Bet you’re not seeing this headline in the Toronto Star or any of the other Liberal-backing media.  According to the Globe and Mail:

“The restructuring of Niagara Health, a sprawling network of seven hospitals serving 434,000 in a dozen communities, is part of an effort to consolidate medical expertise, create critical mass and provide higher quality care to patients. The initiative has been in the works for more than 1 1/2 years. Kevin Smith, the government-appointed supervisor of Niagara Health, recommended in a May, 2012, report submitted to Ms. Matthews that aging hospitals in five communities – Port Colborne, Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake – be permanently closed and replaced with a new one.”

Maybe I’ve just been dreaming for the past decade or so, but hasn’t this been the cornerstone of the hatred and vitriol that the Libs and Dippers have been spewing about the ever-evil Lord of Darkness Mike Harris?

For years, I’ve been reading an endless stream of rants from Liberal lemmings who have gone on and on, ad nauseam about how Mike Harris destroyed the health care system in Ontario by closing….wait for it…..5?  No.  10?  No.  20?  Nooooo!  29 (and in some extreme cases 32) hospitals across Ontario.

Finally one day, I started pressing these Liberal parrots for the exact names of all the hospitals that Mike Harris supposedly closed.  “Well…ummm….uh….Well I don’t know the names, but you can mark my word that if the Liberals say that he closed 29 hospitals, by golly, that’s how many he closed!!!”

So I took it upon myself to do a little research and this is what I found.

Here’s the list of hospitals that the Libs and their sheeple have been saying that Harris supposedly closed.

Brockville Psychiatric Hospital
Hotel Dieu-Grace Site (Windsor)
Hotel Dieu Hospital (Kingston)
Providence Continuing Care Centre, St. Vincent de Paul site (Kingston)
Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital
St. Peter’s Hospital (Hamilton)
St. Joseph’s Hospital (Chatham)
Northumberland HealthCare Corp., Port Hope site
St. Joseph’s Health Centre (Peterborough)
St. Joseph’s Hospital (Brantford)
St. Joseph’s Health Centre (London)
London Health Sciences Centre, South St. site
London Psychiatric Hospital
St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital
St. Bernard’s Hospital
Wellesley-Central Hospital (Toronto)
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hillcrest site (Toronto)
Toronto: Doctors Hospital
Humber River Regional Hospital, Northwestern site (Toronto)
Orthopedic & Arthritic Hospital (Toronto)
Riverdale Hospital (Toronto)
Runnymeade Chronic Care Hospital (Toronto)
Salvation Army Grace Hospital (Toronto)
Whitby General Hospital
Salvation Army Grace Hospital (Ottawa)
Pembroke Civic Hospital
Sudbury Memorial Hospital
Subbury General Hospital
Thunder Bay Regional Hospital, McKellar site
Hogarth-Westmount Hospital (Thunder Bay)
Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital (Thunder Bay)
Lakefield Hospital (private)
Sidbrook Hospital (private)
Grace Villa (private)
Dewson Hospital (private)

I decided to do a cursory check to see how many of these hospitals were in fact closed down.   How?  I called the hospitals.  And here’s what I found….

Brockville Psychiatric Hospital is still open — was never closed

Hotel Dieu-Grace Site (Windsor) — still open — was never closed

Hotel Dieu Hospital (Kingston) — still open — was never closed

Providence Continuing Care Centre, St. Vincent de Paul site (Kingston) — still there….never closed

St. Peter’s Hospital (Hamilton) — still there — never closed

St. Joseph’s Hospital (Chatham) still there….now amalgamated under Chatham Kent Health Alliance….never closed

Northumberland Healthcare — Closed

St. Joseph’s Health Centre (Peterborough) — amalgamated with Peterborough Civic Hospital

Joseph’s Hospital (Brantford) — still there….downsized to a clinic

St. Joseph’s Health Centre (London) — still there — never closed

London Health Sciences Centre, South St. site — still there — never closed

St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital — still there — moved to a new building

St. Bernard’s Hospital Wellesley-Central Hospital (Toronto) — closed

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hillcrest site (Toronto) — became the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute — the largest rehabilitation hospital in Canada

I didn’t bother going any further than that.  It told me enough to realize that as usual, the more times a lie is told, the bigger it gets.  In the case of the Liberal Party of Ontario, though, their lies always start off as whoppers.

I’m anxious to see how much coverage this newest Liberal agenda is going to get.  Are we going to hear screaming from the rooftops about it?  Most likely not.  Because after all, Kathleen Wynne is ‘promising’ to build a new supercentre hospital.  “Promising”.   Wait, isn’t there a by-election coming up?  Of course there is.  So for now, we’ll only hear about the new super hospital.  The hospitals that will be closed, will get headline news AFTER the by-elections. — DQ