Lynn Who?

All the attention on a threatened provincewide strike by Sid Ryan of the Canadian Union of Public Employees over a municipal pensions bill is diverting interest from another of the union's pet peeves with the Ontario government.

Along with nurses and other unions, CUPE has launched an advertising campaign against another bill to create regional health authorities, officially known as local health integration networks.

Known as LHINs -- pronounced Lynns -- the authorities are intended to allow more regional control of health care now run from Queen's Park. But the unions contend the networks are a vehicle to allow contracting out of services to the lowest bidder, with potentially disastrous results for patient care and health-care workers alike.

Both pensions bill and the health networks bill have been around for months, but it was only when Ryan threatened to take 100,000 of his members out on wildcat walkout that the pension bill caught on as a story.

As for the union campaign against health networks, there are ads on TV, radio and in bus shelters. But no threat of a strike.