Michael Ignatieff and Winnipeg North Candidate Kevin Lamoureux volunteer at the Winnipeg Harvest food bank on October 8th 2010. Photo: Joyce Mazur
Today is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. It’s also a day for Liberals to take stock of what we’re doing to fight poverty in Canada – and our communities.
The statistics are grim. One in seven Canadian children lives in low-income conditions – and that number goes up, way up, in First Nations and Inuit communities and among those new to our country.
Embracing this year’s theme, “Working together out of poverty,” the Liberal Party is working hard to do its part.
The Liberal Family Care Plan, designed to help those caring for sick family members at home, and the Liberal National Food Policy, which emphasizes the importance of providing healthy food to low-income children, are just two examples of policies recently proposed by the Liberal Party of Canada that would ease the burden on low-income Canadian families.
Internationally, the Liberal Global Networks Strategy stresses the importance of empowering women in the developing world and boosting Canada’s foreign aid budget – two ways we can work with our international partners to eradicate poverty worldwide.
But we can – and we must – do more.
So take a moment to pause and reflect today — ask yourself what we as Canadians can do to end poverty at home and abroad.
You can learn more about International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on the United Nations website, here.
