CFN – It’s said that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not on a good TV night… Provincial 3rd Place Finisher, Cornwall Ontario City Councilor, and a bunch of other titled Elaine MacDonald led the charge by an esteemed panel to talk about the threat to Medicare and healthcare in general at a sparsely filled basement room Thursday night in Cornwall Ontario.
When you have a room with more politicians, media, and speakers than public there’s a total disconnect.
Not sure what these union flags have to directly do with the theme of the night? What if the solution to saving healthcare was a 25% reduction in salaries related to healthcare?
What would Ms MacDonald have to say about that?
One person who wanted to speak with her was Chris Cameron whose group showed up to continue their protest of the Bilingual nurse policy at CCH and who as front line health care works probably know more about local health issues than the retired school teacher.
Ms MacDonald though didn’t allow Mr. Cameron to speak instead calling on MPP Jim McDonell to say a few words.
The irony of Ms MacDonald’s French struck Mr. Cameron as she stated to him after that she completely supports the position of CCH and their policies although she herself could never remotely pass the French tests administered without the same degree of testing leveled for English proficiency.
As a matter of fact one her own supporters had their job terminated over language issues, and was replaced by a French speaker with a heavy and sometimes fractured English.
Maybe it’s not that people are apathetic to Healthcare and Medicare in the area,but simple are not interested in Ms MacDonald’s views?
As one local dipper insider shared with me:
I can’t wait until she’s gone so I can run!
MPP Jim McDonell had the following to say:
It was a good meeting last night with some interesting speakers from the public health field. It is clear that our healthcare system is extremely important to the people of this province and we must ensure that we protect it and make it the best it can be. Under this McGuinty government, spending has skyrocketed while coverage has been diminished. We must spend our limited funds wisely and can’t afford to continue to waste billions of dollars on failed experiments such as E-Health and the ORNGE Air Ambulance scandals.
You can post your comments below.
Elaine was only interested in her own views & anyone that had a different view just does not seem to matter to her….could that be the reason that the meeting failed big time to get public out…just wondering
Oh my gosh!! English people have been laughed out of Casselman for better French than that! Her passing over a citizen who wanted to speak is SHAMEFUL! Voila the real Elaine people of Cornwall!!!!!!!! French first, ask questions later. That’s 100% correct Free News….that is why I did NOT attend last night. She has already snubbed me once. Not a second time!!!! We want politicians and representatives that support the people…..this “bird” doesn’t even have the courtesy to let a citizen speak!!!!!!
By the way Ms Elaine….I was denied employment at the Health Unit and at CCH and my French is way better than yours……I also didn’t need a paper to read from!!! You are such a phony!
Ms MacDonald is Conservative when it comes to the Cornwall economy, Liberal when it comes to french language policies and NDP when it is convenient.
Here’s another version of last nights antics written by Chris Cameron-found it on Facebook:
Hi Friends, just returned from the Ontario Health Coalition (NDP) group.
The conversation before and after the meeting was better then the actual meeting. I stood up to ask question at “mike” & got conveniently passed over by Elaine MacDonald City Councillor/Chairperson of Local Health Coalition & she asked Jim McDonnell MPP to speak.Jim didn’t really say much about anything,I have no idea what he said-lol….
After meeting I met with Elaine-introduced myself and attempted to present my situation that I was the best candidate for the job at Cornwall Community Hospital.
To say she wasn’t supportive is an understatement.
When I advised her I had years of experience in that field & certification & she informed me “well,French was needed.”
I added,Stat’s Canada reports 23% of Cornwall is bilingual & only 900+ uni-lingual French ,she commented there was way more then 23%.So,”does Stat’s Canada lie”,I said.
In response,Elaine responded “there are 2 French High Schools in Cornwall & there’s way more then that(bilingual)” & “I believe fully in CCH’s hiring policy”.
I then said,”if 23% of population bilingual & hospital bilingual quota is already near 50%,do you not agree that we should have representation by population”.
I shook my head after I heard her response,”no,clearly we should have far greater”.
So,I replied “Is this not discrimination choosing from the minority instead of majority???”
Elaine then marched off & said “I don’t believe that is discrimination!”
QUESTION: Elaine,would you like ALL or 100% Bilingual?????
MORAL OF THE STORY:Cornwall-if we don’t STOP this CCH will be the new MONFORT!!!!!
This is what it’s ALL about people,come out to the PROTEST RALLY:May 26(sat) 1pm @ CCH
EQUALITY FOR ALL!!!
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Karen Farrar Harris likes this.
It sure goes to show that they have no intention of anything being bilingual – only French ! – and those people can be so ignorant and rude !!!! We all know who the bigots are – certainly not the English . . .
She’s a flake. I’ve got to go meet this Chris Cameron guy. Haven’t heard of the Montfort since I left Vanier. They weren’t to obliging with non-Catholics or English speaking citizens as I recall.
Karen and WOW, please come to the rally tomorrow in front of CCH at 1pm….introduce yourself to Chris….he’ll be very glad that you did!
That woman’s french is AWEFUL!! If she’s so pro bilingualism at the hospital, she sure won’t be much help representing!! How can someone who speaks such terrible french support such a cause? LoL I’ve never voted in my life and I’m 28 years old. But believe me, I plan to start after seeing all the BullS*Hit that goes on in this town! I can’t believe we let these things happen!
Right on Disgraced!!!!!!!!! We need more people like you to say this is enough BS……Come join us at the rally tomorrow if you can make it!
@ Disgraced by Cornwall politics!. Twenty-eight years old? NEVER voted? Complaining about who got elected? ….I don’t believe it.
@ Ed-Please give Disgraced a break,at least this person is willing to vote in next election.
Voter apathy is at a PEAK bc of fools like Elaine!!!!
We need good quality people to run for city council,the choices aren’t ever too great.
Good people get bullied out!
Now,thanks to CFN we have the truth exposed & good things are definitely in Cornwall’s future .
We should ALL pledge to make Cornwall the BEST place to work & live in Eastern Ontario & we can start our commitment for change by attending;
EQUALITY FOR ALL: Rally tomorrow May 1 1pm @ CCH.
LANGUAGE FAIRNESS & JOB EQUITY FOR ALL
May 26,not May 1, IS THE DATE FOR RALLY.
Yup. We need more people who can’t be bothered to vote squawking about election results. Carry on Cornwall.
Elaine MacDonald as a city councilor is used to getting her own way
and to hell with John Q.Public. She doesn’t represent the public, she represents herself. The only thing important to her is her paycheck. Just another reason to get rid of her in the next election in Cornwall.
Make sure to come out Saturday, May 26, 2012, to show your support for nurse Christopher Cameron, at the Cornwall Community Hospital at 1 PM. ALSO, on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, at 5:30 PM, please come to the Royal Canadian Legion in Chesterville and show the Official Languages Minister, James Moore, that forced bilingualism is NOT acceptable any more than wasting 2.4 BILLION dollars EVERY YEAR on “bilingualism” is acceptable.
We need another party,the conservatives are no better then the liberals,and the NDP are so far out of common sense that they would give everthing to everybody till we went broke like Greece an spain, now the governments are cutting jobs an some services but continue to shed out billions for bilingualism and that is not a priority -health care and looking after the disabled poverty, seniors on small pensions barely able to make it from pay cheque to pay cheque,instead governments throw over 2.6 billion a year for bilingualism thta does not help anyone except the Quebecers who get the jobs -all they have to do is utter afew words of broken English–Allo dis an dat -ok your hired
We need to get rid of bigots like Elaine,like Kilger,like McDonnell,like Lauzon Cornwall can still be fixed
This whole issue isn’t really about French and English. It’s about legislation (official bilingualism) that was conceived and enacted because of great social idealism. But that idealism means unilingual people, arguably both anglophones AND francophones, are modern day, UNILINGUAL LEPERS…marginalized and without certain rights. All the while, one province – Quebec – makes a mockery of official bilingualism by making English against the law.
I think Elaine’s intentions are good. I think the intention of official bilingualism is good. Problem is, the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. Oh Canada…what what we created?
Councillors won’t pay attention to the alienated unilingual nurses until they themselves are forbidden to work for the City unless they are seamlessly bilingual.
The same goes for hospital management.
The only way to fight this is to start somewhere……Chris Cameron’s group is getting the ball rolling. The government won’t change unless the people do something to make the change and this takes time and tons of hard work. Chris needs your support Conrwall……get out there for a bit and walk beside Chris and friends.
Could there be more to Elaine MacDonald’s reason for being a francophile and an Anglophobe ? Like a lot of people in Ontario and mainly in Ottawa, they support Joual language (French patois) in Ontario, but do not support the use of the English language in Kebec. Their reasons are quite clear, that they are in a relationship with a Metis (canadien/canadienne) and this influences their every day decisions on the language issue now at hand. Thus they take umbrage at anyone who thinks that ONTARIO should be as English as Kebec is JOUAL (French patois) and therein lies the real problem.