For Premier Greg Selinger and the NDP government, looking for someone to blame when something bad happens has almost become a reflex response. Manitobans have, for the most part, grown weary of a government that has been in power for 14 years and yet seems to feel every problem is the fault of someone else or some past government.
This was taken to a new low last week following the tragic deaths of two Winnipeg men. Each had gone to the Grace Hospital Emergency Room, just a couple of days apart, and both were sent home from the ER by taxicab in cold December temperatures after being seen and discharged.
Neither man made it into their home after being dropped off. One died of an apparent heart attack and the other of an aneurysm and each were found near their homes by a passersby. Instead of immediately wondering why these individuals were released from the Emergency Room and sent home in a cab only to die before making it into their front doors, the NDP was looking to deflect blame. When these deaths became public, the NDP Minister of Health, Erin Selby, quickly called a news conference to say that she would be putting more restrictions on cab drivers who drive patients’ home from the hospital.
It seems unbelievable that the first response of the NDP Minister of Health was to crack down on cab drivers and not to examine why these two people were sent home in a taxi cab from the Emergency Room on a cold night and whether hospital protocols were followed.
There is no evidence to suggest that assistance by the cab drivers would have done anything to prevent the deaths of either of these individuals and yet the government’s first response was to call into question their actions.
It’s a shameful pattern that has been going on for years. Premier Greg Selinger routinely blames his troubles balancing the budget on the provincial government of two decades ago or on the current federal government. Almost every problem seems to be someone else’s fault.
The decision to immediately point at Winnipeg cab drivers isn’t disturbing because it is something new for the NDP government, it’s disturbing because it leaves Manitobans to believe that the government is more concerned about assigning blame than it is about fixing problems. The deaths of discharged patients from the Emergency Room is something that needs to be carefully examined and publicly reported to see what went wrong and what is being done to fix it.
The NDP government’s decision to quickly point the finger at taxi cab drivers makes it clear their top priority is to protect themselves, not Manitobans.
