His treatments required that he be away from work. His absences led to him being fired and losing his health care coverage. His colleagues held bake sales and rummage sales to help pay for needed drugs. He was visited by a player of the Colorado Rockies. All of these charitable exercises, which I praise, availed little.

The man died, needlessly suffering in pain, pain which could have been relieved if he had been able to get the treatment he needed. This is a common experience. People who have been “downsized” have lost their health care coverage.

Socialized medicine as practised here in Canada is less costly than private health care in the US. Health care providers in the US spend much of their time filling out insurance forms and battling insurance companies over payments.

One example, a psychologist I know, diagnosed a patient with depression. Her insurance company said she could receive 10 hours of treatment. She needed more hours but was denied by her insurance company. When the psychologist inquired about his not being reimbursed for services, he discovered his registration number had been incorrectly entered. This was often his experience and he believes it was intentional.

I have had serious occasions to need health care here. I was seen almost immediately and received treatment very quickly, the best treatment, I should suggest. I am proud of my physician, who is thoughtful, insightful, accurate and takes the time to listen.

Our health care system is not an example of “big government.” We do not have “big government” in Canada. We have a very small government – one man – who has demonstrated recently his contempt of the democratic process by proroguing Parliament. This is the same man who, by his actions, is in contempt of Canada's being a signatory to the Geneva Convention. He has made us a laughing stock in Europe. We are desperately in need of leaders who can show compassion, patience and above all integrity as examples to us all.

Yours for better government in Canada, Ontario and Hamilton,

Kenneth Jackson, Dundas