I am not an expert in broken healthcare systems. But I am one of its victims.

The hot water was off in my building yesterday. The boiler is old, and it breaks down at least once a month. So I shaved with tepid water that sputtered out of the faucet- while the energy-efficient light bulbs in my bathroom flickered, faded and hummed because they were past their usefulness. Hotel rooms behind the Eastern Curtain in the 1980s were once lit like my bathroom- a fluorescent Soviet noir hue that made existence- yours and the world's seem anaemic.

On a work trip to Cuba, after Russia couldn't keep the island as a mistress and stopped paying her bills- I remember a woman I knew eating a small bowl of rice with an egg on top for breakfast. A Cuban cigarette, "Super Finos", burned down on a saucer beside her. She started to cry at the monotony of life under a US embargo because what she truly wanted for breakfast was unobtainable. "Corn Flakes with Milk."

Soon enough, I will change that bulb in my bathroom. But for now, I must wait because I am saving to pay for my prescriptions that keep my host of chronic ailments in check. However, I am part of that one in five citizens who can't afford prescription drugs in Canada because I don't have a private healthcare drug plan from an employer.

Although I do remember when I did have prescription healthcare coverage from a corporation that employed me in the 1990s, the owner browbeat an employee because his wife "was being selfish" by processing all her Multiple Sclerosis meds through the drug plan. "Have some thought for other people's premiums." When they sold their company in 2000 for 30 million, they invested some of their profits in a Maquiladora in Mexico's free trade zone. My employer only saw his employees as livestock to be used until no longer good for anything else but the rendering plant.

I am not an expert in broken healthcare systems. But I am one of its victims. In 2005, I saw the writing on the wall for public healthcare in Canada. That was the year I had a heart attack at the age of 41.

 Then, I was a small business owner of a wine and spirits brokerage- and did not have a private health insurance plan to cover the cost of recovering from my heart attack or the heart medication needed for the remainder of my life.

So, I rested for the three days that I was in a hospital cardiac care unit and returned to work on the day I was discharged as if I'd had a minor elective procedure. The first year following my heart attack, I contended with depression, which befalls many after a serious cardiac event. However, counselling was only available through private mental health therapists. So, I did without and moved with my dad to Portugal, to work in their wine market, which improved my mental health.

In 2009, I returned to Canada because my brother Peter had taken ill with pulmonary fibrosis and needed caregiving. My father and I tended to my brother until his death 7 months later. He was 50 years old.

In 2010 following Peter's death, my dad at 87 was suffering from profound grief over the loss of his son. He lost the will to live and almost died from a blood clot in his leg. As there was only my dad and me, I became his sole caregiver. I nursed him physically and emotionally back to health by initiating and coaxing him to speak about life before the Welfare State.

From those small steps a mighty project titled Harry's Last Stand was born. It was an eight-year odyssey that created five books, hundreds of essays, a podcast, cross-country speaking tours across, Britain, Canada and Europe as well as trips to refugee camps around the world.

Harry's Last Stand ended when my dad died in 2018. But because I was so heavily invested in it, I decided to carry on the work we started together in 2010.

But within a year I was diagnosed with rectal cancer and the world was blanketed in plague that brought death from COVID-19 to every corner of our globe. The recovery from cancer has been a difficult and sometimes lonely journey. Sometimes when I feel I have gotten my sea legs back something else strikes me. Last year it was a diagnosis of interstitial lung disease that showed up in a CT scan to check for cancer recurrence. It is still mild but it will eventually grow worse because it is a progressive disease.

I am not afraid of dying. But I am terrified of not finishing the work I need to finish to preserve not only my dad's and my brother's legacy. But also maintain the legacy of the Welfare State and the joy it created for millions of citizens. Neoliberalism has made my health outcomes like everyone a matter of personal wealth because the state has drawn down on its commitments to funding public healthcare.

 Democracy in the 21st century flickers and fades because we march into the darkness at the behest of the 1%. The anger I see, and the despair I witness in the lower decks of society, where I exist, foretell not a renaissance for socialism but a reawakening for fascism as evil as the Nazis.

So if you can, and only if you can, I need your help with a paid subscription. Generally, every three or four posts a new paid subscriber comes on board and that pays my way, keeps food in the fridge and what have you. But because it's summer and August, I have had no new paid subscribers for over a week. Things are getting pretty lean. This Sub stack is a wonderful, outlet to get the word out about Harry's Last Stand and I am very grateful to you all. If I seem out of sorts today, I am just tired of the grind like us all. Take care, John

Your support in keeping my dad’s legacy and me alive is greatly appreciated. So if you can please subscribe because it literally helps pay my rent. But if you can’t it is all good because we are fellow travellers in penury.

The fight to keep going was made worse- thanks to getting cancer along with lung disease and other co- morbidities which makes life more difficult to combat in these cost of living crisis times. So if you can join with a paid subscription which is just 3.50 a month or a yearly subscription or a gift subscription. I am offering a 20% reduction in a yearly subscription to ensure my prescriptions can be purchased today. One new subscriber covers that cost. I promise the content is good, relevant and thoughtful. But if you can’t it all good too because I appreciate we are in the same boat. Take Care, John