Low Income Cut-offs - A Lesson for the #CPC

Yesterday my post talked about how sad I thought it was that Conservatives did not acknowledge poverty in Canada.  And this morning to my surprise there was a comment arguing that .... the poverty line isn't real. I am sorry that I didn't define clearly enough what I meant by poor.  Here is the definition of poor I was using although I hesitate to even post it because that means I am just being sucked into this ridiculous debate on semantics.

The Low Income Cut-Offs are based on the percentage of a family's income spent on three items:

• food,

• clothing, and

• shelter.

The percentage of total income (before income tax, and including government income supports) spent on food, clothing and shelter by an average Canadian household in 1992 was 34.7%. Using LICOs, a family is considered to be in low income if the household spends 20 percentage points higher than the average household or more than 54.7% of its total income on these three categories of expenditure. 

Regardless of whether or not you would like to acknowledge this definition of poverty to be valid, my comments about the Conservative election platform still hold true.  This platform does nothing for low income Canadians.

If you are spending more than half of your BEFORE tax income on the essentials:

• it is unlikely you will have 10K to put in a savings account each year
• you probably not paying to put your kids in organized sports
• it is doubtful you have enough money to join a fitness club

How Poor is Poor Enough?

Harper and Alexander

Recently Conservative Chris Alexander made the assertion that Canada has eradicated poverty.  Statements like this are disheartening.  Many Canadians have to make the difficult choice between paying the rent or buying food.  And because people in Canada live on more than $2.00 per day the Conservatives would argue that they are not poor.

If Conservatives are as fiscally intelligent as they claim to be, it would be obvious that purchasing power and not just net income must also be considered.  I would challenge this Candidate to live on the social assistance or minimum wage of his province and see how much of a challenge it can be to acquire the essentials. Yes Mr. Alexander for the most part we do not have people starving in the streets, though we do have many that go hungry.  In a country as rich as Canada, it's a national disgrace.

If the money that Stephen Harper wants to spend on giving tax cuts to profitable corporations was instead spent on addressing the root causes of poverty.  Then, maybe we really could eliminate poverty in Canada.

No policy your party has presented so far will help people living below the poverty line.  News flash low income families rarely have the money to put their kids in organized sports or join fitness clubs.  And I can guarantee you they do not have enough money to max out their TFSA (assuming they have one) at the current limit let alone this mystical increase that will supposedly happen 5 years from now.

It has always been amazing to me how Fat Cats can convince the mice to vote for them but it happens time and time again