Last week, The Review’s email to all subscribers on Wednesday morning asked readers this:

What are you wondering about right now? What is causing you to worry? What story or questions should our journalist team be working on?

What you are thinking about and what you care about really matters to us. YOU give us lots of the story ideas which come to fruition on our website or in the pages of The Review.

And so: we wanted to share some of the messages we received.

S.M. writes: “Doctor shortage and broken medical systems. They are so far behind connecting patient records to a system that patients can access themselves and that can be accessed inter provincially across Canada. 

We have bragged about our great Canadian medical system for years to our US neighbours and like many revelations of buried truths in this country happening right now this is more apparent than ever during and the fall out of COVID.

My doctor sent out letters to my whole family and many others letting us go as he is doing progressive retirement. And he is a younger doctor. 

So that means I no longer have a family doctor. The waiting list is reported to be 3 years. That is damn scary for someone who has a health issue. 

This system is so broken and who knows what will come next after the years of COVID. 

What are the gov’t reps in my region doing to fix it? How are they attracting more family doctors to Argenteuil?

How do I find out if there are any doctors taking patients in my region? Find their phone numbers? Then do I start calling everyone from their offices myself?

Is there something we as citizens can do ourselves to help fix this? It’s so discouraging. “

C.G. writes: “INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY ! Your question just decided me to write! 

This touches a 91.5 CBC program (don’t recall name of broadcast) I heard while driving on Monday … An expert (a woman) – was talking about the BC government installing a public and free access to  birth control, (if I remember rightly) and discussion involved the participation of other provinces  and a call in-section touching on family involvement, personal choice, privacy, under age and legal age access without outside input … so on.

What really P – ed me Off ! Was a phrase the expert speaker used :  “Individuals with a uterus” – throughout her responses .

I used to be a WOMAN – I represent more than HALF of the earth’s population! Am NOT a breeding mare in a racehorse breeding farm! I am NOT a blue ribbon cow/sow/moose!! I am in harmony and in agreement with trans, gay groups but I am beginning to wear thin at this ‘gender equality’ refinement. I think WOMEN without a uterus are a rare species. (Surgery aside.)

I am so irritated that I dare not write this myself as a letter to the editor because I might get attacked as a ‘transphobe’ but Hey! Where are these influencers coming from? Women have been dying for some equality throughout the world over centuries and we are now being trans-mogrified into : “With Uterus”? I have reached my Limit! I have a damned UTERUS and I am a WOMAN – une FEMME -Être Humain ! Not something with a uterus.” 

A.L. writes: “I just wanted to share my latest preoccupation, which is related to making changes within our daily lives, to support detoxification of our bodies and our environment. 

I share this as I am meeting more and more people who are facing new health challenges and are wondering whether it has anything to do with their environment or the food they are ingesting.  

People seem ready to make more effort in tweaking their daily habits to support better health. 

So my question would be: What are some small things we can do or incorporate into our daily lives/environment to help limit our exposure to toxins to help detoxify our bodies and enhance our overall health?”

I.G. writes: “

We are facing difficult challenges these days. Some, like climate change and the threat of authoritarian dictators, are not new. We still have not properly dealt with the polarizing issues surrounding Covid and vaccines in general. Lucky for us we don’t live next to Russia, although Canada was recently considered a “ security threat” by our benevolent (?) neighbour to the south. So what do we really have legitimate reason to grouse? Where do I begin…?

Personally, I have been waiting for a resolution to three medical procedures, now going on more than three years for one. I have only the best to say about our healthcare providers at nearby hospitals and clinics, but the waits are not really justified. The baby boomer generation of which I am a member has been ageing (not gracefully), and combined with lack of vision by politicians, underfunding and understaffing, we all are now wallowing in medical limbo.
OK. Now figure this for me. How come the big five food giants posted a multi-billion dollar profit during which inflation has raised food prices by on average 15%. Coincidence? Hmmm.

Anyone else use oil to heat their homes? Well, I do and in the last two years the price per litre has doubled! Ouch. Thank you big oil, the oil cartels and Mr. Putin. BTW folks, you think oil is a big deal? Just wait til China comes for our water!

Lastly, it’s interest rates that are killing us. But curiously enough, the banks are flush with profits. How come interest rates rise meteorically but interest paid on savings doesn’t budge? Double hmmm.

OK. I guess I just “vented my spleen”. I still consider myself very lucky with my life and I prefer to look at the positive. Be good to yourself VKH.”