[Editor’s Note: Dr. Pagtakhan is a retired Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health from the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine (1971-1988) and the first Canadian Filipino MP (1988-2004), Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, and Federal Minister. Widely published and lectured in medicine, politics and community advocacy, his Medisina at Politika commentary is published in Canadian Filipino Net and Pilipino Express.] 

[Editor’s Note: Dr. Pagtakhan is a retired Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health from the University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine (1971-1988) and the first Canadian Filipino MP (1988-2004), Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister,  and Federal Minister. Widely published and lectured in medicine, politics and community advocacy, his Medisina at Politika commentary is published in Canadian Filipino Net and Pilipino Express.] 

February 1, 2026 — When Prime Minister Mark Carney received a standing ovation from the assembled record numbers of global leaders in academia, business, diplomacy, government, media and politics after delivering his Special Address at the Plenary Session of the 56^th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in the picturesque Alpine town of Davos in Switzerland on Tuesday January 20, 2026 – apparently a rare occurrence in that setting –  Canada wrote in granite its global leadership in the annals of Canadian and world history! A shining moment, indeed. Carney’s historic speech inspired and led middle-power nations argue successfully that the “armor” of the old U.S. superpower-led rules-based order no longer fits the modern world. 

Winnipeg: Viewed from picture gallery in the media, it was a rare yet universal moment of joy among the Israeli and Palestinian populace on October 13 when the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners held by Israel were exchanged and reunited with their respective families, friends and communities. But tinctured with grief for Israeli whose loved ones are deceased, particularly for those whose deceased loved ones have not yet been returned. 

[Ed’s Note: Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, a retired medical professor and lung specialist from the University of Manitoba and Winnipeg Children’s Hospital (1971-1988) and a former Member of  Parliament (1988-2004) and cabinet minister – a historic first for a Canadian Filipino – is widely published in medical journals and textbook chapters and in community newspapers. This Commentary is from his column, Medisina at Politika, published in Winnipeg-based Pilipino Express.] 

[Editor’s Note: Dr. Pagtakhan – a retired medical professor from the University of Manitoba and former Parliamentary Secretary to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Minister of Western Economic Diversification in former Prime Minister Paul Martin’s cabinet – served in Parliament from 1988 to 2004. This Commentary is from his column, Medisina at Politika, published in Pilipino Express.] 

[Editor’s Note: This Commentary is from Dr. Pagtakhan’s column, Medisina at Politika, published also in Pilipino Express.]

April 16, 2025 - Trust is the bond of unwritten yet binding agreement between the electorate and the elected that the elected government and its leader will care for the governed and serve the public common good, not crave for more power and serve one’s personal interest and ideological agenda devoid of humanity. 

April 1, 2025, Winnipeg: This general federal election – which began on Sunday March 23rd and ends on Monday April 28^th – is destined to be the most crucial election in Canadian history. 

[Editor’s Note: Dr. Rey Pagtakhan – a retired physician, professor and parliamentarian – was  in Kiev as one of three Members of Parliament on the Canadian Parliamentary delegation that monitored the 1991 referendum-vote on Ukrainian independence. Subsequently, he served as a preceptor (1992-1999) to successive Ukrainian parliamentary interns under the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program. He had earlier written for CFNet on Putin’s act of war against Ukraine (March 1, 2022;  March 16, 2022; April 1, 2022; April 16, 2022; March 1, 2025)].

March 1, 2025 -  Hours before dawn on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sending a series of ballistic missiles and long-range artillery via air, land and sea from three directions and targeting multiple locations in the whole of the country, including around the capital city of Kiev. Thus started Putin’s Act of War in Ukraine.

February 16, 2025: Canada just celebrated the 60^th Anniversary – the Diamond Jubilee - of its national flag with its simple yet stylish design – a maple leaf (the floral emblem of the country) set in Canada’s two official colors of red and white. 

September 16, 2024 — When Mable Elmore won a hard-fought nomination to run in the 2009 provincial election, political commentator Aprodicio Laquian understood the significance of what was unfolding.

[Editor’s Note: This Commentary is from  Dr. Rey’s Medisina at Politika column in Pilipino Express.]

Winnipeg, Canada Day 2024 (5-minute read): Filipino Heritage Month as a pan-Canadian event has become a natural prelude to Canada Day. Although not by design, it is a beautiful happenstance. 

April 16, 2024 -  Bill C-3 - The Canada Health Act of 1984 – known as Canada’s Medicare – turns 40 this month! Forty years ago in April 1984, Parliament adopted Bill C-3 to enhance accessibility to health care by explicitly prohibiting extra billing by physicians and user fees by health care facilities and by adding ‘accessibility’ as an additional criterion to the four principles enshrined in the Medical Care Act of 1966, the predecessor and first national health care insurance law in Canada.