On Tuesday, BC MLA Jagrup Brar wrapped up his month living on a basic welfare income of $610. He has returned to his family and a comfortable home. But we owe him great thanks. And kudos as well to the folks at Raise the Rates, who issued the challenge that MLAs try living on welfare [...]
Entries Tagged as 'child poverty'
Congratulations to Jagrup Brar: Time to raise welfare rates
February 3rd, 2012 · Seth Klein · No Comments · Poverty, inequality & welfare
Tags: child poverty·poverty·welfare
Living Wage Policy: Why Municipal Governments should lead the way
October 25th, 2011 · Seth Klein · Comments Off · Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare
By Michael McCarthy Flynn and Seth Klein The Living Wage for Families Campaign, along with 54 organizations representing over 300,000 British Columbians, recently issued an Open Letter calling on all municipal election candidates to help low-income families in their cities by passing a Living Wage policy if they are elected (available here). Many families are [...]
NDP propose BC Poverty Reduction Act
June 2nd, 2011 · Seth Klein · 3 Comments · Poverty, inequality & welfare
Today in the BC Legislature, the Official Opposition (MLA Shane Simpson) introduced a private member’s Bill proposing a BC Poverty Reduction Act. That Act, were it to be enacted, would see the government develop a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, and legislate specific targets and timelines to reduce the breadth and depth of poverty within one [...]
More thoughts on BC’s new minimum wage
March 23rd, 2011 · Seth Klein · 1 Comment · Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare
As some of you may have seen, Adrienne Montani (of First Call) and I had a piece in the Vancouver Sun earlier this week: a “memo” to the new Premier on what a “Families First” agenda should look like . (If you didn’t see it, you can find it here.) In it, we praised Cristy [...]
Tags: child poverty·minimum wage
A Challenge to BC’s Leadership Candidates: Dare to Be Bold and to Tell Us the Truth
January 4th, 2011 · Seth Klein · 15 Comments · Climate change, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes
Some thoughts on what I’d love to hear in the current leadership contests: As a number of fundamental crises become more apparent (ecological and economic, not to mention the democratic deficit), the public is looking for bold ideas and bold leadership. Sadly, too many political strategists (as they will confess in private company) operate on [...]
Tags: campaign·carbon tax·child poverty·inequality·leadership·poverty reduction·role of government
The Economist Magazine calls out BC
December 1st, 2010 · Seth Klein · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Well, I never thought I’d see this rebuke of Canada and BC in The Economist Magazine of all places. But the current issue of the conservative magazine singles out BC for its high rate of child poverty. You can find it here. The piece highlights cuts to welfare, and notes, “One of the keenest slashers [...]
Poverty reduction update
December 1st, 2010 · Seth Klein · Comments Off · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Lots of developments on the Poverty Reduction front over the last two weeks. Here are a few updates: First, last week brought news that Danny Williams is stepping down as premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. Personally, I’m sad to see him go. Rarely mentioned in the news reports last week about his record of accomplishments [...]
New voices in support of a BC poverty reduction plan
September 30th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Two important new voices joined the call for a BC poverty reduction plan in the last couple days. First, on Tuesday, BC Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall released a special report entitled Investing in Prevention. The report received quite a lot of media attention. However, most of the coverage dealt with the common-space issues of [...]
What will it take to bring smarter family policy to BC?
September 27th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Children & youth, Transparency & accountability, Women
Did you know that the BC government has set a goal to reduce early childhood vulnerability to 15% by fiscal year 2015? You can hardly tell by their actions. BC did introduce full-day kindergarten in some communities this fall, but other than that the family policy front has been rather quiet lately. The latest childhood [...]
Tags: accountability·child poverty·childcare·children·families·family policy·poverty·role of government·Women
Your Brain on Capitalism
September 7th, 2010 · Peter Prontzos · 3 Comments · Children & youth, Education, Environment, resources & sustainability, Poverty, inequality & welfare
At least as far back as Sokrates, people have speculated on the relationship between psychology and politics. In the 20th century, Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm and members of the Frankfurt School (such as Herbert Marcuse) pioneered discussion about how individual dispositions affect one’s social and political ideologies. On the other hand, social psychologists like Stanley [...]
