Local Tory has just the issue for the party: Global  poverty
Vancouver Sun
Friday,  August 11, 2006
Page: A15
Section: Editorial
Byline: Barbara Yaffe
Column: Barbara Yaffe
Source: Vancouver Sun


An influential Conservative may have come up with the  ideal antidote  for
the hard edge his party has developed as a result of its bellicose stances
on the foreign policy front.

Global poverty. It's the next big issue the Harper gang should embrace,
asserts Rick Peterson, a Vancouver business person who chairs the
Conservative  Council. The council calls itself "an independent voice" for
party members from  across Canada. Its 1,000-plus adherents contribute to a
website, organize  talkfests and pass ideas on to their party.

Peterson has nothing but praise for recent Conservative foreign policy
positions and says the same sort of unwavering energy should be brought to
another policy area, one that has the potential to rally Canadians.

"Who better than Conservatives to pick up the torch that the Paul Martin
Liberals dropped as it was handed to them by Bono?" Peterson writes in an
article appearing on the Conservative Council's website.

The idea is an interesting one because it could broaden the party's support
base when Conservatives need to boost their appeal -- in advance of an
election.

Harper's hard line on Afghanistan and the war in Lebanon have proven highly
divisive for  Canadians and may be alienating voters in the important
electoral  battleground of Quebec.

Poverty, notes Peterson, who is on the Conservative executive of the
Vancouver-Quadra riding association, "cuts across partisan lines and is
rapidly,  along with environmental policy, becoming a major issue forced
upon political  leaders by a wide variety of private and public individuals
and groups, ranging  from rock stars to philanthropists."

Canada, under Liberal leadership, demurred from committing itself to the
United Nations-recommended target for foreign aid of 0.7 per cent of GDP,
despite a succession of budget surpluses since the late 1990s.

A Conservative move to meet that commitment not only would soften the
government's right-wing image but could embarrass the Opposition Liberals
for their  longstanding neglect of the issue.

Only the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Luxemburg and Sweden have committed
themselves to the 0.7 per cent target, with Britain, Belgium, Finland,
France,  Ireland and Spain having pledged to soon reach it.

Embarrassingly, Canada devotes just under 0.3  per cent of GDP to foreign
aid -- a far cry from the target.

So, might Stephen Harper embrace the worthy objective, recommended by
Peterson? It would be a good fit with his fight against terrorism and  push
for global democracy.

That said, if Conservatives declare war on world poverty, they'd surely
have  to make a simultaneous commitment to clean up Canada's own backyard.

Fifteen per cent of children domestically live in "internationally defined
relative poverty," according to a just-released Institute for Research  on
Public Policy  paper by York University associate professor Dennis Raphael.

A 2005 international study shows Canada stands a disgraceful 19th, behind
even  Hungary, Greece and Poland, in the percentage of children living in
relative  poverty. A 1989 Commons all-party pledge to eliminate child
poverty in Canada by  2000 went unaddressed by both the Chretienites, in
power from 1993 to 2003, and  the Martinites, defeated last January.

Raphael posits that Canada's child poverty rate is as high as it is because
the country is a liberal rather than a social democracy, relying heavily on
free market  forces to determine social outcomes.

Canada "has one of the highest proportions of low-paid workers, provides
lower benefits for those unable to work or experiencing unemployment and
has  less spending related to pensions, disability and families than most
developed  nations."

Interestingly, no developed nation that similarly relies on marketplace
outcomes -- with the exception of Switzerland -- experiences child poverty
at  rates below 15 per cent.

The institute for research paper notes that public policy interventions
aimed  at addressing domestic poverty have generally come during periods of
minority  government, when New Democrats have held the balance of power.

Given Harper's free-market inclination, it's unlikely his  government is
going to take major steps to address child poverty.

Which would make a major initiative by his government to address poverty
abroad somewhat perplexing, or at least controversial here at home.

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