What was that strange "unsound"?

Did anyone else hear a strange sound earlier this week? In case you missed it, it was the sound of our NDP MLA's and party faithful exhaling due to a sudden (unfounded) opportunity to complain in the media about the BC Liberals.

The reason that you may not have heard this was because the sound was very nearly drowned out by the completely unsurprizing glass-half-empty tirades of NPD leader Carole James. Another sound we haven't heard for a while.

Last week Dr Penny Ballem resigned her post as Deputy Health Minister for reasons that no one but her really knows at this time. My impression of what I've read on it seems to indicate a difference in opinion, but then really all thats been said is that she feels that unspecified plans for health care are "unsound". What does this mean? In the real world people leave jobs all the time for a multitude of personal and professional reasons and it is not unusual for a person to disagree in principle with their boss or with a particular policy that they are exposed to.

In this case though, because the NDP has decided that health care is going to be their spring board to effectiveness, Ms James wants answers "immediately" as to the Premiers plan for health care, without providing the government opportunity to adequately investigate Dr Ballem's claim. While I don't know all of the Premiers future plans, I am aware of a few of the very "sound" things that the BC Liberals have done already and how we stack up at the moment compared to the rest of the country.

1. Healthiest place to live in Canada - BC.
2. Top performer in overall healthcare and use of the Medicare system - BC.
3. Best access to cancer treating drugs - BC.
4. Most efficient spending of health care dollars - BC at approx $2545 per person.
5. $3.8 billion increase in overall healthcare spending.
6. Significant increases in training for doctors and nurses.
7. Significant increases in knee and hip replacements and other surgeries.

Of course these are just a few examples. So is the system perfect? Maybe not yet, but it seems to me that healthcare in BC has received an awful lot of positive attention lately. Enough that I question whether or not anyone can describe the system as a whole as "unsound".