DEBBIE FORWARD SHOULD BE KINDER TO JOHN ABBOTT

Even the most politically disinterested observer had to know from the minute the Deputy Minister of Health, John Abbott, uttered the word “change” in relation to the health care system that he would be forced to eat his words — by both government and union.

What were they? “We have put in a lot of services and facilities that we no longer need and no longer can afford… We have 45 per cent more nurses than the rest of the country.”

Having gotten Nurses’ Union head Debbie Forward’s knickers in a knot, the premier’s office sent Abbott out to backtrack.

Many of us have long wondered if even one senior public servant had the spine to speak truth to power, successive governments — mostly Tory — having run the province over a fiscal cliff (note the past tense). It seems there is one such person.