Seriously, he looks hungry.
December 1, 2010 2:04 PM Subscribe
Dr Stephen Duckett, recently of Australia, has been heading Alberta's Health board. After an injudicious cookie related media distraction, he is released from his position. He has apologized from the CEO's blog, but his position was still terminated. Here is some of the joy that has developed.
The official news release, which gives no reason for him stepping down.
posted by XMLicious at 2:18 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by XMLicious at 2:18 PM on December 1, 2010
I really wish that once he finished his cookie, someone was there to give him some pie.
posted by isopraxis at 2:19 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by isopraxis at 2:19 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
Having watched the initial video last week, I found that cookie to last an improbable amount of time. Presumably he stepped down to further investigate this Strega Nona cookie.
posted by Cogito at 2:22 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by Cogito at 2:22 PM on December 1, 2010
I simultaneously want to and don't want to call this "Cookiegate".
posted by scruss at 2:23 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by scruss at 2:23 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
schyler523: I think that his response was perfectly acceptable
I think that his response would have been acceptable if he'd said that one of the first few times the reporters had asked, rather than waiting to say that until 1:07 into the video, when the camera finally got in front of him and provoked that response.
posted by afiler at 2:31 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think that his response would have been acceptable if he'd said that one of the first few times the reporters had asked, rather than waiting to say that until 1:07 into the video, when the camera finally got in front of him and provoked that response.
posted by afiler at 2:31 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
I, simultaneously, don't want anybody to call this "Cookiegate."
posted by eritain at 2:34 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by eritain at 2:34 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
Letter from his wife. No punchline.
What a fiasco. Of course the most trivial aspect of an incredibly complicated issue is what sparks public outrage. We run the cookie eater out of town and now ... what? I'm not a fan of Duckett by any means, but this circus completely sidesteps political accountability for a broken system.
posted by mazola at 2:35 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
What a fiasco. Of course the most trivial aspect of an incredibly complicated issue is what sparks public outrage. We run the cookie eater out of town and now ... what? I'm not a fan of Duckett by any means, but this circus completely sidesteps political accountability for a broken system.
posted by mazola at 2:35 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
Oh, there's a bigger story behind this. Our province is going through a meltdown in our medical system, due to (imo) previous government meddling that included the hiring of Mr. Duckett. It came to a head recently when a suicidal man actually killed himself in the Emergency Room because the staff was too busy to admit him. So people want answers, but Mr. Duckett really wanted to eat that cookie. It's not really fair to him, but the optics on this situation were terrible.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:37 PM on December 1, 2010 [7 favorites]
posted by Kevin Street at 2:37 PM on December 1, 2010 [7 favorites]
Oh, there's a bigger story behind this. Our province is going through a meltdown in our medical system, due to (imo) previous government meddling that included the hiring of Mr. Duckett.
You realize of course that this statement doesn't make any sense anywhere in Canada except in Alberta (and perhaps Newfoundland and Labradour).
posted by KokuRyu at 2:42 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
You realize of course that this statement doesn't make any sense anywhere in Canada except in Alberta (and perhaps Newfoundland and Labradour).
posted by KokuRyu at 2:42 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
So people want answers, but Mr. Duckett really wanted to eat that cookie. It's not really fair to him, but the optics on this situation were terrible.
Ahh, he pulled a Bilandic!
posted by eriko at 2:45 PM on December 1, 2010
Ahh, he pulled a Bilandic!
posted by eriko at 2:45 PM on December 1, 2010
I'm not saying that health care should be private or anything (that's 180 degrees removed from my beliefs), just that the previous system of regional health authorities had good areas and bad areas. Problems were contained within regions. But the new super health board makes every region problematic, since the system has to support everybody at once, which it doesn't seem capable of doing. I guess my contention is that we wouldn't have these problems all across Alberta right now if they'd kept the old system in place.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:48 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by Kevin Street at 2:48 PM on December 1, 2010
Yeah, just to follow onto what Kevin Street said . . . Alberta has been governed by the same party for 30 years and government officials are used to operating with almost no scrutiny, in cozy gladhanding relationships with the press. Neither Duckett nor anybody else has any cause to claim they're overly harassed in their daily work.
Duckett was emerging from a high-level closed-door meeting about his organization on the day after Conservative MLA Raj Sherman - an ER doctor from the ruling party, indeed the parliamentary assistant to the health minister and thus ostensibly Duckett's boss - went public with his ferocious criticism of a health system on the verge of collapse under Duckett's watch.
For those outside Alberta, this was roughly equivalent to like Newt Gingrich suddenly calling for a top-bracket tax hike in the midst of a budget filibuster. When you've been ruling for 30 years, no one ever talks out of school unless it's at the end of weeks of futile haranguing in private meetings. This was huge news regionally, and as such Duckett should've been ready for anything and everything thrown at him short of a lynch party. Instead, he wagged his cookie in the face of the reporters like a patriarch silencing a child - accidentally revealing exactly how the ruling Tories and their patronage appointees and six-figure-salaried managers view the great unwashed in this province.
The only shameful thing here is that more heads haven't rolled, all the way up to the premier's.
posted by gompa at 2:51 PM on December 1, 2010 [17 favorites]
Duckett was emerging from a high-level closed-door meeting about his organization on the day after Conservative MLA Raj Sherman - an ER doctor from the ruling party, indeed the parliamentary assistant to the health minister and thus ostensibly Duckett's boss - went public with his ferocious criticism of a health system on the verge of collapse under Duckett's watch.
For those outside Alberta, this was roughly equivalent to like Newt Gingrich suddenly calling for a top-bracket tax hike in the midst of a budget filibuster. When you've been ruling for 30 years, no one ever talks out of school unless it's at the end of weeks of futile haranguing in private meetings. This was huge news regionally, and as such Duckett should've been ready for anything and everything thrown at him short of a lynch party. Instead, he wagged his cookie in the face of the reporters like a patriarch silencing a child - accidentally revealing exactly how the ruling Tories and their patronage appointees and six-figure-salaried managers view the great unwashed in this province.
The only shameful thing here is that more heads haven't rolled, all the way up to the premier's.
posted by gompa at 2:51 PM on December 1, 2010 [17 favorites]
I'm not saying that health care should be private or anything (that's 180 degrees removed from my beliefs), just that the previous system of regional health authorities had good areas and bad areas. Problems were contained within regions. But the new super health board makes every region problematic, since the system has to support everybody at once, which it doesn't seem capable of doing. I guess my contention is that we wouldn't have these problems all across Alberta right now if they'd kept the old system in place.
The ridiculous part about the Canadian system is that Alberta is a jurisdiction with only 4 million people, the size of an average-sized city anywhere else. I can't understand what is so complicated about so small a jurisdiction (BC or any of the other provinces, save for Ont and Quebec are the same) and why we need to cater to individual community needs.
Decentralization is of course effective and more agile, but at least in BC it also adds another layer of costly bureaucracy, and regional health authorities are a convenient (and expensive) scapegoat when budget cuts have to be made.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:04 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
The ridiculous part about the Canadian system is that Alberta is a jurisdiction with only 4 million people, the size of an average-sized city anywhere else. I can't understand what is so complicated about so small a jurisdiction (BC or any of the other provinces, save for Ont and Quebec are the same) and why we need to cater to individual community needs.
Decentralization is of course effective and more agile, but at least in BC it also adds another layer of costly bureaucracy, and regional health authorities are a convenient (and expensive) scapegoat when budget cuts have to be made.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:04 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
I don't think I'll ever understand why (supposedly) otherwise very smart people cannot deal with the typical behaviors seen by professional members of the media. Haven't these people dealt with the media before? Have they not seen a news report (not to mention a television show or a movie) to get an understanding of what's going on? Are they stupid, smug and egotistical all the time, or just right now in this clip?
Seriously, what happened? It boggles the mind.
That state of bogglement (a word I just made up), I think, is actually part of why a guy like this gets canned. It's not that everyone expects a person to be perfect all the time. It's that people can't handle the cognitive dissonance between "nobody's perfect" and "you are incapable of having a professional interaction."
I mean, you don't have to be Martha "I want to focus on my salad" Stewart. Give a good answer, for Pete's sake.
"Mr. Bell, a few questions please?"
"I'm sorry, I'm on my way to XYZ, where I'll be answering everyone's questions. I'll be happy to spend all the time you need there."
"But what about..."
"Sorry, I'm going to focus my attention on giving everyone at XYZ the full and complete statement they deserve, and answer ALL of the questions so there is absolutely no confusion."
"But why not..."
"I'm sorry."
"But..."
"Sorry. I really think it will be more useful for everyone if I answer questions in the best possible way, so the message is crystal-clear."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:05 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
Seriously, what happened? It boggles the mind.
That state of bogglement (a word I just made up), I think, is actually part of why a guy like this gets canned. It's not that everyone expects a person to be perfect all the time. It's that people can't handle the cognitive dissonance between "nobody's perfect" and "you are incapable of having a professional interaction."
I mean, you don't have to be Martha "I want to focus on my salad" Stewart. Give a good answer, for Pete's sake.
"Mr. Bell, a few questions please?"
"I'm sorry, I'm on my way to XYZ, where I'll be answering everyone's questions. I'll be happy to spend all the time you need there."
"But what about..."
"Sorry, I'm going to focus my attention on giving everyone at XYZ the full and complete statement they deserve, and answer ALL of the questions so there is absolutely no confusion."
"But why not..."
"I'm sorry."
"But..."
"Sorry. I really think it will be more useful for everyone if I answer questions in the best possible way, so the message is crystal-clear."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:05 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
The story here isn't about Alberta's health system, as bad as it may be, and Mr Duckett's administration, however woeful, but about how some media bullshit can ruin a man's career.
posted by wilful at 3:06 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by wilful at 3:06 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
No, the story here involves a lot of puppet monsters.
posted by fcummins at 3:10 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by fcummins at 3:10 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
I don't think I'll ever understand why (supposedly) otherwise very smart people cannot deal with the typical behaviors seen by professional members of the media.
My first reaction was that he was experiencing some sort of emotional or mental breakdown.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:13 PM on December 1, 2010
My first reaction was that he was experiencing some sort of emotional or mental breakdown.
posted by KokuRyu at 3:13 PM on December 1, 2010
The story here isn't about Alberta's health system, as bad as it may be, and Mr Duckett's administration, however woeful, but about how some media bullshit can ruin a man's career.
Sorry, wilful, but the bullshit was flowing the other direction in this case. This guy was making $800,000 a year from taxpayer coffers - my goddamn money, among others - to run the provincial health care system, one of the most life-and-death vital and symbolically powerful pillars of Canadian government. Part of the responsibility that comes with that fat salary and powerful position is communicating to the public how you intend to make sure their kids are born healthy and their sick made well in ways that don't destroy public trust in your organization.
If your organization's already in a state of unmitigated crisis, with the nightly news filled with appalling stories of people dying and giving birth in the hallways while they wait to be seen by doctors, then your job sure as fuck includes communicating what you intend to do about it in a way that inspires confidence. If you respond by taunting a professional journalist for having the temerity to ask you what you plan to do on it - if, as Cool Papa Bell puts it, you can't at least say nothing with a little dignity and poise - then you aren't fit for the job.
posted by gompa at 3:19 PM on December 1, 2010 [6 favorites]
Sorry, wilful, but the bullshit was flowing the other direction in this case. This guy was making $800,000 a year from taxpayer coffers - my goddamn money, among others - to run the provincial health care system, one of the most life-and-death vital and symbolically powerful pillars of Canadian government. Part of the responsibility that comes with that fat salary and powerful position is communicating to the public how you intend to make sure their kids are born healthy and their sick made well in ways that don't destroy public trust in your organization.
If your organization's already in a state of unmitigated crisis, with the nightly news filled with appalling stories of people dying and giving birth in the hallways while they wait to be seen by doctors, then your job sure as fuck includes communicating what you intend to do about it in a way that inspires confidence. If you respond by taunting a professional journalist for having the temerity to ask you what you plan to do on it - if, as Cool Papa Bell puts it, you can't at least say nothing with a little dignity and poise - then you aren't fit for the job.
posted by gompa at 3:19 PM on December 1, 2010 [6 favorites]
No, the story here involves a lot of puppet monsters.
Welcome to Alberta politics.
posted by mazola at 3:20 PM on December 1, 2010 [5 favorites]
Welcome to Alberta politics.
posted by mazola at 3:20 PM on December 1, 2010 [5 favorites]
The treatment of Raj Sherman during all of this has been a fucking disgrace now with a supposed smear campaign after he was booted out of caucus.
Sherman says he's facing professional complaint
posted by chugg at 3:30 PM on December 1, 2010 [4 favorites]
Sherman says he's facing professional complaint
posted by chugg at 3:30 PM on December 1, 2010 [4 favorites]
Kevin Street and Gompa are doing a good job of explaining things. The Alberta Progressive Conservatives (ha!) have been in power since 1971. I don't know what it will take for Albertans to change their government, especially since voter turnout is so low.
If you do a search for miscarriages in Calgary hospitals, you'll find a lot of sad stories which are just scratching the surface of what a mess our provincial health care is in.
posted by Calzephyr at 3:37 PM on December 1, 2010
If you do a search for miscarriages in Calgary hospitals, you'll find a lot of sad stories which are just scratching the surface of what a mess our provincial health care is in.
posted by Calzephyr at 3:37 PM on December 1, 2010
People really have nothing better to do with their time then get all bent out of shape over bs like this, do they?
posted by crunchland at 3:43 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by crunchland at 3:43 PM on December 1, 2010
People really have nothing better to do with their time then get all bent out of shape over bs like this, do they?
Yeah, see, when my kids get sick I take them to ERs managed by these clowns and when the younger one needs to see his speech pathologist the wait times for appointments are nuts and everyone's overstressed because their caseloads have gone from too big to crushing under Duckett's watch and when my father-in-law comes by for a glass of wine on the way home from working in one of the radiology clinics where they send far too many people for him to handle in a day he's so stressed he can barely talk and the reason's because of their monumental incompetence. It started with Ralph Klein blowing up general hospitals and built to Steady Eddie Stelmach doing away with the regional health authorities entirely in favour of a single even bigger and less responsive bureaucracy run by some privileged fuck who likes to wave his free catered-meeting-on-my-tax-dime cookie at professional journalists like me.
So yeah, I find it to be not such a bad way to waste my time. I'm myopic that way.
posted by gompa at 3:52 PM on December 1, 2010 [13 favorites]
Yeah, see, when my kids get sick I take them to ERs managed by these clowns and when the younger one needs to see his speech pathologist the wait times for appointments are nuts and everyone's overstressed because their caseloads have gone from too big to crushing under Duckett's watch and when my father-in-law comes by for a glass of wine on the way home from working in one of the radiology clinics where they send far too many people for him to handle in a day he's so stressed he can barely talk and the reason's because of their monumental incompetence. It started with Ralph Klein blowing up general hospitals and built to Steady Eddie Stelmach doing away with the regional health authorities entirely in favour of a single even bigger and less responsive bureaucracy run by some privileged fuck who likes to wave his free catered-meeting-on-my-tax-dime cookie at professional journalists like me.
So yeah, I find it to be not such a bad way to waste my time. I'm myopic that way.
posted by gompa at 3:52 PM on December 1, 2010 [13 favorites]
Sherman says he's facing professional complaint
If you disagree with the government there must be something wrong with you. We've seen that before.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:01 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you disagree with the government there must be something wrong with you. We've seen that before.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:01 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
Seriously, what happened?
Low blood sugar.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:21 PM on December 1, 2010 [4 favorites]
Low blood sugar.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:21 PM on December 1, 2010 [4 favorites]
This is rather odd from my perspective: my father had basically the same job as Duckett for many years in Ireland (whose healths system is more or less the same as Canada's). I've seen him caught in a similar situation a few times; managers are answerable for what goes wrong in hospitals, but have no control over day-to-day options or the level of funding they are given to work with.
Duckett was emerging from a high-level closed-door meeting about his organization on the day after Conservative MLA Raj Sherman - an ER doctor from the ruling party, indeed the parliamentary assistant to the health minister and thus ostensibly Duckett's boss - went public with his ferocious criticism of a health system on the verge of collapse under Duckett's watch.
Woah, wait a minute. The health minister is Duckett's boss. The parliamentary assistant to the health minister is most certainly not Duckett's boss - he's an elected official (ie an MP), whose job is to assist another elected official (the minister) formulate policy. If the assistant disagrees with the minister, that's a political fight, not one for civil servants to take part in.
As for 'on the verge of collapse under Duckett's watch,' that makes it sound like he has run it into the ground. In fact, he has only held that job since last year and that job involves merging the operations of multiple local health boards into one 'superboard.' Now, from the ittle I know about it it's a pretty poorly-thought out policy. But Duckett is an employee whose job is to implement government policy, not critique it or the minister that handed it to him.
This was huge news regionally, and as such Duckett should've been ready for anything and everything thrown at him short of a lynch party.
OK, but aren't these journalists just trying to bag a soundbite 30 minutes ahead of the press conference (at which this statement was issued) in order to get an edge on their competitors? I don't see how I would be any better informed if he had answered some questions in the corridor or the lobby of the building, compared to the room where the press event was held.
And look at this transcript of the exchange in the Edmonton Sun - hardly an accurate report of what was actually said, is it? I looked at ten different Canadian news reports about the incident and most of them completely omit the fact that the Alberta Health Service scheduled a press event to release the statement and made the executive in charge (now the acting CEO) available to answer questions about it. The narrative that 'the CEO won't talk to the press' is much less dramatic if that information is left out, but it's quite misleading too.
It also strikes me that journalists are well aware that professional civil servants answer to the public via their elected representatives, not via the media. A civil servant who starts giving 'his reaction' to television reporters about a policy fight between a minister and his elected deputy is acting like a politician, not a public servant. You don't ask the hired help for their opinion of a fight in the ministry, it's simply not appropriate for them to make any comment on such things while they're employed by the government. You certainly don't offer your personal thoughts about the feasibility of the plan your boss has given you, unless you're willing to resign first and speak as a private citizen afterwards. Professional journalists knew he was in no position to comment on politics before he ever walked out of that door, and that it would have been highly inappropriate for him to answer any of the questions they were asking.
I think it's a setup, frankly, and that the media created a juicy story by cynically misleading the public.
Part of the responsibility that comes with that fat salary and powerful position is communicating to the public how you intend to make sure their kids are born healthy and their sick made well in ways that don't destroy public trust in your organization.
I agree - but isn't it part of the media's responsibility to pass that very information on to the public, rather than pretending that they never received any kind of answer? Why did they devote so little coverage to details like the number of new beds and new medical hiring? Isn't that the very information you require?
posted by anigbrowl at 4:36 PM on December 1, 2010 [5 favorites]
Duckett was emerging from a high-level closed-door meeting about his organization on the day after Conservative MLA Raj Sherman - an ER doctor from the ruling party, indeed the parliamentary assistant to the health minister and thus ostensibly Duckett's boss - went public with his ferocious criticism of a health system on the verge of collapse under Duckett's watch.
Woah, wait a minute. The health minister is Duckett's boss. The parliamentary assistant to the health minister is most certainly not Duckett's boss - he's an elected official (ie an MP), whose job is to assist another elected official (the minister) formulate policy. If the assistant disagrees with the minister, that's a political fight, not one for civil servants to take part in.
As for 'on the verge of collapse under Duckett's watch,' that makes it sound like he has run it into the ground. In fact, he has only held that job since last year and that job involves merging the operations of multiple local health boards into one 'superboard.' Now, from the ittle I know about it it's a pretty poorly-thought out policy. But Duckett is an employee whose job is to implement government policy, not critique it or the minister that handed it to him.
This was huge news regionally, and as such Duckett should've been ready for anything and everything thrown at him short of a lynch party.
OK, but aren't these journalists just trying to bag a soundbite 30 minutes ahead of the press conference (at which this statement was issued) in order to get an edge on their competitors? I don't see how I would be any better informed if he had answered some questions in the corridor or the lobby of the building, compared to the room where the press event was held.
And look at this transcript of the exchange in the Edmonton Sun - hardly an accurate report of what was actually said, is it? I looked at ten different Canadian news reports about the incident and most of them completely omit the fact that the Alberta Health Service scheduled a press event to release the statement and made the executive in charge (now the acting CEO) available to answer questions about it. The narrative that 'the CEO won't talk to the press' is much less dramatic if that information is left out, but it's quite misleading too.
It also strikes me that journalists are well aware that professional civil servants answer to the public via their elected representatives, not via the media. A civil servant who starts giving 'his reaction' to television reporters about a policy fight between a minister and his elected deputy is acting like a politician, not a public servant. You don't ask the hired help for their opinion of a fight in the ministry, it's simply not appropriate for them to make any comment on such things while they're employed by the government. You certainly don't offer your personal thoughts about the feasibility of the plan your boss has given you, unless you're willing to resign first and speak as a private citizen afterwards. Professional journalists knew he was in no position to comment on politics before he ever walked out of that door, and that it would have been highly inappropriate for him to answer any of the questions they were asking.
I think it's a setup, frankly, and that the media created a juicy story by cynically misleading the public.
Part of the responsibility that comes with that fat salary and powerful position is communicating to the public how you intend to make sure their kids are born healthy and their sick made well in ways that don't destroy public trust in your organization.
I agree - but isn't it part of the media's responsibility to pass that very information on to the public, rather than pretending that they never received any kind of answer? Why did they devote so little coverage to details like the number of new beds and new medical hiring? Isn't that the very information you require?
posted by anigbrowl at 4:36 PM on December 1, 2010 [5 favorites]
Duckett is sort of a sacrificial goat. The thing is in Alberta we're always scared that the government is going to privatize health care. It's a seeming contradiction that the population that elects the same party into power with huge majorities in every election simultaneously doesn't trust that party to run the government's most important service, but that's how we roll here. Duckett comes from Australia, where he served in a health care system that has both pubic and private sectors, and the worry right from the start was that he was the health minister's hatchet man, brought in to make our system more like the one he came from. So he took a lot of blame for decisions that were actually made by Ron Liepert, and was fired when he became too embarrassing. Meanwhile, the person who should be responsible moved on to another high profile position and seems to be clear of any blame.
posted by Kevin Street at 5:05 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Kevin Street at 5:05 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
Yeah, the ins and outs of Alberta's health system are by-the-by. Behaviour like this explicates the poverty and decline of journalism and the tenets of actually reporting. Watching them desperately scramble after him is like watching zombies lurching after some fresh brains. The fact that no response actually supercedes the story, and then becomes the story is a brutal indictment on our so-called fourth estate.
Even worse than horse-race journalism, they've actually leapt the stalls and are racing themselves. Demeaning, shallow and pathetic for all involved.
If you treat people without any respect, they will return the favour in spades. Both parties demonstrate that.
Also, Gompa, you should definitely know better than to assume that public servants of any variety are free to front up to the media and give voice to anything they like. He almost certainly wouldn't be allowed to say anything without a pr representative of one stripe or another there.
Again, he could be a hopeless administrator, the hospitals sound like a joke. But haranguing people, trailing after them like stalkers, bleating inane, soundbite-unanswerable questions and then querulously demanding your quarry bend over and take the pounding you intend to deliver is just pathetic.
posted by smoke at 5:07 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
Even worse than horse-race journalism, they've actually leapt the stalls and are racing themselves. Demeaning, shallow and pathetic for all involved.
If you treat people without any respect, they will return the favour in spades. Both parties demonstrate that.
Also, Gompa, you should definitely know better than to assume that public servants of any variety are free to front up to the media and give voice to anything they like. He almost certainly wouldn't be allowed to say anything without a pr representative of one stripe or another there.
Again, he could be a hopeless administrator, the hospitals sound like a joke. But haranguing people, trailing after them like stalkers, bleating inane, soundbite-unanswerable questions and then querulously demanding your quarry bend over and take the pounding you intend to deliver is just pathetic.
posted by smoke at 5:07 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
some privileged fuck
Yeah, he's only Australia's leading healthcare economist with a ~30 year public service career, and whose job came with a C$1.3 billion dollar budget deficit.
posted by anigbrowl at 5:18 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
Yeah, he's only Australia's leading healthcare economist with a ~30 year public service career, and whose job came with a C$1.3 billion dollar budget deficit.
posted by anigbrowl at 5:18 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
As an Albertan, I don't find it at all an unreasonable expectation that top-level health bureaucrats be able to discuss with the media the details and general outlines of the policies they're supposed to implement. I understand the theory that says their elected overseers are supposed to be the public face of policy, but the reality is that in this province, with the Tories having been in power longer than I've been alive, elected officials all too easily lose sight of their duty to the public. The Conservative government here has a long history of setting all their policy goals behind closed doors and treating both public consultation and legislative debate as something to be avoided at all costs, and the media generally acts more like lapdogs than pitbulls.
Much as I love seeing the government squirm over this, though, I don't see it leading to any kind of real change. Steady Eddie probably has a good 3 years before he has to call the next election, and no doubt enough time will have passed by then that voters will be distracted by Ottawa liberals or Hollywood anti-tarsands activists or some other trumped-up external threat to remind the suburban/rural crowd that the PCs may be useless jagoffs, but by gum they're our useless jagoffs, yee-haw!
posted by arto at 5:32 PM on December 1, 2010
Much as I love seeing the government squirm over this, though, I don't see it leading to any kind of real change. Steady Eddie probably has a good 3 years before he has to call the next election, and no doubt enough time will have passed by then that voters will be distracted by Ottawa liberals or Hollywood anti-tarsands activists or some other trumped-up external threat to remind the suburban/rural crowd that the PCs may be useless jagoffs, but by gum they're our useless jagoffs, yee-haw!
posted by arto at 5:32 PM on December 1, 2010
I understand the theory that says their elected overseers are supposed to be the public face of policy, but the reality is that in this province, with the Tories having been in power longer than I've been alive, elected officials all too easily lose sight of their duty to the public.
So the problem is with your elected officials, not hapless public servants. The remedy is the ballot box, though the citizenry seems curiously reluctant to employ it.
posted by smoke at 5:37 PM on December 1, 2010
So the problem is with your elected officials, not hapless public servants. The remedy is the ballot box, though the citizenry seems curiously reluctant to employ it.
posted by smoke at 5:37 PM on December 1, 2010
Yes, Minister should be compulsory viewing for senior public servants.
That is how you answer questions.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:06 PM on December 1, 2010
That is how you answer questions.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:06 PM on December 1, 2010
I'm myopic that way. --- Yeah, I can understand why you might want him out for any number of reasons, but to pick the reason for ousting him because he wouldn't talk to a reporter, individually, 30 minutes before he was giving a press conference, seems a little petty.
posted by crunchland at 6:33 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by crunchland at 6:33 PM on December 1, 2010
Bloody hell, he looked liked Mr Bean when he waved that cookie in her face.
You know when he has an object and he starts waving it around to show off, or to tease a person who doesn't have the object? That Mr Bean.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 6:38 PM on December 1, 2010
You know when he has an object and he starts waving it around to show off, or to tease a person who doesn't have the object? That Mr Bean.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 6:38 PM on December 1, 2010
Anti-Tarzan activists? I had no idea that Edgar Rice Burroughs was taken so seriously in Alberta.
posted by XMLicious at 6:46 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by XMLicious at 6:46 PM on December 1, 2010
Now, watch this drive...
Same mentality.
Honestly, I've handled stressful media interviews better than this guy and am nowhere near as senior in my field/profession.
Don't shed to many tears about his forced departure, his exit package calls for one full year salary, plus moving expenses.
Having recently had to take my daughter to emergency 3 times in the past week, the system does not appear to be on the verge of complete collapse. It's not great (like it was when I was a child), but it functions and .... "hey!, free wifi in the childrens' hospital waiting room..." (maybe that helps distract us while we slowly die? oh well, Netflix now streams in Canada...)
posted by jkaczor at 6:53 PM on December 1, 2010
Same mentality.
Honestly, I've handled stressful media interviews better than this guy and am nowhere near as senior in my field/profession.
Don't shed to many tears about his forced departure, his exit package calls for one full year salary, plus moving expenses.
Having recently had to take my daughter to emergency 3 times in the past week, the system does not appear to be on the verge of complete collapse. It's not great (like it was when I was a child), but it functions and .... "hey!, free wifi in the childrens' hospital waiting room..." (maybe that helps distract us while we slowly die? oh well, Netflix now streams in Canada...)
posted by jkaczor at 6:53 PM on December 1, 2010
Excuse me, public and private sectors. The pubic sector is a whole other profession.
posted by Kevin Street at 7:19 PM on December 1, 2010
posted by Kevin Street at 7:19 PM on December 1, 2010
Several Americans seem to be struggling with some central aspects of Canadian politics in general and Alberta politics in particular - allow me to illuminate:
1. Yes it is that petty. Actually it is a fair bit worse than this.
2. The farther west you go in Canada - the more like sharks the politicians become. First sign of blood and you are over. Of course, give it a few years and you can pull a "Wacky*" Bill Bennett and come out of hiding. There is generally a level of emotion that Americans might find hard to fathom - there is an active movement to make the politicians "behave."
3. Parties are tight - in comparison they generally make the republicans look like a bunch of dithering clowns. If you ain't in the cabinet, you barely count, and so infighting itself is big news.
4. 1 dead person is still a very big deal in Canada, so if someone bites it and it's your agencies fault, you can expect a great deal of attention, most of it pretty angry, and the media will chase you down while you are eating your cookie.
* I wish I was joking.
posted by zenon at 7:26 PM on December 1, 2010
1. Yes it is that petty. Actually it is a fair bit worse than this.
2. The farther west you go in Canada - the more like sharks the politicians become. First sign of blood and you are over. Of course, give it a few years and you can pull a "Wacky*" Bill Bennett and come out of hiding. There is generally a level of emotion that Americans might find hard to fathom - there is an active movement to make the politicians "behave."
3. Parties are tight - in comparison they generally make the republicans look like a bunch of dithering clowns. If you ain't in the cabinet, you barely count, and so infighting itself is big news.
4. 1 dead person is still a very big deal in Canada, so if someone bites it and it's your agencies fault, you can expect a great deal of attention, most of it pretty angry, and the media will chase you down while you are eating your cookie.
* I wish I was joking.
posted by zenon at 7:26 PM on December 1, 2010
I don't think I'll ever understand why (supposedly) otherwise very smart people cannot deal with the typical behaviors seen by professional members of the media.I think the vast majority of people would get highly aggravated by that if they weren't trained. How would you like to be followed around by a bunch of people asking you questions you didn't want to answer?
My first reaction was that he was experiencing some sort of emotional or mental breakdown.The guy was annoyed. You could argue his annoyance as inappropriate given the situation, but mental breakdown? Srsly?
posted by delmoi at 8:20 PM on December 1, 2010
Seriously, fuck Ron Liepert. He is the douche who got us into this mess.
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 8:34 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 8:34 PM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]
Also, Gompa, you should definitely know better than to assume that public servants of any variety are free to front up to the media and give voice to anything they like. He almost certainly wouldn't be allowed to say anything without a pr representative of one stripe or another there.
Then this is what he should tell the small group of professional journalists who ask him - in fairly mild tones, really, given the intensity of the crisis - for comment.
"I'm sorry, I'm not at liberty to discuss that." "You know I can't talk about that off the cuff like this." "I'll be issuing a formal statement in half an hour. I'll be happy to address your questions then."
Any of a thousand varieties of "no comment" would be adequate and respectful, if unsatisfying. Or how about: "Look, I know Albertans are concerned, and I take the quality of their healthcare very seriously, and if you can just wait half an hour I intend to explain formally how we're responding to these concerns. For now, though, I'd rather not misspeak so I'll have to wish you a fine afternoon and be off." Yup. That'd do.
But what's unacceptable, particularly in the midst of a crisis in your administration so intense that the second-in-command to the minister has broken ranks to sound a public alarm about looming collapse, is to smirk and chuckle and wave a cookie around as if to say You know what? I don't give a fuck. What's the worst you can do? Send me back to Oz with a million in severence?
And as for this . . .
Yeah, he's only Australia's leading healthcare economist with a ~30 year public service career, and whose job came with a C$1.3 billion dollar budget deficit.
Well, frankly, la-de-fuckin'-dah. He might be the natural born genius of healthcare administration, though the very proximity of healthcare and economist in that sentence makes me doubtful. Maybe he's the greatest thing in the history of Australian wellness but there's such cultural difference he just can't make the Alberta operation work his way. Or maybe he's one of those Heckuva-Job-Brownie fail-up types who hack-and-slays and mismanages his way to ever more senior positions and ever larger salaries because he's good at flattering myopic idiots. Frankly, this last is the more likely scenario when you're as proximate to the latter-day Alberta Tories as he is.
Anyway, here's what I do know:
1) He was hired, at enormous expense, by a government that actively repels talent, brains and good ideas.
2) The quality of healthcare and the quality of the workplace actively, visibly, at times horrifically deteriorated on his watch.
3) He was openly contemptuous of the media and the Alberta public at the most crucial moment in his tenure.
And if your response as a healthcare administrator, after the most senior medical doctor in the legislature suggests your organization is on the verge of pure chaos, is to smugly waggle a cookie around, then I'm happy to contribute just a tiny bit more of my tax money to buying you a one-way ticket back to Sydney.
And on preview: Word, beepbeepboopboop. Fuck the lot of them. They're a study in brazen incompetence.
posted by gompa at 8:48 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
Then this is what he should tell the small group of professional journalists who ask him - in fairly mild tones, really, given the intensity of the crisis - for comment.
"I'm sorry, I'm not at liberty to discuss that." "You know I can't talk about that off the cuff like this." "I'll be issuing a formal statement in half an hour. I'll be happy to address your questions then."
Any of a thousand varieties of "no comment" would be adequate and respectful, if unsatisfying. Or how about: "Look, I know Albertans are concerned, and I take the quality of their healthcare very seriously, and if you can just wait half an hour I intend to explain formally how we're responding to these concerns. For now, though, I'd rather not misspeak so I'll have to wish you a fine afternoon and be off." Yup. That'd do.
But what's unacceptable, particularly in the midst of a crisis in your administration so intense that the second-in-command to the minister has broken ranks to sound a public alarm about looming collapse, is to smirk and chuckle and wave a cookie around as if to say You know what? I don't give a fuck. What's the worst you can do? Send me back to Oz with a million in severence?
And as for this . . .
Yeah, he's only Australia's leading healthcare economist with a ~30 year public service career, and whose job came with a C$1.3 billion dollar budget deficit.
Well, frankly, la-de-fuckin'-dah. He might be the natural born genius of healthcare administration, though the very proximity of healthcare and economist in that sentence makes me doubtful. Maybe he's the greatest thing in the history of Australian wellness but there's such cultural difference he just can't make the Alberta operation work his way. Or maybe he's one of those Heckuva-Job-Brownie fail-up types who hack-and-slays and mismanages his way to ever more senior positions and ever larger salaries because he's good at flattering myopic idiots. Frankly, this last is the more likely scenario when you're as proximate to the latter-day Alberta Tories as he is.
Anyway, here's what I do know:
1) He was hired, at enormous expense, by a government that actively repels talent, brains and good ideas.
2) The quality of healthcare and the quality of the workplace actively, visibly, at times horrifically deteriorated on his watch.
3) He was openly contemptuous of the media and the Alberta public at the most crucial moment in his tenure.
And if your response as a healthcare administrator, after the most senior medical doctor in the legislature suggests your organization is on the verge of pure chaos, is to smugly waggle a cookie around, then I'm happy to contribute just a tiny bit more of my tax money to buying you a one-way ticket back to Sydney.
And on preview: Word, beepbeepboopboop. Fuck the lot of them. They're a study in brazen incompetence.
posted by gompa at 8:48 PM on December 1, 2010 [3 favorites]
Seriously, fuck Ron Liepert. He is the douche who got us into this mess.
Now that's a message I can get behind.
I would be happy if this incident were a tipping point for actual change and accountability but I fear far too many will be satisfied that the rude cookie-doctor is gone.
posted by mazola at 8:57 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
Now that's a message I can get behind.
I would be happy if this incident were a tipping point for actual change and accountability but I fear far too many will be satisfied that the rude cookie-doctor is gone.
posted by mazola at 8:57 PM on December 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
I clicked through and had a read of his blog and what immediately struck me was how many articulate, measured and constructive comments he had against every post. Most seemed to be from healthcare professionals engaged in the reforms he was trying to push through. Whether they liked the guy or not (and there seemed to be a fair few in the "not" column) there was a level of discussion there that seemed pretty unusual in government lead change programmes. Seems a shame to lose that over a cookie.
posted by Mil at 7:21 AM on December 2, 2010
posted by Mil at 7:21 AM on December 2, 2010
Seriously, fuck Ron Liepert. He is the douche who got us into this mess.
Agreed.
Liepert is a disaster and I don't feel too secure having him as the freakin' energy minister considering what he's done to the health portfolio.
posted by chugg at 8:01 AM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
Agreed.
Liepert is a disaster and I don't feel too secure having him as the freakin' energy minister considering what he's done to the health portfolio.
posted by chugg at 8:01 AM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
Liepert is a disaster and I don't feel too secure having him as the freakin' energy minister considering what he's done to the health portfolio.
Wouldn't worry too much. In this government, as long as you can properly centre a rubber stamp over an oil industry wishlist, you're qualified to be energy minister.
posted by gompa at 8:56 AM on December 2, 2010
Wouldn't worry too much. In this government, as long as you can properly centre a rubber stamp over an oil industry wishlist, you're qualified to be energy minister.
posted by gompa at 8:56 AM on December 2, 2010
The history of incompetence in the administration of health services in Alberta is long -- too long to get into here.
What we can say is this: merging the health regions has been an unmitigated disaster. Remember when they were created in the first place? We nearly had that mess unfucked when they came at us with a new one. It ended up costing money instead of saving it, all while making senior administrators rich.
Ever since Ralph Klein, we've had governments that think that "skillful administration" is a replacement for resources. I can imagine the minister's meeting now... "Hey, wouldn't it be a great idea to..." No, fucktard, it most certainly wouldn't.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR PEOPLE TO BOOT THESE IDIOTS OUT? HEY, VOTERS, WHEN IS THE PENNY GOING TO FUCKING DROP FOR YOU?
Hear hear to all those who said that this government repels competence. If I were a person with a career in health administration, working at any level of the health bureaucracy in Alberta would be radioactive to me. I left Alberta for the same reasons.
Duckett -- if he is as brilliant as some claim -- should have known that a position like his comes with politics, and if you can't handle them, you shouldn't take the job.
posted by rhombus at 9:30 AM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
What we can say is this: merging the health regions has been an unmitigated disaster. Remember when they were created in the first place? We nearly had that mess unfucked when they came at us with a new one. It ended up costing money instead of saving it, all while making senior administrators rich.
Ever since Ralph Klein, we've had governments that think that "skillful administration" is a replacement for resources. I can imagine the minister's meeting now... "Hey, wouldn't it be a great idea to..." No, fucktard, it most certainly wouldn't.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR PEOPLE TO BOOT THESE IDIOTS OUT? HEY, VOTERS, WHEN IS THE PENNY GOING TO FUCKING DROP FOR YOU?
Hear hear to all those who said that this government repels competence. If I were a person with a career in health administration, working at any level of the health bureaucracy in Alberta would be radioactive to me. I left Alberta for the same reasons.
Duckett -- if he is as brilliant as some claim -- should have known that a position like his comes with politics, and if you can't handle them, you shouldn't take the job.
posted by rhombus at 9:30 AM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]
Man, just to follow up on my comment, I almost hope this situation gets worse. Because the only way things are going to get better is if we hit absolute rock bottom and the PCs get thrown out.
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 11:19 AM on December 2, 2010
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 11:19 AM on December 2, 2010
I'm an Albertan, and I seriously, seriously hope that he wasn't let go because of the cookie thing. I probably would've acted similarly.
I have other thoughts on this, but they're of the nature that might be better posted from my home computer.
posted by Kurichina at 10:33 AM on December 3, 2010
I have other thoughts on this, but they're of the nature that might be better posted from my home computer.
posted by Kurichina at 10:33 AM on December 3, 2010
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
"I'm eating a cookie right now. I will adress the questions you are asking at the planned media event which will be happening in 30 minutes."
Him gesturing into the reporter's face with said cookie at the beginning is less acceptable, but if a reporter is going to harass someone then they shouldn't get too bent out of shape if that person mildly harasses you back.
[Caveat, I am USian and have only a small understanding of the crisis being discussed. I am merely adressing the rudeness or lack thereof on the parts of either party.]
posted by schyler523 at 2:17 PM on December 1, 2010 [4 favorites]