Image courtesy of Thefloridacatholic.org

Universal health care — it seems to be the answer America is looking for. So why so much controversy and backlash? Nearly all industrialized countries have had this system in place for years and been able to provide coverage to all members of society while devising economically-sound, health-financing strategies.

Speaking as a representative of Canada, I can say without a doubt universal health care has saved families, including mine, financial burdens and grief in regards to costs that were diverted thanks to our publicly-funded system. It’s founded on the basis that the government assures federal standards are set in place for quality of care and is generally free at point of use with most services provided by private entities. Physician and patient confidentiality remains and the government does not collect any information about any individual’s health. Medicare is instilled provincially and each doctor handles the insurance claim against the provincial insurer. Advertising is minimized thus maximizing revenue that will in turn be put into care. All of the costs are paid through income taxes and there are no deductibles on basic health care. Citizens are issued a health card and everyone receives the same level of care without segregation based on social classes. There are still individual external plans from employers offering extended coverage including dental and low-cost prescriptions. A 2009 Nanos Research poll found that 86.2% of Canadians supported our public health care system and 82% of Canadians preferred it to the U.S. system.

The U.S. health care system is divided into many legal parties. Predominantly, they are owned and operated through the private sector. At least 15% of the population have no form of medical insurance and another 21% are underinsured. This means that there would be significant money out-of-pocket for the average person if they were to fall ill or have an accident. Medical debt now contributes to 62% of all bankruptcies in the U.S. Despite having a large uninsured populace, the U.S. still has the third highest public health care expenditure per capita. President Obama made a significant change by reforming universal health insurance on March 23, 2010 with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This will be a step towards extending accessible and affordable insurance coverage to all citizens over the course of the next few years. There are presently systems in place such as Medicare and Medicaid that do cover the elderly, children, disabled persons and low-income individuals.

The debate continues and there will always be criticism towards either system. But the U.S. spends more money per-capita and as a percentage of GDP than Canada and less people are getting the coverage needed. The disparity shows that Canadians have a longer life expectancy and its infant mortality rate is lower than the U.S. The facts speak volumes and a shift into universal care is what they are calling for. Both systems are surely flawed, but if the focus is directed to giving proper and affordable care, then everyone wins.

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I notice immediately how bright and full of energy Caitlin Boyle’s voice is as soon as we start talking. It’s hard to believe her success story started with an off day, just a few months ago. “I was at school taking night classes and having a bad day, and I thought, if I’m having a bad day, other women must be having a bad day too.” This led her to scribble a simple note on a Post-it and stick it on the mirror. She snapped a picture of the note, which read “You are beautiful!” and posted it on her blog.

Her readers loved the idea, and began sending in pictures of their own posted notes. Within 48 hours, she had so many e-mails flooding her inbox, she decided to launch a second blog at Operationbeautiful.com. Since the site’s launch in June, Caitlin has received notes from women, and men too, living all over the world. At last count, she’s received over 1000 notes, from countries as far away as Australia, Japan, Nigeria, Canada and even from a soldier in Iraq.

When asked what she thought she had tapped into with her blog, she mentions, “It’s this sneaky phenomenon that when people do things for other people, they feel good themselves.” She also mentions people “get a rush of happiness just form posting a note,” in many ways “they’re writing the note to themselves.”

A feeling of happiness isn’t the only benefit of this growing trend. Caitlin describes one of her favorite e-mails she received from a girl named Zic, who had been getting treatment for an eating disorder. She hadn’t eaten solid food in two years and after doctors forced her to eat a 500-calorie meal, she rushed to the bathroom to vomit. She found a note on the door of the stall that said “You are beautiful, just the way you are” and decided not to throw up. Caitlin remarks, “I’m actually starting to believe in fate after doing this for a few months. It’s like all of these notes are meant for a specific person. People seem to find the notes when they need it most.”

Not only has Caitlin been able to impact women all over the world, she also has been able to transform her own. The blog has been so successful, she signed a book deal and was able to quit her, as she put it “mind-numbing corporate job” to write full time. She remarks, “It’s so crazy, I randomly posted a note and four months later I quit my job and have a book deal.” She explains how much the experience has been a testament to the notion that “you will never see what can happen in your life without giving things a chance.”

Spread the good feelings yourself by posting your own “You are Beautiful!” notes and sending them to Caitlin at seebriderun@gmail.com.

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A few years ago, if you drove down any of the major boulevards in Los Angeles, you were bound to run into at least one billboard featuring the three local Fox morning news anchors. Above their faces, were simple, three-word phrases in black, block text as bold as the personalities they represented: “In the news;” “In the know;” “In your face.” One guess as to which tagline Jillian Reynolds was given.

Reynolds’ larger than life personality precedes her, suggesting she blew the doors off the entertainment industry from the very first minute she deplaned from Canada. In actuality, though, Reynolds started out, like most females, just trying to get taken seriously at the desk – in professional suits and downplaying her looks. But Reynolds very quickly came to find that there was nothing right about trying to be anyone other than who she really was. Lucky for her, she found a home with a Fox affiliate (first WSVN in Miami and then KTTV at Fox) that liked her big smile and even bigger opinions.

Once “seen as just a weathergirl,” Reynolds’ refreshing honesty and fearlessness in poking fun at herself opened the door for her to do much more. Having been on Good Day LA since 1995, Reynolds soon got the itch to expand – and brand herself. Her bubbly and sometimes brash personality was put to good use on Extreme Dating and, today, is in even better use matching wits with Howie and the boys on the NFL. She never let anyone tell her she couldn’t do something.

Reynolds is a staunch proponent of animal rights and adoption. For someone who takes on so many of the superficial (style and celebrity) stories on Good Day LA, she has also found a great way to give back: by tying her own personal philanthropy into the broadcast each morning. It is because of Reynolds’ influence that Adopt-A-Pet has become the feature segment that it has, finding good, loving homes for thousands of deserving pets across the southland.

It has been said that “you can’t be a good actor if you’re afraid to make a fool of yourself,” but it is arguable that you can’t be a relatable public figure in general if you are so inhibited. Reynolds, always willing to air her personal successes—and struggles— is proof of that. She has come into viewers’ homes on Good Day LA for the past fifteen years: they eat their breakfast with her; they get their kids ready for school with her; and they grow with her.

Reynolds is often seen as loud, lavish, and flashy—someone who reflects a somewhat untouchable lifestyle. But her willingness to share bad date stories, anecdotes about her adopted Canadian parents and birthmother alike, and beaming pride about her own daughter keeps her completely grounded. She may be a woman on television, but she is just a woman first, and she never pretends to be anything more.

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I’m sitting on a plane from Toronto to Los Angeles, with two hours down and three and a half to go. I have a window seat which would normally be a Godsend except I’ve had two teas and a bottle of water. Having already asked twice for my lovely seat neighbors to get up, I have too much pride to ask for a third time and, yet, I’m literally about to wet my pants. Needless to say, I figured it was a good time to whip out my computer in hopes that writing a blog could potentially distract me.

However, this seems to be my life these days; it fits that I’m squished on a plane, about to wet my pants, wishing I had more dinner choices than a cold, prepackaged turkey (with no dressing) sandwich. My recent epiphany is that traveling is great, in theory. In my case though, it’s been worth every bit of it because I just had the honor of giving a talk to a couple thousand women in Thunder Bay, Canada.

Honestly, I’d never heard of Thunder Bay. In fact, up until the day before I left, I mistakenly told my brother (who lives in Montreal, Canada) that I was speaking in Ottowa. Needless to say, I was jokingly reprimanded for my lack of knowledge regarding Canadian geography and corrected in that I was flying to Ontario. Sadly, I’m still not exactly sure where either are on the map.

Regardless, I hopped on a plane with my manager and best friend, Emily, and we set off on an adventure to inspire the ladies of Thunder Bay at the 30th anniversary of the Royal LePage 5K benefiting The United Way. Little did we know it was vastly different from any talk, event, seminar, or gig we’ve ever done. Unlike the nameless faceless crowds, the hoity toity accommodations, and professional set up, it was like the movie where the city girl’s car breaks down and she’s stranded in an itty bitty town in the middle of nowhere. Like the classic story goes, our high maintenance city chic heroine ends up falling in love with the simplicity of the town and the hearts of the people, and is reminded of things she didn’t even know she missed in life.

We arrived after midnight and were driven, in the dark, to a tiny cottage miles from anywhere. After an 11 hour day of travel, we had just enough energy to change into PJ’s, brush our teeth and crawl into foreign, yet cozy, beds. It was not until the following morning that we awoke to one of the most beautiful landscapes I’d ever seen. We were on a tiny island over looking all of Lake Superior, surrounded by gorgeous pine trees, with a wraparound deck that begged us to take advantage of it’s prime real estate and view fit for a king.

The rest of the weekend we kept joking that we had to pinch ourselves to remind us that we were in fact “working” because, besides two big events where I was scheduled to be the key note speaker, I was torn between exploring Mother Nature’s pride and joy, bundling up and sitting outside in front of the bonfire, staring up at the millions of stars, watching movies, laughing with some of the most warm, sincere, and loving people I’ve ever met, and lounging in a resort-like cabin catching up on my pleasure reading.

Sometimes living in the Big City, we lose the appreciation of simplicity. We are so distracted all the time that we forget just how much contentment can be found in staring at raw beauty that would give Picasso and Renoir a run for their money. I forgot how nice silence is, how beautiful the morning songs of birds can be, and how the kindness of pure strangers can ironically feel like family.

As I sit on the plane, my bladder gets increasingly annoyed with me, Emily awkwardly slouches next to me, desperately trying to get comfortable enough to sleep, yet I know the plane food, the hours of layovers, and the travel exhaustion is worth every second. At the end of the day, there is always a price to pay to pursue our passion and the tag on mine is worth every cent. It’s the Thunder Bays of the world that keep me going.

See more photos from Thunder Bay by visiting the I Am That Girl Facebook Page

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Her ethereal voice has been heard all over the airways lately in commercials for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). But Sarah McLachlan’s charitable soul has been giving back to a variety of causes since she stepped on stage and into the limelight.

This Canadian singer/songwriter/activist has been putting out hits for over two decades. Starting with her 1988 debut album, Touch, McLachlan has been rewarded with a slew of gold and platinum selling albums — not to mention four Grammys. But her contributions outside the recording studio definitely rival in resonance any sonic accomplishments.

Her most well-known contribution was Lilith Fair. The music festival celebrated the power of femininity while offering more than 100 female artists the opportunity to perform in front of millions of fans. But McLachlan’s altruistic ambitions have only continued to grow since then. She started the Sarah McLachlan Foundation in 1999 which introduces music into the lives of young Canadians in under-served communities. She also has been advocating for animals through her touching SPCA commercials and as the spokesperson for the B.C. SPCA. Her commercials have already moved animal lovers to donate $30 million to the rescue organization.

McLachlan took the majority of the $150,000 production budget for her 2004 video, “World On Fire” and donated it to eleven charitable organization including War Child, Help The Aged, Engineers Without Borders and CARE. Proving money isn’t everything, the music video (which only cost $15 to produce) ended up receiving a Grammy Award nomination for best short form music video.

In recognition of all her charitable work in her native Canada, McLachlan is set to receive the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award on March 28, the night before the annual televised Juno Awards show — basically the Canadian version of the Grammys. This selfless entertainer continues to grace the world with her uplifting melodies and generous heart and she’s inspiring a world of bellists to do the same.

photo by duane storey

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