There’s a lot of anger directed at the government for Edmonton’s hospital crisis, and rightfully so. Decades of underfunding, bed cuts, and lack of planning have left our system stretched to its limits. But it’s important to understand that this is not something that can be fixed overnight, even with political will.
Edmonton currently has four acute-care hospitals serving a population of roughly 1.19 million people. The population has more than doubled since the last hospital was built in 1988. Based on standard planning ratios, the city would ideally have five or six hospitals today, and realistically could need seven hospitals if we account for continued population growth over the next decade.
Building a single acute-care hospital is a highly complex, multi-year process. Planning and approvals alone, including needs assessments, site selection, funding, and public consultation, can take two to four years. Design and tendering, which includes architectural planning, contract awards, and hospital-specific equipment procurement, can take another one to two years.
Construction itself generally takes three to five years per hospital. Two hospitals could be built in parallel, which might shorten this to three to five years, but sequential construction could take six to ten years. Finally, hiring and training staff, installing equipment, and licensing the facility adds another six to twelve months.
Even under ideal conditions, building two hospitals would realistically take close to ten years. During that time, Edmonton’s population will continue to grow, which means the need for hospital capacity will only increase.
This is why emergency room overcrowding, ICU gridlock, and hallway medicine are structural problems, not the fault of nurses, doctors, or triage staff. Political anger is justified, but logistics and reality do not bend to outrage.
In the meantime, it’s crucial to support frontline staff and advocate for interim solutions like ICU expansions, modular units, and community health initiatives. Long-term, strategic investment in Edmonton’s healthcare infrastructure is the only way to prevent these crises from becoming permanent.
Let's get started now then, because I can only imagine what it will look like in 10 years if we don't.
It sounds like the tree planting scenario. The best time to build a new hospital was 30 years ago. The second best time is now.
This is the only answer. Forty years of neglect is no reason for it to continue. The work will be hard and we need better people than those presently in power to make those hard decisions.
Old Greek proverb
“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.”
Or in this case hospitals we won’t use. We need to build for our children’s future for once.
In our case, the old men chopped down the tree, sold the wood and the land, and insist on charging us rent so we can enjoy the shade which doesn't even exist anymore. Oh, and they're threatening to evict us.
James Baldwin has a saying for this.
"The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. You do not need ten such men. Only one will do."
beautiful saying. i’m going to keep that.
UCP are god at announcing hospitals, announcing Red Deer for 6 years and never spent a dime. Now we get the same bs with Stollery and south Edmonton. All hat and no cattle
"The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose. You do not need ten such men. Only one will do." - James Baldwin
Precisely. This is just proof positive we need to be in the proceed of building multiple hospitals RIGHT NOW.
We were with an NDP government…
I remember the super lab that was built and ready to go... And got shut down in the middle of a global pandemic that really could have used a super lab...
UCP actually paid $200 million to have it not built, would have made their DynaLIFE deal untenable. They had already accepted the bribes!
I don't understand how this is such an insane concept for some. You don't build infrastructure for what you need today, build for the future. We're in a constant state of catching up.
Same argument presented above is why we don’t have energy independence from the US.
No better time than now to act.
Conservatives keep gaslighting people into believing it’s too late, well is it too late for them to keep fucking their constituents with a smiling face?
Instead of wasting $billions on a pipeline we sb spending billions on a million bpd refinery and be shipping gasoline, diesel and jet fuel down the TMX and make a little profit. No worries about approvals, a spill with refined products is no problem and maybe Alberta gets a share for a change as opposed to just Americans.
Excellent idea to start now, except the government doesn’t want to build more hospitals. They’d rather use this as a moment to say that private healthcare should be a priority as obviously the public healthcare system is inefficient. Even if they’ve pushed things too far from lack of funding, people will believe the official line.
Your points are largely valid, but the NDP announced a new hospital in Edmonton eight years ago. Had it not been cancelled by the UCP, it may very well be operational now.
https://albertapolitics.ca/2024/05/7-years-ago-the-ndp-announced-the-location-of-a-south-edmonton-hospital-thanks-to-the-ucp-it-will-probably-never-be-built/
Those darn NDP. Always trying to serve Albertans and fix the problems!!!!!
But, but, but ANDP spend money and that is bad! Never mind the fact that it is much more useful spending than $4000/bottle tylenol or a $250,000 carpet, or millions to a coal billionaire.
Or the fact that the hospital already had tons of money spent on it, so there is millions more pissed away by cancelling it
If UCPers were really entrenched in hating the NDP for spending money on infrastructure, they would boycott the West Ring road and cancer centre in Calgary (two things the PCs continually kicked down the road).
And after NDP built the cancer Center, UCP wouldn’t fund the staffing leaving it half used, same with the Mis ER expansion. Childish
The UCP even included the Edmonton SW site while they were campaigning.
And those 125 schools, 4 of which were built, 2 of the private.
And I wish they hadn't. I'm not arguing the UCP debacle, I'm just thinking about the timeline.
If we don’t start planing to build one now, we will be further behind in 10 years.
You got that right.
Who is arguing that we aren’t? The city had already approved a hospital to be built in the SE. the UCP cancelled it. This is the problem with the PC govt… they always wait until it’s far past too late, then do a big unveiling of a decision to build something, like they are doing us this huge favor… when in reality they are one to two decades behind. Just like they did all this “school accelerator” program nonsense like they are doing some huge favor… when in reality it was them who underfunded it and waited until it was in total chaos, before they spend the money. They like to be the heroes of their own decisions, and Alberta voters are dumb enough to keep falling for it.
Reminds me of this SNL skit
Check out this video, "stupid vote snl" https://share.google/qhuoCxzdU3zGrEPMr
But they never build anything, only announce it over and over
Voting out the UCP is a necessary first. They want health care to collapse. So they can profit from privatization.
Yes it is. IF we accomplish that there will be pain as education and healthcare are so far underwater and aish and other stuff the UCP have cut, a new ANDP government will have to do a lot of spending to fixing the shit stains the UCP left behind. The spending will either come from deficits or more taxes or a combo of the two. The UCP and the PCs left such a GD mess it will take 2 decades or more to get out of it and ONLY if resource revenues stay fairly high. At the present time we can assume that the UCP and many Albertans will blame high spending and deficits all on the mess made by the ANDP.
Won't matter which government is in power. The logistics remain the same, and this will not be good.
Yes it matters as the UCP will not even START the process.
I understand large scale project planning, not contesting your general points.
I should have added that we are 20 to 30 years behind as well. I guess we could blame them as well.
Guess we blame whoever was in power back then for failing to plan. The PC's. Taken over by the UCP.
Long term capital planning requires some foresight and commitment. Hospitals, schools, water and electric grid, highways. Governments play around far too much with these plans.
The best time to start was yesterday. If they have not, then start today. Every day of delay makes it worse
You are so spot on with this.
You’re forgetting that the party currently in power has no plan or desire to act now. So even though in any party would take a decade to build a hospital, in reality the current party starting in power will mean an even longer time
That was the point of my post.
That is a blatant lie if ANDP will build infrastructure and the UCP won't it definitely matters which government is in power
The timeline remains the same, I'm afraid.
No timeline should be completed in Edmonton and coming to an end in Calgary so you can keep lying to yourself
No lies here. Just the facts, I'm afraid.
Fail to plan? Plan to fail.
The UCP motto.
“We r tha party of flaw and odour” - Official UCP Website 2026
I just had to think of the timeline and how much trouble we're in. Doesn't matter what government takes over, this is going to be a problem.
And who made the problem worse by cancelling a hospital in south Edmonton that would have been opening next year?
I've said it many times that nobody is arguing that. We've got a 30 year old problem here, and we can't ignore that MASSIVE fact.
The UCP Premier idolizes that government of 30 years ago, so how are they different?
Almost like the NDP started the proccess to fix this and the UCP cancelled it.
Heritage Valley would.be operational by now if the UCP did not cancel it.
I think it would have been finished in 2027, but that is only a few years away and now vaporware with the UCP.
We would have had the super lab, that would made a difference.
We could have also opened lots of urgent care, one level below emergency, and a level above walk in clinics to remove pressure from ER's and hospitals.
But na, we just send healthcare funds to private clinics and ignore public infrastructure as its hard to grift that way.
That’s not even really ‘a few years away’ anymore. 2026 starts in 2 days. If this conversation happened a week from now we could literally say “Next year we would have had a new Hospital in Edmonton.”
I don’t think anyone has said there’s a quick fix for the situation. But if the best time to start building a hospital was 5 years ago, today would be the second best time.
Right now, the UCP is heavy on promises and light on delivery.
I'd say this was a thing 20 to 30 years ago.
Yeah. Too bad there wasn’t a new hospital already in the works by the NDP and then cancelled by the next government.
I agree. But I just had to look at the logistics and timeline. We are clearly in a bad spot.
And dont forget most of the 4 separate health agencies involved in the hospitals now.
That's a great point. I should have added this.
All of which was well underway for the new Edmonton Hospital, which was axed by the UCP. Thousand of days of planning across multiple ministries and AHS, only for it to be tanked because there is a clear and present hate for Edmonton from our provincial leadership.
I’m disgusted by the UCP, not just for the criminal underfunding of healthcare and education, but of anything that isn’t oil, gas, or pushing this province as far right as possible. Deregulation is going to be punishing for anyone who doesn’t make six-figures, and it’s going to happen across the board. Government services, healthcare, education, we are heading for massive user-pay systems that will punish the people who can afford it least.
Spare the lecture on how hard it is to plan a facility of this size and examine why the government decided to cancel the good work that had already been completed.
That's a great point, indeed. We're about 20 years behind I'm afraid.
I can’t even read this because of the run on sentences and lack of paragraph breaks.
Based on the title alone: you need new hospitals to house more beds. You need new hospitals to employ more nurses.
Yes, there is a Dr and nurse shortage, and the Province is setting us up to be forced into a two-tier system… but it’s hard to hire and retain staff if they are working in a drowning system.
Nothing is going to be a “quick fix” but you have to start somewhere, and building infrastructure seems to be a good place to start.
Sorry about the lack of paragraphs. That's my fault. I must not have the proper level of grammar to avoid having run-on sentences, but I assure you I did my best in my condition. Your input will be missed. Thank you for your time all the same.
Yes this is another result of a government that fails to plan. Or perhaps they have planned this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/alberta/comments/1pm2r24/smith_says_she_doesnt_believe_that_government/
Which government should take the lions share of the blame? The current one? Or 30 years ago?
Regardless, the timeline doesn't change. If we take the next 10 years from today to build 1 new hospital, we'll still be in the same spot due to population growth.
The government that continues to not take action. The UCP were elected in 2019 and shelved the South Edmonton hospital project, when there have been hospitals in Edmonton running at 100% capacity for years.
Please don't lose focus. We just can't build them any faster.
Expecting accountability from a government who isn't taking actions, isn't losing focus. The South Edmonton hospital was a project commitment from 2017 by the NDP, which the UCP promised to carry forward. But they didn't.
If you don't put a shovel in the ground, of course nothing will get done faster.
This wasn't about that. Everyone is aware. This was just factual statements.
What is the point of your comment:
>Please don't lose focus. We just can't build them any faster.
Because it comes across as saying they should be cut some slack, because they can't build them faster, when they cancelled an actual project.
My post was about the logistics. I'm not sure how I can make this any clearer. We'll just have to agree to disagree. Have a nice day.
And you asked who bears more responsibility? The government of 30 years ago? Or the government of today?
And I say, the government that currently cancelled the South Edmonton hospital bears responsibility for that decision. We were at capacity then and they chose not put shovels in the ground. Allow them to keep kicking the can down the road, doesn't get us out of this problem.
You have perfectly illustrated the problem with kicking the can down the road.
Not really true. We can actually build additional hospital capacity very quickly if we needed to. We just have a government that intentionally wants to sabotage the system so they can privatize it.
One new hospital? There are currently two brand new state of the art hospitals being built in Metro Vancouver. Three other hospitals are in the middle of major expansion projects. This despite the fact that the Premier of BC didn’t invite the entire planet to come here. He didn’t express a desire to double the population. Your Premier did all that, while building no new capacity. Those brand new Vancouver hospitals will act as a magnet for disgruntled Alberta healthcare workers once completed.
So then we'll be left with less staff. 🤔
In addition to the many good points made in this thread, I want to note that "just support our frontline medical workers" isn't a long-term strategy and isn't the UCP's strategy. Privatization also doesn't suddenly create new hospital beds or lead to an influx of medical workers. What privatization does is create barriers to use. That is the UCP's strategy: to make it harder for low income Albertans to get essential (and in the case of ERs and ICUs, life-saving) healthcare, so that high income Albertans have better access to the hospital system. We should call that out for what it is.
I couldn't agree more.
Paragraphs
Sorry, drinking.
If the ucp had not cancelled the planned hospital in SW Edmonton - the lot was built all plans were done and construction was set to start….10 years ago ….guess what. We’d have one.
Well yeah, there's no quick fix. But we should start building new ones, and we should start looking at how to get or train more staff - though that's something we can also do at existing hospitals, as someone who has multiple relatives in hospital right now they all seem overfull and understaffed.
Staffing is another thing we need to look at as well. Never mind just getting a new facility.
If the best time to build new hospitals was 1991, the second best time is RIGHT.EFFING.NOW!!
You got that right. How the hell did nobody see this coming?
The government has ignored its own reports on aging Albertans needing health care since the 1990's.
Yes, let's not build infrastructure. Better start building those Futurama booths instead. Fuck!!
Shovels in the dirt now. Build 10 hospitals then to be prepared.
Oh yes please!
It’s not just the fact that the UCP cancelled the SE hospital project. It’s the cancelled lab, it’s the failed sale of lab services, it’s downgrading the Sherwood Park hospital to a glorified urgent care. It should have beds. It’s at least 20 years of government failure to plan. This isn’t new news. Every single government has been warned this would happen since the early 00’s. They were warned about aging boomers, increasing population, and declining availability of trained healthcare workers decades ago.
You are so right. I guess it was just the fact that people only want to look at one issue and blame somebody.
We badly need more hospital beds in this province; this is undisputed on a lot of different levels. One thing that is slightly quicker to build though is long term care beds. If the government were to add publicly funded long term care facilities, some of the backlog of people in hospitals would not be there but would be in a more appropriate place instead. The reason I specify publicly funded buildings though is so the private for-profit sector doesn't build all the new beds, leaving those of us of modest means not being able to afford long term care when the time comes for us to use those facilities. This is another area the government has failed to adequately plan for. Yes, more home care is good, yes more assisted living spots are good, but actual complex long term care places are also needed.
It takes dramatically longer when you cancel the hospital bill that was already in planning
Exactly.
I think it's fair to direct a certain amount of anger and frustration towards the fact that these hospitals were needed 10 years ago, and the government did nothing.
It's absolutely not okay to direct any anger towards front line medical professionals no matter how serious. Whatever happened with that gentleman in Edmonton was not a staff error, it was a structural error.
When people are overworked and overwhelmed, this is what you can expect.
When there's nothing but acute patients for hours, how they can properly triage? I think on that day, that hospital was like a war field hospital - somebody was going to die because there weren't enough people on staff to save everybody.
And that is the fault of the government, at the end of the day.
Can we not build clinics staffed by practical nurses to look after that percentage of ER patiences that have minor illnesses etc. Would that not reduce some ER wait times?
I think that would help.
Copy and pasted: The evidence suggests that urgent care clinics have a modest and variable effect on reducing emergency department visits, with some studies showing reductions while others demonstrate minimal impact or even net increases in overall healthcare utilization.
Several studies document reductions in ED visits following urgent care center implementation. A difference-in-differences analysis found that having an open urgent care center in a ZIP code reduced total ED visits by 17.2%, primarily for less emergent conditions.[1] A scoping review reported that walk-in centers and after-hours clinics consistently reduced ED presentation numbers.[2] In a Chilean public healthcare network, urgent care center implementation led to a 2.69% reduction in ED visits.[3] One academic medical center showed a statistically significant reduction in low-acuity ED visits among patients living within 1 mile of an urgent care center (adjusted OR 0.87).[4]
However, the magnitude of substitution is limited. A national study using insurance claims data found that 37 additional urgent care center visits were associated with a reduction of only a single lower-acuity ED visit.[5] This same study demonstrated that despite urgent care centers being tenfold less expensive per visit than EDs, the net effect was increased overall spending—each $1,646 lower-acuity ED visit prevented was offset by $6,327 in increased urgent care center costs.[5] This reflects a "woodwork effect" where the convenience of urgent care centers induces demand among people who would not otherwise have sought care.[6]
The impact varies by setting and population. Effects were more pronounced at EDs with longer wait times and among uninsured and Medicaid populations (21% and 29.1% reductions respectively).[1] One academic medical center showed no statistically significant reduction despite its affiliated center showing benefit.[4] A German study found an 80.5% referral rate from ED to adjacent urgent care, with 82.6% receiving definitive care there.[7]
Overall utilization and spending for low-acuity conditions increased by 31% and 14% respectively from 2008-2015, despite a 36% decrease in ED visits per person for these conditions.[6]
References
My dream advice to the Alberta government: 1. Build hospitals AND long term care facilities, both. This is so important.
Pay the staff in long term care facilities enough so that they aren’t working in multiple locations.
Pay family physicians fairly. We can honour the extra years of schooling for ophthalmology, radiology, and dermatology without such enormous disparity between fields. For every 8 visits with a family physician, a trip to the ER is prevented.
Support vaccinations. I’d go so far as to recommend no public education for unvaccinated kids… but then those kids would not likely learn why vaccines are so safe and important.
Combine Covenant Health in with AHS in Edmonton.
Fund Public Health properly and without interference. Allow for public health education.
Support Universal Basic Income; getting people a safe warm place to live reduces poor health more than anything else.
Advice to Albertans: Stop voting for anyone who would not take the above measures.
Well said.
Paragraphs dude come on. Please.
I apologize for the lack of paragraphs as that's all on me. In my current condition, I did the best I could. I'm sorry and I'll try better in the future.
All good
But yes it’s no secret that’s why Emerg sucks. UCP don’t care. Edmonton votes NDP.
We know a quick fix isn't possible, but there's not even a glimmering of hope that we might be on our way towards a long term fix.
We're decades behind and falling further every year. But taxes are low for high income brackets here, so I guess that means we're winning, right?
I just can't help but think we needed to be building 20 years ago. Maybe more. And here we are. Waiting for a new government to begin a 10-year process of building a new hospital to only be where we are now due to population growth.
Please. Albertans are highly intelligent people!
Your argument is just a long excuse for political failure: hospitals take years to build, which is exactly why governments should have started decades ago instead of cutting beds and kicking the can down the road. Edmonton’s growth was obvious and predictable, and the UCP made the crisis worse by doubling down on underfunding, picking fights with health workers, and prioritizing ideology over capacity. Complexity isn’t the problem. Inaction is. “Interim solutions” like hallway medicine and ICU overflow aren’t smart stopgaps, they’re proof the system is broken. Frontline staff aren’t failing; they’re being sacrificed to cover for government choices, and people are right to be angry because this crisis is the result of decisions, not bad luck.
Maybe the electorate will one day wake up to the notion that Conservative governments are not that interested in public hospitals or schools.
With the exception of a single term by the ANDP, Conservative governments have held power here for over half a century.
If there is blame, it sits squarely with them.
So how do we get a couple more hospitals built in the mean time?
You don't.
Sucks, but that is the price of the decisions the electorate made some time ago.
I mean, you can address a few key pain points for now, but that's about it.... If you're lucky.
Outside of that, plant an oak tree today by investing where you need to.
Sadly, I doubt that will happen either given this government has already shot across the bow by using the NWC against teachers.
They've made it clear where they stand on publicly funded anything.
Where do you see us regarding this matter day in 10 years from now?
The exact same place.
That's actually comforting news.
Well, I mean that's the optimistic take. That it'll be the same.
I'm guessing it'll actually be far more privatized.
Far more.
I'm afraid you may be right.
Then you build 4 hospitals concurrently. You CATCH UP!!!
Preach brother!
My understanding is South Health Campus could be finished and is underutilized. Focus funds there if that's the case
Hopefully it does take 10 years like the Grande Prairie hospital took. And from what I heard it has less beds than the old one.
All the things you’re saying take a bunch of time don’t actually have to take as long as you’re saying they take. A large new hospital could be operating in under four years if the government was willing instead of trying to sell off healthcare piecemeal to their cronies.
Not according to comparable builds across the country. From site discovery to the first patient could take that long.
I think you’re missing my point
Just here for the logistics, sir.
It makes me wonder if there is a way to upgrade current facilities to include a surgical unit. Staffing would need to be done but rather than the time to build a whole hospital it would be done more quickly. I’m sure the UCP would rather give their friends some money for a private clinic to expand but under public health they would have more control and can offer faster services to Albertans.
Supposedly, there are unused sections in hospital's but I don't have any concrete information on that. Something to look into though.
After Dani is gone (fingers crossed) whoever is next needs to get at least a few hospitals contracted for, with heavy contact breaking penalties, before their term ends.
Indeed. We need 1 now just to stay at the level we're at if we continue our current population growth. 3 hospitals would be nice though.
Only if our province would use the royalties from the oil and put it into a sovereign investment fund we would have a challenge with money. These politicians are constantly dropping the ball
New 300+ bed towers are going up at the Grey Nuns and Misericordia. The past year was spent on design. I wouldn’t be surprised if shovels aren’t in the ground by this time next year.
Thank the good lord it's something.
Yeah so if they had started like at anytime in last 20 years we would not be having this problem. Didn't China build a bunch of hospitals when COVID started within a month or so? I am not saying that we need to build them that way but where there is a will there is way. The problem is the WILL not the way.
Oddly enough, they have less red tape over there.
We can't stick a shovel in the sand without a committee.
You can’t just not do things because they are hard. Tired of excuse-making.
Agreed. The timeline remains the same.
Thank for the reply. So is the answer just more beds and staff ?
In the short term, yes.
Bs! NDP with $10 oil built Tom Baker Cancer Center and Mis ER expansion and had the Superlab under construction. And procured land and did planning for South Edmonton. Doesn’t take near as long as you say if you want to do it. Conservatives have never been able to build anything, Klein even blew one up and sold one.
I couldn't find any stats that showed anything quicker than 9-10 years for a full service acute care hospital. Site selection and zoning to the first admitted patient all came in around the same time. I based this information off of all the other major hospitals in large cities across Canada.
Even if it says 7-8 years, we still have a major hurdle to overcome, which will probably be just as much of a daunting task.
How did the NDP do it in two years for the Tom Baker Cancer Center?
UCP has the same problem building schools when the land is set aside in the subdivisions, just needs the go ahead. UCP is incapable of building anything. Good at announcing things, but can’t build a single thing. Took the NDP one year to assemble the land and get the zoning done for the south Edmonton hospital, get all the planning done start the excavations. Same with the Superlab. Took the UCP 6 months to cancel everything and pay $200 million in contract cancellation fees for the Superlab. UCP is the problem here!
Removing the healthcare mafia who lobby the govt so to not only make it virtually impossible for international medical graduates to get jobs (so to keep their pay and benefits and social cache intact) - but also to (implicitly) create fear in ordinary Canadians due to their perceived below par credentials and experience. I mean - would you trust your health to someone who you are (for all intents and purposes) indirectly told to believe is essentially under/unqualified?
The truth is there is nothing special about the vast majority of Canadian doctors and healthcare professionals! I mean, if you don’t trust me, ask global healthcare experts! I am sure the majority of them couldn’t care less about any Health Canada and misc. Canadian information (assuming the particular information deviates from US, EU, China, India, etc).
Notes:
How many talented international medical graduates have lit up (positively) America’s healthcare industry?
When was the last ‘breakthrough’ medical innovation credited primarily the Canadians?
Those are all great points. Thanks for the response.
It'll be interesting to see if Healthcare wait times and outcomes improve over the next few years as Canada sheds a large portion of its temporary residents/workers/students.
Problem is, people new to our country tend to already be healthier when they come. Older people are higher users of the health care system.
What do you mean? Shed?
Get rid of. The federal government is clamping down on immigration after the last free for all decade.
Oh, I'll have to look into that.
Who tf do you think staffs a lot of Healthcare positions? Immigrants!
I'm sorry to see you're unable to understand the differences between the multiple streams of entry into this country, and who is being affected.
Induced demand applies to health care too.
Build and staff 100 ER beds tomorrow and they'll be full in 48 hours.
For everyone down voting:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3572098/
You got that right. I can't even remember the last time our health care system was at a comfortable level.
Definitely could be helped having some restrictions on who gets public healthcare. Only citizens should be getting it 100% free. If non citizens had to pay even partially there'd be a lot less stress on the system.
Sounds like just a ton of bureaucratic bull. This country has lost its will to live and the misery has taken down even this formerly "can do" province. I'd blame the "leaders" but we haven't any. Just pussy party leaders more interested in playing high school debating team games and charlatan bankers.
And the population? Most actual Canadians are terrified they might be called less than polite their whole vocabulary is apologies, reconciliation and a dozen ways to say "sorry". God forbid we take a stand that might offend some obscure nitwit with severe mental health issues.
Now the Liberals are going to pass a bill that makes it a f**king crime to tell your partner "I'm not going out with you dressed like that."
We're done until the big three wage their race wars on our soil.
Back in the day, I was all for anarchy. Mayhaps the Europeans are right. They know how to protest.