Coming up short

The welfare of women continues to dominate the political agenda through the suspension of Parliament.

And so, a few items of note.

Over at Rabble.ca, Murray Dobbin nicely sums up how the Harper government has run "roughshod'' over women.

Nothing new there as regular Broadsides readers know. If I had the time, I would add in a lot more starting with the threats to our reproductive choices and the pending elimination of the long-gun registry.

By coincidence, Regina Mom today documented the dollar value of some of the cuts to programs that helped women achieve equal rights and economic parity.

Finally, NDP leader Jack Layton took advantage of the current political climate to issue a news release challenging party leaders to put Canadian women and children first.

Mr. Layton invited Mr. Harper, as well as Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, to cooperate in 2010 to improve the lives of Canadian women and children. He outlined a series of concrete New Democrat proposals that, if embraced by the other parties, would mean real progress for women and children. Those proposals include:

• Employment Insurance rules that deny eligibility to six in ten women;
• adopting key recommendations of the 2004 Pay Equity Task Force;
• increasing support for women’s groups working to prevent violence;
• launching an inquiry into 520 missing or murdered Aboriginal women;
• launching a federal initiative to ensure every child has daily access to healthy food;
• boosting the Guaranteed Income Supplement to end poverty among seniors (overwhelmingly women).

It's stunning to me that, in this country, in this century, kids and seniors go hungry.

Who was it who said that, if you want to know the true measure of a man, watch how he treats old people, children and animals?

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: Layton had an op-ed in today's National Post.

Canada is among the wealthiest nations in the world, yet 70% of Inuit preschool-age children live in homes where there is not always enough food. There are many mothers in Canada who live in unsafe places, who are going without food, electricity or heat because of persistent, deep poverty. These deprivations have a devastating effect on Canada's very youngest, evidenced by the fact that infant mortality rates in low-income neighbourhoods are almost double those in richer ones.

Mr. Harper acknowledges that the solutions to maternal and child health problems are "not intrinsically expensive." This holds true for Canadian women and children as well: Providing safe drinking water on reserves, addressing the affordable housing crisis, and funding organizations that support women and children are all relatively inexpensive compared to the health and social costs of poverty in Canada, which are estimated at more than $20-billion per year.

<SNIP>

To put the full consequences of (Harper's) indifference into perspective, imagine a city the size of Winnipeg full of children: That is the number of our kids who live in poverty in Canada today.

As a country, we have the ability to take decisive action to end this cycle of marginalization, and Mr. Harper has shown that he knows that investing in women and children will get the job done in the developing world. It will be pure hypocrisy if he refuses to make similar investments here at home.

Comments

[Ess Bee]

Gandhi said it, but it does appear that Mr. Harper is unfamiliar with Gandhi and his works.

[John Merritt]

Who was it who said that," if you want to know the true measure of a man, watch how he treats old people, children and animals?"

So in essence Antonia what you are saying is that any man that treats the elderly, animals and children well measures greatly in the eyes of man? I agree in many respects however the true measure of a man does not look at classes of people or things by appearance sake; and yet can find compassion for whatever their situation. That includes rich and poor, old and young, feeble and healthy; and the list goes on.

I don't care if you are the homeliest or the most comely, tall or short, beautiful or purple with yellow polka dots; it makes no difference to me because I will treat everyone the same. Call me or label me anyway you want; I can live very well with whatever labels a person wants to affix. Anyway, I grasped the essence of your article and I agree there are many inequalities throughout the world, but the best we can do is create a wonderful playing surface for those around us if we can.

[Sarann]

And Mr. Flaherty, up in the Arctic, fought against the Tobin tax which was to be used to help alleviate poverty in poor areas of the world.

[Jim M]

Jack Layton reminds me of the good samaritan who offers to boost the dead battery of your car without being asked, so I am not surprised to see him with booster cables in his hands now. I wanted him to rush the cockpit with the Liberal and Bloc leaders but his idea would obviously be more expedient (and less bloody) than mine (figuratively speaking, of course), assuming that Stephen Harper is ready to play ball. The separate initiatives of Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton do not appear to compete with each other and seem to prove the point that a reader made on this blog recently (can't remember who;) that there would probably be many men ready to do a better job for women than the current Minister for Status of Women. Anywho, this song is for the guy who always seems to have booster cables ready, Jack Layton. http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Watcha+See+Is+What+You+Get/3473743

[the regina mom]

Thanks for the link, AZ, but just to clarify, that info was taken from a document prepared by the Canadian Association of University Teachers around the time of the last election.