Tom Brodbeck
Winnipeg Free Press
Canada
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Past articles by Tom:
Opinion: Desperate times call for out-of-character vote-seeking measures
The Progressive Conservative government’s 2023 budget is exactly what one would expect from a party fighting for its political life seven months before a scheduled election. → Read More
Opinion: Too many Canadians don’t understand that freedom has to have limits
Freedom. It was probably the most commonly uttered word during the COVID-19 pandemic: freedom to ignore public-health orders, freedom to abstain from vaccine mandates, freedom to visit dying loved-ones in nursing homes, freedom to protest government interventions. → Read More
Opinion: Doctors watchdog could — and should — do more to protect patients
There is one thing Manitoba’s physician watchdog could do immediately to better protect patients from abusive and incompetent doctors: force all red-flagged physicians to inform patients directly about their licence restrictions. → Read More
Opinion: Federal-provincial deal could improve quality, access to health-care data
If Ottawa’s new health-care funding agreement with the provinces provides Canadians with improved data on wait times and medical outcomes, there could be something to salvage out of this deal, after all. → Read More
Opinion: Meet the new health-care deal… same as the old health-care deal
The federal government’s claim it will have more say over how the provinces spend money on health care is mostly political fiction. → Read More
Opinion: Leadership selection changes should be at top of provincial Tories’ to-do list
Candice Bergen’s resignation Wednesday as the Conservative MP for Portage-Lisgar was a friendly reminder to Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party that it may want to change its leadership election rules before the end of the year. → Read More
Opinion: Political leaders who live in glass houses… should look in a mirror
For a political party that hasn’t cracked the 15 per cent mark in a general election in 28 years, the provincial Liberals sure complain a lot about not getting the media attention they claim to deserve. → Read More
Opinion: Cruise control the best campaign strategy for Kinew & Co.
What would it take for NDP Leader Wab Kinew to lose the next provincial election? Quite a bit. With his party polling almost 30 percentage points ahead of the Tories in the all-important electoral battleground of Winnipeg, there would have to be a seismic shift in public support for Premier Heather Stefanson to keep her job after the next election, scheduled for Oct. 3. → Read More
Province adding loads of lipstick on its orthopedic surgery pig
It’s no surprise wait times for hip and knee surgeries in Manitoba have climbed this year. Despite claims by Premier Heather Stefanson’s government that it’s “building capacity” in the system to increase surgical slates, the number of completed monthly orthopedic procedures in Manitoba has been falling since the summer. → Read More
Help! Manitoba’s Tories have fallen, and they can’t get up
It was supposed to be the year the Progressive Conservative party turned its political fortunes around. Even a nominal improvement in public opinion polls would have given the Tories reason for optimism. Instead, 2022 was a year of disappointment and failure for a party that just can’t seem to reconnect with Manitoba voters. → Read More
Convoy brats desperate to regain celebrity status
A strange thing happened to the leaders of the so-called freedom convoy during their occupation of downtown Ottawa last winter: they became celebrities. Now, almost a year later, they desperately want back into the spotlight and plan to use another gathering — this time in Winnipeg — to reclaim their infamy. → Read More
Snap decision won’t necessarily make things safer at library
Before City of Winnipeg officials make any rash decisions about beefing up security at the Millennium Library, they should perform a comprehensive risk assessment to fully understand what, if any, new measures are needed. → Read More
Far right takes a beating, and can only blame itself
November wasn’t a great month for the far right in Canada. → Read More
‘Progressive’ Conservatives deliver decades-old tough-on-crime throne speech
It’s hard to imagine how the Progressive Conservatives’ new “tough on crime” agenda could rescue the party from the depths of political despair by the time Manitoba voters go to polls next year. → Read More
Voters got it right with Gillingham
Congratulations, Winnipeg: you dodged a bullet. Glen Murray, seen by many as a shoo-in to get his old job back as mayor of Winnipeg, crashed on Wednesday, finishing second behind winner Scott Gillingham in a tightly contested mayoral race. → Read More
Mayor’s chair power shift would suit Winnipeg
It was a tale of two cities in Canadian municipal politics. In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford confirmed plans this week to bring in a so-called “strong mayor” model for the cities of Toronto and Ottawa. → Read More
City needs solution to police budget numbers puzzle
The cost of policing in Winnipeg jumped five per cent on a per capita basis last year. Part of the reason: its population shrunk slightly in 2021. Still, the increase — the largest in five years — reveals the need to further control police expenditures, which continues to gobble up more than one-quarter of the city’s operating budget. → Read More
Manitoba’s lieutenant governor left out in the cold
Manitoba Lt.-Gov. Janice Filmon thought last year’s speech from the throne would be her last. It may not be. After seven years serving as the Queen’s representative — the longest anyone has held the position in Manitoba in almost 70 years — there is still no word from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office on a replacement. → Read More
Hip, knee backlog pressure settles in on wait times
Manitoba hospitals are boosting hip and knee surgeries to near-record levels, yet wait times for the procedures continue to climb. It seems counterintuitive, but there is a reason for it: the backlog of surgeries and other medical procedures that piled up during the COVID-19 pandemic are so high, hospitals are struggling to clear them, even as volumes return to or exceed pre-pandemic levels. → Read More
Tight-fisted Tories stand pat as Winnipeg ER, urgent-care wait times soar
Winnipeggers are waiting almost twice as long to see a doctor or nurse practitioner in hospital emergency rooms and urgent-care centres compared to five years ago. With severe staff shortages on medical wards, in diagnostic testing facilities and in emergency departments, the problem may get worse before it gets better. → Read More