Twenty years ago today - the Canadian House of Commons voted unanimously on an all party resolution to end child poverty in Canada. The resolution read "... acheive the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000"! Today 1 in 10 Canadian children lives in poverty.
Obviously they have missed the mark. Just as obviously, they tackled a beast. Although the sentiment has to be lauded, the execution has been embarrassing. A watchdog group called Campaign 2000 has been monitoring the progress of the governments efforts. Today they have released their report card.
As rich as Canada is, I see no reason that our children should be hungry. I'm ashamed to think that 10% of our children have a hard time getting proper meals.
Make your voice heard - tell your MP that this effort needs more attention. To make it very easy to contact the right people go here and fill in the form. This will send a letter to your MP that states you wish them to (among other things) " develop an immediate plan to eliminate poverty in Canada for all, starting with achieving 50 per cent reduction in poverty by 2020..." A much less aggressive goal but hopefully more attainable.
Read the letter carefully, it will be sent in your name and there are a number of requests. If you don't agree with all of them but still want your MP to work toward ending poverty - then send an email or letter to Jason Kenney (for most of us). His email is kennej@parl.gc.ca and his snail mail address and phone number is here.
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