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I was young and enthusiastic when I arrived in Saskatchewan from the U.S. on October 14, 1975.   I am still here, 45 years later, growing old.  There are a lot of things I love about Saskatchewan but growing old here is not one of them. 

I am very disappointed for everyone in Saskatchewan because I saw what could have been.  In 1975,  Saskatchewan was a bright beacon dear to the hearts of people near and far who were interested in building an effective approach to health care for all.  I was excited to have landed a job that played a small part in the team, led by Premiere Allan Blakeney, who were taking Saskatchewan born Medicare on the next steps towards building a healthier society.

My wife reminds me frequently, when I can hear her, that I have hearing loss.  When I worked for the Department of Health there was a Saskatchewan Hearing Aid Plan.  I would not have imagined then that when I got to an age that I needed a hearing exam and hearing aids, the program would be gone.  If you see me, speak loudly and clear, I am learning to live with hearing loss as I grow old in Saskatchewan. 

So far, I thankfully don’t need a wheel chair or a walker.  S.A.I.L., Saskatchewan Aids to Independent Living, was a program that provided various devices that helped Seniors and others live independently.  That program still exists but with greatly reduced benefits.

How many of you know that Saskatchewan had a great Prescription Drug Plan?  Everyone was eligible.  You paid a small fee for having your prescriptions filled.  The Province paid for the cost of the drugs that they got at greatly reduced prices by buying in bulk.  A conservative government quickly put an end to that.  Evidently, the members of the Conservative Government and their friends could afford their prescriptions so why should they worry about the rest of us.  Today, I get some help from the Province paying for my prescriptions. But the current conservative Saskatchewan Government is not making it easy to get by on a fixed income as they continue to increase the amount seniors. like me. pay for our prescriptions.

Over the years, I have helped care for friends and family older than me. Many eventually needed home care and then a bed in a care home.  Every year the struggle for good care for seniors becomes more difficult in Saskatchewan.  The wait time for needed care just keeps getting longer.  That’s my experience and I am part of the large cohort of baby boomers moving toward our twilight years.  Without significant action to meet the needs of a rapidly aging population, there is little hope for me and many of the others aging in Saskatchewan to have a reasonable quality of life in our elder years.  

What about oral health?  The health of our teeth and mouth have a significant impact on our overall health.  Do you understand why oral health isn’t it covered by Medicare?  I don’t.  

What brought me to Saskatchewan as a young dentist was a job with the very innovative Saskatchewan Dental Plan (SDP).  The SDP soon became widely recognized as the best public dental program for children in the world.  People from many countries visited to marvel at what was being accomplished in Saskatchewan.  The SDP provided treatment for all school children in ever expanding age cohorts. Two year trained dental therapists working in school dental clinics throughout the Province, with occasional visits by a supervising dentist, provided the bulk of the care.  Numerous studies showed that the dental therapists consistently provided high quality dental treatment.  Overall, the SDP, cost effectively, made big improvements in the dental health of the participants. 

By 1982, the next phase of the SDP had been planned and announced.  The expanded program, which I helped design, would provide dental care for adults, including seniors.  Then the conservative Devine government stepped in and pulled the plug on the children’s dental plan and plans for adult dental coverage.  As a result of the Conservative’s approach to health, aging in Saskatchewan includes dental suffering for many.  If, like me, you are a low income senior, you cannot afford to see a dentist, dental hygienist or denturist.  This has an uncomfortable impact on our overall health, comfort and self-esteem.  

Some of you may be thinking that the cost of all these innovative health programs must have been driving the Province into huge debt.  Actually, the well managed Provincial Government provided these programs and still managed to maintain a surplus. 

The Devine Government and other conservative governments of Saskatchewan have taken power from the NDP with a surplus. They then start cutting programs that benefit the majority of people in the Province in favor of programs that primarily benefit the wealthy. Soon they manage to turn surpluses into debt.  

I am disappointed that the plans to expand universal health care in the Blakeney years were wiped out by Conservative Governments.  However, I still believe that the people of Saskatchewan will eventually elect governments that will take the innovations that Saskatchewan started, with universal health care, to the next steps.  Someday a well-managed Saskatchewan Government focused on the needs of its citizens will get back to building a healthy society.   

My question to you is, why not now.  

Why are these people so happy? They have spotted the public health team driving into the village. The team is coming for a well baby clinic. The photo was taken in a village in Mozambique. I’ve seen this scene in many villages. When this team arrived, the women sang to them to welcome them to the village. The contrast to North America is striking. Here people organize against vaccination and public health professionals are often set up as the enemy, even during a pandemic. We have a lot to learn from people in developing countries.

The team weighs the babies and performs other measures to check the children’s development. They also provide vaccinations when needed and Vitamin A drops that help prevent blindness due to severe Vitamin A deficiency in many people’s diets in this part of Africa.

I encourage everyone to question authority including the advice from public health experts. But question using critical thinking to weigh what is known and what is not and the validity of the sources. If you do you will discover that vaccines are a major reason that our life expectancy has increased. Stay informed and stay educated and learn to be critical of half baked arguments.

It will be interesting to see how North Americans react if a COVID19 vaccine is developed. I think it would be great if people in Canada and the U.S. started singing to thank all the health workers who work hard to keep you healthy and who often are risking their lives for you.

This is a typical Vermont scene. There is nothing special about the photo. It seems there is a photogenic moment around every corner in Vermont. Still, there is something about the photo I find special.

I was in Vermont working for Vermont Dental Care my first year out of Dental School. The program provided care for underserved children. There are a lot of great things about Vermont and I was tempted to settle there. Then it became clear to me that I would never be a Vermonter. Vermonters talk about the new people down the road who have been there for 30 years.

Still I was considering spending a second year in Vermont. I enjoyed the work but the money was awful even for a new dentist. I thought I deserved more than the standard raise in my new contract. I got a flat no. And the Director said I had to decide by tomorrow if I was signing or not.

I was sitting in the backyard trying to decide what to do when the phone rang. It was a man with a British accent calling from Saskatchewan. I thought everyone in Saskatchewan must have an accent. He asked me if I was still interested in working in Saskatchewan. I had read that Saskatchewan started a children’s dental program that used dental therapists. I loved the concept and wrote a letter saying I’d be interested in working there. That was more than a year earlier.

I’m sure I sounded over anxious when I told him I was still very interested and his timing was great. I had to make a decision about my current job tomorrow. He said he couldn’t make me an offer until I came up for an interview. I took a gamble and didn’t sign on for year two in Vermont. I got the Saskatchewan job which paid six times as much as Vermont. More important, it was the best dental job in the world for me. That’s why I moved on from dentistry when the Saskatchewan Children’s Dental Program was dissolved by Saskatchewan’s Grant Devine government. And, I have to say, the people in Saskatchewan are a lot friendlier.

This was taken somewhere along Cape Cod around summer, 1972. I was with my wife Billie visiting a friend from dental school in Boston. While in Boston we met my friend’s Uncle, the Cardinal. That’s another story. We also drove out to Cape Cod to beach and tour for a couple of days. This photo was taken with my Nikkormat. It was a great camera and tough. It took its bumps from Africa to the Arctic and just kept going. After 30 years it had some issues. I moved on to digital.

I remember Cape Cod being fun and interesting. There was always a party somewhere, day and night. We were at a party one evening and someone told us conspiratorially that he had something very special. You might think it was illegal. The big deal, he had just driven back from Colorado and had a couple dozen cans of Coors Beer. I’d never heard of it. Other people were really excited. Coors back then was only sold in Colorado. I tried one. Nothing special then or now.

This is Merry’s Pier on 8th Avenue in Pass-A-Grille, Florida. The body of water is Boca Ciega Bay. If you turn around so your back is to the Bay, the beach on the Gulf of Mexico is a one block walk. The houses across the bay are on Tierra Verde a wealthy island community.

When I moved to Florida it was called Hubbard’s Pier. I would often go down to Hubbard’s Pier to watch the party boats and charter boats return from fishing trips. If they caught fish, the deck hands would get busy cleaning the catch. They made filleting look quick and easy. As they worked pelicans and gulls would crowd the pier hoping for a bit of fish.

The Pier was renamed after Captain Merry a long time resident of Pass-A-Grille. His grandson went to school with me for a while at Sunshine School. His name was Terry Merry and he had a sister Mary Merry. If you are in the area, Pass-A-Grille is worth a visit and while you are there walk out on Merry’s Pier.