on WN Wednesday May 18, 2005 mwU.S. existing-home sales rise 4.5% in April to record level WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of existing U.S. homes rose 4.5% in April to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.18 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. The median sales price rose 15.1% from April 2004, reaching $206,000 -- the fastest year-over-year price gain in 25 years. May 15, 2005. tsLinda McQuaig says it's a myth that private sector saves public money Several years ago, a medical team at McMaster University produced a study that seemed to definitively prove privatization is bad for health care. After an extensive study of U.S. hospitals, the McMaster team concluded that private, for-profit hospitals have significantly higher death rates. Tuesday May 24, 2005 irppMedicare, Quebec Style, Has Opened the Way for a Lot of Private Clinics and Quebecers Don't Seem Perturbed IRP cyber-column by James Ferrabee, Sunday May 22, 2005 bbcBush 'would veto' stem cell bill US President George W Bush has said he will veto any legislation that would ease restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the United States. He was speaking a day after South Korean scientists announced they had made stem cells tailored to the individual for the first time. [God: You have his ear, please help him save lives] Sunday May 22, 2005 wnStem cells tailored to patients South Korean scientists say they have made stem cells tailored to match the individual for the first time. Each of the 11 new stem cell lines that they made were created by taking genetic material from the patient and putting it into a donated egg. Stronach, 37, will compete with former Alliance leader Stephen Harper and former Ontario health minister Tony Clement in the leadership vote that takes place March 19-21. Belinda Stronach Acknowledging that some would call these "motherhood issues," the 37-year-old divorced mother of two said: "Who better than a mother to ensure these values are always reflected in the actions of government?" Do See www.Belinda.com/ | belinda.ca? A few notes: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Karl Moore,, professor of business strategy, McGill University Beaudoin family's comeback plan Duration:6m 3s Congratulations to The National Post for the recent series on The New India. Meanwhile, the International Herald Tribune's Kristy Houghs focuses on India's poor, India's rise must not exclude millions who live in poverty Wednesday Night's own Cleo Paskal writes on India's unique take on the luxury hotel Harvard and Kuwait arrive together in the 20th century Lawrence H. Summers, the embattled president of Harvard University, announced yesterday that the university would spend at least $50 million over the next decade to recruit, support and promote women and members of underrepresented minority groups on its faculty. while Kuwait's Parliament granted full political rights to women on Monday, making way for them to vote and run for office in parliamentary and local elections for the first time in the country's history. The surprise amendment to Kuwait's election law ends a decades-long struggle by women's rights campaigners for full suffrage, and promises to redefine the city-state's political landscape. Canada makes it into international media Prime Minister Paul Martin lured a leading Conservative into his cabinet on Tuesday, giving him a crucial ally for a budget vote on Thursday on which the government will survive or fall. and the BBC:Canada defection boosts coalition The Bombardier saga continues "Of course, it's a risk,"(transport Minister) Lapierre conceded .... But he added that despite Bombardier having repaid little of the large sums it has received from governments over the years, "up to now, the government of Canada has never lost a cent on Bombardier. It has made money with Bombardier." Jean Lapierre, announcing that Ottawa, Quebec and the British government will contribute $690 million U.S. ($873 million) toward Bombardier Inc.'s proposed CSeries jets. and now we find we may be financing a glider Bombardier dealt a new blow Two consortiums vying to supply the engine for Bombardier Inc.'s new CSeries jets say they are no longer pursuing the project, dealing a blow to the Montreal plane-maker only three days after it secured $1.06 billion in government aid to build the aircraft. The story of repression in Uzbekistan is gaining worldwide attention, as the the U.S. squirms to defend its "ally in the war against terrorism" while condemning said ally's failure to adhere to the trumpeted spread of democracy. Brian Mitchell Hold the writ and keep on truckin' April 18, 2005 Tuesday Apr 12, 2005 np A Nobel Prize winner in economics, Joseph Stiglitz believes that the World Bank was hijacked by market fundamentalists' in the Eighties A Writer at Large: Hypocrisy and the IMF The International Monetary Fund Believes in Free Market Capitalism We would remind you that given the devoted following generated by Jacques Clément's Reports on the Economy, they are now published on their own special pages and are linked from each week's summary page. Last week Wed 1211 & Wed 1211 Summary a fine read Please click for Wed1210 page 2 Galbraith's of Wed1205 Album Read About W-N NP story on W-N Contact W-N & Map Brian Mitchell Lyda Letacq UNITED STATES Current Beige Book June 15, 2005 Fed reports growth in 11 of 12 regions Beige Book: Retail mixed, jobs improve, price pressure up Note Wednesday-Night creates charts and follows stocks, including timely related financial news items, in which Wednesday Nighters are interested and in order to demonstrate a service that could eventually be developed and marketed. Wednesday Nighters are invited to participate and help to test the service. see WN Flip charts QUOTES of the EVENING from recent Wednesday Nights From #1212 The great enemy of the Conservative party is time. Because they did not have time, they have been vulnerable There is a plan B (if the European Union referendum on the constitution fails) but we don’t know what it is [see: The Telegraph ] The spectacle of an East German-bred Thatcher is worth the price of admission ... (hourly wages and benefits which at) 38 Euros (in Germany, may be compared to the equivalent of ), 28 Euros in the United States and 1½ Euros in China. You can see where your next car is coming from. ... Capital is mobile, labour is not The future is unknown and unknowable, - therefore we make bets Whoever wins (the expected autumn German Election) will be unable to deal with the issues. That is why I am beginning to worry about the Euro I am certainly hoping that the re-built Reichstag cannot be burned easily I am betting on oil prices ... dropping very soon China will revalue the Yuan to a basket of currencies, weakening the U.S. dollar and strengthening the Asian currencies Bush telling you that it (stem cell research) is crossing a critical ethical line … it's amazing! From #1211 Belinda – the Paris Hilton of Canadian politics? Bombardier is selling the government a glider Is Robert Milton the Stephen Harper of the airline world? The Market thinks that the Fed is not going to raise interest rates very much more – they sniff that the end is near – and that is why the Market is going up Ron Meisels is the very best predictor of the turnaround point of the stock market Nobody should rely on the Chief Economist of CIBC Wood Gundy – he's only good for a Peter Mansbridge interview – but his assistant is excellent The document (EU Constitution) is so complicated one needs three Ph.D.s to understand it: one in Law, one in Economics and one in International relations You can't expect to hold a referendum in the summer in France and expect to win it – you are lucky to avoid barricades and revolution Some 80% of referenda fail because people prefer to say No than Yes, suggesting that political strategists should start thinking about double negatives in order to achieve Yes From #1210 This is a country and a province that is not productivity-oriented We see a risk on the horizon for Canada and it is the tar sands because it takes our minds off productivity growth In the last election Liberal voters in Quebec wanted to punish the Liberals; they still want to punish the Liberals for their flagrant misuse of public monies, but this time, they should have a viable alternative – the one offered by the new inclusive Conservative Party that reflects their interests and their communities The Bloc is the Conservative Party in Québec … the NDP is the protest vote The worst of all results would be a strong Conservative government in Ottawa with no representation from Québec Why should we vote for (the Conservative Party)? What message (do they convey) other than ‘throw the bums out'? (The Conservatives party has) signed a pact with the devil ... won’t fly in Westmount I am always delighted when an election is called so that we can welcome [Lucienne Robillard] back to Westmount The party in power gets its hands dirty In the last election, we said what we stood for and nobody believed us From #1209 We should try to imagine a world 20 years from now if the rate of consumption continues to increase, where the rest of the world cannot participate at all, where deaths from AIDS in Africa continue at the same rate – what could possibly make that world stable? How can we possibly live in that world? “In American universities, Russian teachers teach Chinese Students.” “It’s a shame that the same logic not taught in political science (as is taught in computer science).” You can’t say the Americans are the good guys and the others are the bad guys The rest of the world is buying up [American] assets at the rate of almost 2 billion dollars a day – this cannot continue without consequences Extremism comes from educated people who have learned to use the disaffection of millions of people If you were sitting in Falluja or in Hiroshima, whom would you have called the terrorist? American culture thrives on paranoia. ... but, they never have been paranoid about their own guns and their own cars I am surprised that you downplay the role of Muslim fundamentalists They used to think that only young hearts were acceptable, but they have come to the conclusion that a fifty-year old person in need of a transplant could use the heart of a fifty year old I predict that the Bloc will win 73 out of 75 seats in Québec, with the Conservatives winning the remaining two seats It is said that today Russian scientists teach physics to Chinese studentsin American universities [and, from the Gomery Commission] In retrospect I must admit that it was a pretty loose system From #1208 If the P.M. had left the status quo, nothing would have happened and everyone would have said ‘what a nice guy' Everything has combined against Martin, including his own ineptitude Harper is notably 'absent' on a number of fundamental issues – that's why people think he has a hidden agenda . I believe that the American right is talking to the Canadian right The Conservatives were prepared to tolerate the Liberals' corruption but not their budget They (The Conservatives) want to get into power by default, like Charest in Québec You will be living under a Conservative regime in four months From #1207 By our standards, the system (China) is bankrupt Interest rates will rise because people will not put up with exploding inflation, I would think ... within two years You should never look at your house as an investment According to the Economist, everyone should be renting for the next couple of years The line between inflation and deflation is very closely marked and oil prices can make the difference The world appears to be on the edge of a slowdown in growth Is this latest dispute between China and Japan, a sort of shot across the bow? It’s interesting how quickly the Chinese closed down the demonstration Every politician I have ever met has said: 'and say hello to your lovely wife' From #1206 Complex problems never get solved by simple solutions ... You make a small change and you can get massive problems. What you need is multiple pilot projects to measure results If China reaches the U.S. (in affluence), we die If I fail in my entrepreneurial experiment, I will want to go back to a third world country where I will be happy (in relative poverty) Education is very important, but it is not a resource. It is an understanding of a resource, the information about chickens, versus the chicken that we eat From #1205 If English is the lingua franca of the world, it will flourish. The same is true of French in Québec French would not have survived (in Québec) without Bill 101 Every five years we have a free choice, we vote (and elect the party best reflecting the will of the majority) The way of thinking of a culture is stored in language From #1203 G.M. is a perfect example of a company that did everything right. This is a good company which has now become a pension fund that makes cars Government pension funds are in a big crisis. What happens to people in (periods of) intensive technological change? More than ever, the state needs to become involved. Canada will not be exempt Energy is and will always be disturbing to the environment From #1202 Bernie Ebbers will be a lot better looked after [in jail] than the 20,000 people who lost their jobs because of him Securities legislation lets banks to secure their debt; there should be provisions in the law to put workers ahead of secured creditors, because they can least afford to suffer their losses You need someone at the World Bank with political clout, but the political agenda may not be in the best interests of mankind Out of a class of 30, there will be 3 or 4 who are engaged, questioning, seeking knowledge; the rest are 'floaters' who will do whatever it takes to pass the course The problem with education is that it has become an entitlement; in the past six years, it has become worse, – babysitting at the primary and secondary level, - job training at the university level. We have to change the way we think about what we consider an educated person From #1201 It is not the choice of the Americans to decide which Arabs die. Who gave us that moral authority? You cannot make people casualties of your benevolence Among my university students, the most frequent correction I make is 'this is not a sentence' It is a common belief that the U.S. invaded Iraq to grab oil, but actually it was to bring a large army in to cause political change. If it works, then we have to acknowledge that Bush was right While those [developments in the Middle East] are positive beginnings and I truly am hopeful that there will be more positive outcomes, I cannot accept that inappropriate policies may be vindicated, raising the prospect that they will be implemented at other times Is it a better thing to replace pictures of dictators with logos of Haliburton and MacDonalds? From #1200 If Quebecers stopped smoking tomorrow, the individual living in a major city (Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke), simply by being outside for 20 minutes a day, is breathing in the equivalent of a pack and a half of cigarettes because of the emissions of buses alone Every individual in this country has a right to medical care We need to do more to educate people to look after their health at a basic level (good nutrition, exercise) We have a shortage of physicians and we have a shortage of physicians in some crucial areas We don't have politicians who say to our society that the teachers and the healers are (at least) as important as entertainers and sports stars We also don't have federal politicians with the guts to tell the provincial politicians that there will be strings attached to federal monies While it does cost a billion dollars to develop and bring a new pharmaceutical product to the marketplace, what the public doesn't realize is that 80% of those costs are subsidized by the government in Ottawa or in Washington From #1199 It's not a budget, merely a wish list The conclusion from this might be that some element of compulsion and limitation of choices would enable people to retire with a more satisfactory income in retirement I don't think that there's anyone in this room who thinks that $20,000 is adequate for a sustainable life, but that's the poverty line in Canada There are three or four major risks that are being transferred to the individual in lieu of the guarantees that they would have otherwise had under the Social Security system or under a defined benefits scheme From #1198 (We don't need people who say) I want to see where the mob is going so I can lead it What I learned from the war is that we are all brothers and sisters, wherever we may live. Until you meet death in the eye, you don’t get what it is all about We all live on a precipice called civilization; it is so easy to fall over the edge If you want to break the cycle of violence, you have to stop teaching the history of atrocities People underestimate the difficulty of knocking off a leader. The reason that there is a dictator is that he [is the one who] has survived From #1197 The Chinese are basically capitalists. The question in communism is, ‘who holds the levers of power' There are opportunities for Canada to come in (to China) but [the Chinese] don’t want to deal with the Americans unless they have to The U.S. dollar is coming out of their (China's) ears and they know it is going to fall From #1196 We have to ask what would Canada be without NAFTA. ... Throughout the world, the small countries have always benefited from free trade The issue is not to be afraid of China but how to build up Mexico. ... The frontier for North America is in Mexico It is impossible to improve the situation that we have without a vision of what we want... The Americans don’t have a vision of North America If I were a Kurd being gassed by my countrymen, I would have wished that my country had been invaded The questions [on Social Security reform] are the right questions. Mr. Bush’s answers are the wrong answers This is not the first time the U.S. dollar has fallen and on both (previous) occasions, the U.S. economy boomed. It has fallen from an excessive value to a normal value and the economy will boom [again] Past Quotes Best or All Notes by Herbert Bercovitz OWN & Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson OWN 2005 W-N Links for #1212 Will France say 'Non' to the EU Constitution? The EU Constitution must be ratified by all 25 of the member states. The French vote on 29 May could well be a "No", and it is unlikely that France would hold a second referendum. However it seems that this will not have any impact on the dollar as markets have already factored in rejection by the French voters. Latest polls show 55% against in a coalition of extreme right and extreme left interests. Monday May 16, 2005 ts Powerbloggers turning to tags VANCOUVER— Joshua Schachter was working as a techie in the financial industry when he decided he needed a new way of organizing his growing collection of bookmarks — the list of websites he kept on his computer, in case he needed to revisit a site. Wednesday May 18, 2005 globe Ron Meisels sees strong bull He says the upward climb from August, 2004, to March, 2005, was simply the first stage of the final leg of the bull market, and the weakness seen since then is merely the second stage — a corrective phase. Still to come in the scenario he lays out in a recent market comment are the third, fourth and fifth stages, which would move the markets higher in a diagonal zigzag type pattern. “There is no doubt in our minds that the market is oversold and a significant upleg is about to begin,” he said. ...history back to 1885 that shows that S&P 500 has never declined in a year ending in five. The fact that the number of stocks trading above their 10-week moving averages is now as low as it was in October, 2002, when the bull market first began ... C$ gains on Stronach defection TSX up slightly on resource stocks The Canadian dollar reversed direction, moving 0.18 higher to 78.94 cents US after high-profile Tory MP Belinda Stronach defected to the Liberals. "Obviously, that slightly improves the odds of the Liberals surviving the vote on the budget on Thursday ... we have seen the Canadian dollar do marginally better,'' said George Davis, vice president and chief technical analyst RBC Capital Markets. Monday Apr 11, 2005 gaz Who will buy Grits' Kyoto strategy? "With oil prices going through the roof, does a fossil fuel tax make any sense at all?"   PETER HADEKEL Freelance Stephen S. Poloz VP EDC Economics Weekly Commentary Interest rate spreads: Risk retreat, or par for the course? - April 13, 2005 A frequently-cited measure of financial risk is the spread between interest rates on riskier bonds and risk-free U.S. Treasury bonds. Those spreads have widened suddenly in recent weeks, posing an important issue for economic forecasters. Past issues | his WN page The federal Export Development Canada agency predicts that export growth will slow to about three per cent in 2005 and 2006, compared with a rate of 5.6 from last year's growth rate. The EDC's report on exports forecast slow growth in 2006 as well, followed by a distinct improvement in subsequent years. The report founds its prediction on the fact that Canadian companies are becoming more productive by shifting more work abroad, particularly for low-productivity activities. The EDC says that the present is a good time to adopt such a business plan because the world economy is in the best shape in eight years. Maisonneuve Magazine with Derek Webster the Publisher ; a NewYorker Cartoon every 30 sec. see w-n Right Menu => Harper's | Home Canadian dollar vs euro | Dow 30 w-n chart | TSX Paul Martin click for Wednesday-Night Story by Terry Jones Stephanie Lalut on W-N