Is Canada on sleeping medication?
I’m here in Hanoi, Vietnam – again. This is my second trip in the last two months. It’s interesting, the last time I was here at the beginning of September; the former Ambassador to Canada and now a noted advisor to the Central Government scolded us by saying “Canada is asleep on Asia Pacific”. I think he’s right!
Our trip this month was to sign a cooperation agreement between the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Investment, which, as many who do international business know, is the government’s external link to other countries seeking business opportunity.
Our signing ceremony was historic, it is the first such agreement between private sector enterprise in Canada and the government of Vietnam. There were noted dignitaries from Vietnam at the event, including the current Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada, who spoke glowingly about Canada and the opportunity that exists between the two countries. There was decent media coverage too, but the meeting was cut short. Why? Because the US government, with a large business contingent, was in the same building as we were to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the trade cooperation agreement between the two countries.
As I reflected on that, I wondered why our Canadian Embassy wasn’t at our event. Why no one from the Canadian government showed up. It’s not as if either wasn’t given ample notice. In fact, on our last visit, we specifically met Embassy commercial counsel to brief up on the event to happen in the ensuing months.
This leads me to my point – Is Canada asleep when it comes to Asia Pacific?
I’d say it has one eye closed. The sum total of Canada’s interest in Asia Pacific lays, in my opinion, with China. Why? Because I believe we think we have a better opportunity there because of the strained relations China shares with the USA.
If the former Ambassador is right about Canada being asleep, and I believe he is, then the opportunity for Canada is the fact that Vietnam is the gateway to ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) – some 680 million people strong. Countries like Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. all of whom need healthcare innovation, quality education, high technology industry and good manufacturing processes and natural resources like oil, gas and minerals.
Canada has traditional north-south dialogue (witness recent free trade agreements with Chile and Colombia).
But what about a dialogue with ASEAN countries?
The Keystone XL fiasco from Obama’s chicken-hearted approach to dealing with environmental lobby groups in Washington is a case in point. Let’s take advantage of his misstep by helping develop ASEAN by putting an elbow bend in the Oil Sands pipeline and having a terminal on the west coast of Canada to deliver our oil to energy developing ASEAN countries.
With this beach-head, we can lay to waste the notion that Canada is asleep and we can use large-scale exports as a means to deliver on other expertise in healthcare, education, hi-tech and other natural resources.
And maybe, just maybe, the Canadian embassies and their commercial counsels in ASEAN countries might wake up and help Canadian business flourish there.
Canada Vietnam Business Council signing ceremony
Upcoming appearance on Family Caregivers Unite! Podcast.
I will be speaking with Dr. Gordon Atherley from Family Caregivers Unite! for a podcast on how to help with diabetes for diabetics and their families.
You can get the latest information on the podcast by visiting VoiceAmerica.com.
Marc Kealey is a lead voice in North America on health reform, integrated health and drug benefit plan enhancement, and healthcare policy. John Wunderlich is an independent information and privacy consultant in Toronto who describes himself as a middle-aged guy with Type II diabetes who’s active in a political party. They discuss diabetes-related challenges. They say how well these challenges are being met by the healthcare system, healthcare professionals and persons with diabetes and their families. For improving the way the challenges are being met, they explore the responsibilities they see for the healthcare system, for healthcare professionals and for persons with diabetes and for their families. Then they say what they would see done to improve responses to the challenges of diabetes, and what would change if their prescriptions for change were implemented.
Tune in on July 26th at 1PM EST.
Election Hangover in Ontario
The impact of the federal election is all but a formality.
The PM is calling back the House of Commons with more than a handful of new MPs and a handsome majority to ensure that a conservative agenda will dominate the Canadian body politic.
Many media, political observers and analysts believe that the PM’s Conservative government will define itself as good managers of the economy while being mindful of the needs of Canada’s growing cohort of seniors, those in need, minorities and New Canadians.
This scenario places the PM and his government squarely in the enviable political centre.
In Ontario, we’re almost five months away from a provincial election. The governing Liberals, once thought to be a spent force are defining the agenda for the election – good government, good social policies, good economic managers, good outreach, collaborative where it counts and tough and unafraid when they need to be. In effect, all the hallmarks of a centrist Party.
Notwithstanding the balance of power theory, which has always been alive and well in Ontario, the case cannot be made casually that the hangover from the federal election will permeate the outcome of the election soon to be fought in Ontario.
The media about and public images of the three Leaders in Ontario, the strategies to be employed during the campaign and math will all have an impact on this Ontario election in October of this year.
In as much as we need a provincial government in Ontario that has courage and knows the aspirations of its citizens – the winner of the election in Ontario will be the Party whose mission resonates successfully from the centre of the political spectrum – and I think we know what Party that could be this fall.
Marc Kealey with China’s Buddhist Grand Master Li Ning
Marc Kealey with China's Buddhist Grand Master Li Ning
Host of Family Caregivers Unite! on the VoiceAmerica Variety Channel interviews Marc Kealey
What healthcare reform should mean for family caregivers.
May 3, 2011 – Hosted by Dr. Gordon Atherley
Marc Kealey, Chief Advocate, Kealey & Associates, is a lead voice in North America on health reform, enhancement of health and drug plans, and healthcare policy. He describes his own experience with family caregiving, and way this has influenced his views on healthcare reform. He explains the three toughest challenges for healthcare reform in North America. He talks about the challenges for family caregiving, the ways family caregivers help the healthcare system, and the help family caregivers get, and don’t get, from the healthcare system. He identifies the health conditions for which family caregivers particularly need more help, and about the help they need. He explores the help for family caregivers that healthcare reform currently visions, and tells us what he would like to see done through healthcare reform to get more help for family caregivers, and from where and how the help should be provided. He suggests ways in which family caregivers can influence healthcare reformers.
Listen Online – http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1669
Ontario Alone Acts On Drug Costs.
Interesting article in Benefits and Pensions Monitor:
Ontario is the only Canadian province trying to protect the public from drug prices, says Marc Kealey, an expert on healthcare reform and governance. Speaking at the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists Toronto Chapter’s ‘Leveraging the Benefits of Rx Drug Reform,’ he said since Bill 102 in 2006, it has taken measures to ensure the drug costs are transparent and fair for public and private payers. In fact, he said the province plans to appeal a recent court decision by an “uninformed” judge which would allow one retail chain to sell private label prescriptions from a generic drug manufacturer it owns. Part of the problem is that most plan members really don’t understand or care about their drug benefit plan. As long as they can go to the drug store and get a prescription filled, they are content. However, they fail to understand that escalating drug costs are a demotivator for businesses which can lead to layoffs and even businesses closures. “We have to educate the public because this is going to really hurt and if it doesn’t stop, government will step in and try to control it through legislation.” And that, he said, is the last thing that major pharmacy chains want.
You can read it here: http://www.selectpath.ca/EARC/articles.php?action=display_article&article_id=150
Voters need to be engaged.
How do we get people engaged in this election? Many I talk with are feeling so disenfranchised or completely UN-interested! Nice job political parties and main-stream media!
More of the same.
More of the same for this election. Is anyone following CBC’s horribly biased accounts of this election? No wonder people don’t want to vote!
Media Bias Continues
More of the same for this election. Is anyone following CBC’s horribly biased accounts of this election? No wonder people don’t want to vote!
