But most of all, they're damned if they do, although Welland's mayor Damian Goulbourne may not see it that way.

Goulbourne has taken a bit of a drubbing for not speaking out against the "hospital improvement plan" NHS released this past summer for consolidating a growing number of services from across the region in a new hospital complex it insists on building on the western fringes of St. Catharines. Earlier this past fall, he received a sustained round of boos when his presence was announced at a public meeting for reviewing the plan attended by an estimated 900 residents in the neighbouring municipality of Port Colborne where (like Fort Erie) the fate of local, 24-hour-a-day emergency services remains up in the air.

But the heaviest hammers have wielded down on those representatives who've dared to speak against the plan. They include Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor who, in a recent column in a St. Catharines daily paper, was pilloried for "blatherings" going back at least as far as last winter when he called for an "operational review" of NHS in response to numerous complaints from his constituents about lengthy delays for elective surgery at the Niagara Falls hospital site.

Now it's true that when Craitor was calling for the review, some were saying he might want to keep in mind the old Chinese proverb - 'be careful what you wish for.' But to suggest that had anything to do with NHS's plan to, among other things, consolidate all maternity and other services at the fabled west St. Catharines site is probably attributing more clout to the Liberal backbencher than he could ever hope to have.

In fact, the review had quite a bit more to do with the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network (an administrative arm of the province's health ministry) directing NHS to develop a new plan for operating the region's hospital that reduces multi-millions of dollars in annual operating deficits.

Craitor, it should be remembered, began his first term as an MPP in November of 2003, a month after NHS announced its plans to build the only new hospital for which this region is likely to receive provincial funding for the next 40 or 50 years in west St. Catharines, rather than a more central location in the region where all Niagara's residents have better access to it. Craitor might also take comfort in knowing he is far from alone in being dumped on for speaking out.

There are hundreds of doctors and other health-care professionals in Niagara, including a number of Niagara's municipal representatives who have raised red flags about NHS's plan for our hospital services. The municipal representatives, in particular, were held up for ridicule by Tom Closson, president of the Ontario Hospital Association, during an address he gave earlier this month at an OHA convention in Greater Toronto Area.

"It is simply irresponsible for certain politicians to try to block a plan that would lead to better health care for Niagarans," insisted this appointed head of an organization subject to nowhere near the level of accountability municipalities are. "Their grandstanding and attacks on NHS's senior leaders are making it more difficult for these positive, necessary changes to be made (and) we encourage (them) to move ... forward in a measured, appropriate and responsible manner."

In an interview published in another paper earlier this month, Closson went on to argue that these politicians don't have the expertise NHS does to see through a good hospital plan so they should stand down.

Contrast that with remarks made last month at that Port Colborne public meeting by the city's mayor, Vance Badawey.

"It is not because I am misguided or am playing politics with a serious health issue," said Badawey. "It is because I am concerned about the well-being of our community today and, more importantly, concerned about the well-being of our community tomorrow, and I will not stop fighting unless we receive the services we deserve. I make no apologies for that (and) I will not stand down."

Badawey is not the only municipal official who has listened to the concerns of his constituents and spoken so passionately for better hospital services in Niagara. So have several others.

I leave it to you to decide whether you'd rather have them or Closson and the NHS decide what's best for Niagara's health-care future.

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Doug Draper can be reached at drapers@vaxxine.com.