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No Political Party Interested Enougth in Eliminating Poverty to Declare on Website |
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Contributed by Jim Elliott
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Saturday, 07 May 2011 |
As of May 6, no Saskatchewan candidates, regardless of political stripe, had bothered to answer a series of simple yes or no questions on poverty put forward by Canadian religious leaders. On April 9th, Archbishop Martin Currie read the following from the pulpit of the Basilica of St. John's during mass:
"Canada is facing a grave moral crisis in the huge and growing gap that exists between the rich and the poor in this country. Despite continued economic growth, development of new resources, building of new infrastructure and the creation of jobs and opportunities, there seems to be a very few who are benefiting from all this prosperity. Over the past forty years we have seen the so-called ‘middle class’ working people taking two and three of these jobs and still struggle to maintain their homes. The numbers of people coming to our food banks are growing. Seniors come to shopping centres, not to buy, but to keep warm for they cannot afford to properly heat their homes. Our faith informs us that we have a moral imperative to find a fairer sharing of the tremendous resources of this country. As people of faith, it is not enough for us to recognize this problem and mourn such tragedy; we must act to rectify it!"
As well, a website (www.candidatesagainstpoverty.ca) was set up to track the responses of the politicians and the parties during the election when they responded to the questions put to them.
The following religious leaders put their names and their congregations to this effort: The Most Rev. Frederick James Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald, National Indigenous Anglican Bishop, The Rev. Bruce Adema, President, Canadian Council of Churches, The Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, General Secretary, Canadian Council of Churches, Victor C. Goldbloom, C.C., O.Q, M.D., Dr Wael Haddara, President, Muslim Association of Canada, Ihsaan Gardee, Executive Director, Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations, Sharaf H. A. Sharafeldin, Executive Director, Muslim Association of Canada, The Most Rev. Sylvain Lavoie O.M.I., Archbishop of Keewatin – Le Pas, Nora Sanders, General Secretary, The United Church of Canada and Mardi Tindal, Moderator, The United Church of Canada.
In their church bulletins, they put the following questions to their respective congregations, their candidates and their parties:
1.What do you propose to do in order to close the gap between rich and poor in Canada?
2. Do you pledge to make the reduction of the gap between rich and poor the prism through which you will view economic policies?
3. Will you fully fund and implement the Kelowna Accord so that Aboriginal Canadians can be lifted out of the Third World poverty many of them now know?
4. Would you support creating an accountability mechanism – such as a “Federal Fairness Commissioner” – to report on progress in narrowing the gap between rich and poor and ensure that targets and timelines are met?
5. Will you vote to keep Lester Pearson’s promise that Canada will dedicate 0.7% of our GDP to foreign aid?
6. Will you support the use of tax policies to reduce inequality?
7. Will you establish a fully funded federal/provincial Child Care system as a good way to provide early education and cut poverty among working families?
8. Will you create a federal/provincial Pharmacare program as a good way to strengthen health care, reduce health care costs and fight poverty?
9. Will you support increased federal funding for affordable housing, including social housing?
10. Much as the Canadian government made the elimination of federal deficits a high priority in the 1990s, do you support the idea of making the elimination of poverty in Canada the first priority of Canadian government in the coming decade?
11. Will you work to establish a specific timeline and targets (similar to the deficit elimination targets) for the End of Poverty in Canada within the coming decade?
The candidates were asked to simply answer yes or no. As of May 6th, NO candidate in Saskatchewan, whatever the political stripe made a conscious effort to respond to these questions and declare by putting their name forward on the website.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 07 May 2011 )
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