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There is No Party for the
Poor Health Providers Against Poverty held an all candidates debate on poverty and health tonight at Innis Town Hall. Moderated by Carol Goar, the debate included members of the PC, Liberal, NDP, Green and Communist parties. Questions from the audience followed. I wasn’t involved then but I’m posing my question in this article … making it a long-winded rant like some of the people in the audience did. It goes like this … I was down at the food bank, not far from Innis, yesterday. They were distributing sacks of stale crap that couldn’t keep a bird alive for more than two days. You don’t even get a loaf of bread or margarine at the food bank. So much for daily bread. They do give a free meal of rice with some slop on it and looking around at the people feasting on the meal I noticed that most of them were disabled or the battered poor. The people nobody would hire. People the NDPs pledge to raise the minimum wage would not help. At this Innis event the huge trays of free sandwiches are much better than food bank stuff. Perhaps distributing them to the poor would be a start in any poverty reduction plan. The word from the moderator is that none of the major parties support food banks but they wouldn’t dare close them. My suggestion would be that they eat at one and then make their decision. All three major parties have ducked the question of any raise in welfare and ODSP rates. They have promised to increase spending in the ODSP and social assistance delivery system, but not a genuine penny of benefits increase for the poorest people in our society. I wonder why an attempt to better the lot of the working poor through policies like the minimum wage increase and health tax rollback has been portrayed as a policy to aid all of the poor. I also wonder why I have to listen to people asking questions about benchmarks and comprehensive plans to address poverty, when I should be hearing a simple straightforward question – which is … for heaven’s sake, if you want to address poverty why don’t you increase the rates for the poorest people in our society? As it is the PCs and Liberals have no comprehensive policies or sensible benchmarks and the NDP is telling us they are going to pull the working poor back into the life boat. The disabled, the aging and those damaged folk with personality ticks and minor mental illnesses will be left sinking as we abandon those who have no real hope other than government benefits? The debate ends with the great divide hidden and politicians smugly smoothing things over, and granting themselves an easy night’s sleep based on their compassion for the unfortunate. Yet the truth is there for anyone with open eyes, as it is clear that the actual poor are beyond the reach or vision of the three major parties. Perhaps the PCs are completely blind, the Liberals shifty eyed, and the NDP carrying special glasses that only see the working poor. Of course the fringe parties – Greens and Communists in this case, are making great pledges to aid the poor. Promises they’ll never be able to keep out there on the fringe. But they are not alone because that is the divide as the poorest people in Ontario have been cast out there into the fringes with them. They have no one to vote for … not anyone that can get elected and get results. ============================== |
