Harper plans to help women and children in the 3rd world, he reduced support for them in Canada

Stageleft: life on the left side » Shorter Stephen Harper
Harper talks big on the world stage about women and children, yet back at home he has been cutting funding for women's issues and child poverty for years.
The example in this article is about Inuit children and how little Harper cares for them.

Things about poverty that you might not have realized

The High Cost of Poverty: Why The Poor Pay More

Slums of the world

Riveting narrated slideshow of the world's slums: The Places We Live - Boing Boing <view

Hungry in America

Report: 36 million Americans food insecure - UPI.com

More than 36 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, are food insecure, officials of a U.S. non-profit group said.

Feeding America, a U.S. hunger-relief organization, said the actual
number of Americans forced to skip meals and survive without adequate
nutrition is even greater than the report indicates because it is based
on statistics from 2007.

"It is important to note that the U.S. Department of Agriculture
numbers released today are 2007 figures and do not take into account
the unprecedented economic crisis that our country is currently
facing," Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America said in a
statement.

Canadians want their government to deal with poverty

Rolling Back the Tide of Extremism, One Post at a Time: Four in Ten Canadians Fear Imminent Poverty

She said Canadians look at Scandinavian and European countries' focus on poverty reduction and say, "Why can't we do that here?"

According to the survey:

90 per cent want the government to take leadership to reduce poverty
86 per cent believe concrete government action can greatly reduce poverty
81 per cent support reducing poverty by at least 25 per cent over the next five years.

Canadian government not addressing poverty, rewarding the rich.

TheStar.com | Canada | Income gap growing wider

Canada spends less on cash transfers, such as unemployment and family benefits, than other OECD countries and that may be one of the reasons the country fares worse than others, the report suggests.

The report echoes concerns raised by Canadian social research groups about growing income disparity in Canada at a time of strong economic growth.

"It's a consistent repudiation of the trickle-down theory," said Armine Yalnizyan, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which has written several reports on the issue.

"Even in a period of dramatic growth in the job market – and Canada has been a leader in job growth in the G-7 in the last 10 years – trickle down has not happened," she said.

The OECD report underscores the need for federal action, she said, adding every political party except the recently elected federal Conservatives had plans to cut poverty in their campaign platforms.

"It will be interesting to see how the other parties form a coalition of interest on this issue, or if they do," Yalnizyan said.

With U.S. Democratic leader Barack Obama ahead in the polls and promising to cut poverty in half in that country within 10 years, Canada may soon be one of the only developed countries without a detailed plan to address the problem.