Buckdog

Then there's the wonderfully condescending little fable at the end of his little privatization wet dream, about Canada's elected MPs having it demonstrated to them that a large group of people passing through three doors get into a room - or a healthcare system - faster than the same number of people gong through only one door.

Is it rude to point out the fairly glaring logical fallacy inherant in his snotty little example that whether entering the room through three doors or one there's still only one pool of doctors, nurses and hospital beds in the room serving all three doors.

In Australia and Sweden, the concrete evidence from this little thought experiment was that the two tier system created a 'perverse incentive' for doctors to cherry pick the easiest most lucrative patients into the profit door's line, while the more expensive and less lucrative public door's line got longer and longer while those who could afford to pay their way in front of them funnled through the profit door.

Of course to market ideologues like Manning, an inequity like this result isn't a bug in his preferred system it's a feature.

You also have to love a representative of Canada's right wing roping in Wikileaks as comrades in arms in his little fantasy battle with public healthcare - apparently he missed the note from fellow Calgary School member Tom Flanagan that instead of praising Wikileaks transparency he should be calling for it's founder's murder.

Bingo! Great observation concerning the 'private door and public door'.

Some doors are more equal than others.

Always a bit of a chore to read efforts such as these, though Mr Manning tries to help by cutting everything into bite-size morsels. I was particularly taken by the two chunks in which he writes of "retired Alberta farmer" George Pepki and his trials.

I first learned of George Pepki back in 1996, when Mr Manning spoke of him on the floor of the House of Commons. The Reform leader described George Pepki as a "Canadian poet" back then - he even read an anti-civil servant Pepki poem.

Sadly, a Google search for "George Pepki" yields no more verse. In fact, George Pepki's name is found nowhere outside Hansard and Mr Manning's G&M piece. Curious that. Also curious? The fact that Canada 411 lists no one with the Pepki surname.

For those interested in more on Messrs Manning and Pepki I take the liberty of providing this link.