Rich get richer, poor get poorer
Metrovalley Newspaper Group - New Westminster News Leader
October 24, 2008
Opinion by Bill Zander, New Westminster

… Until just recently, we were told we will not be affected by the meltdown. According to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, our banks and financial institutions are strong, as is our economy, and we should not worry. If we are not on the same leaky boat as the rest of the world or at least as our largest trading partner, the U.S.A. (with 78 per cent of our trade), then why is the Bank of Canada shoring up the financial institutions with a $20 billion bailout?

… We have recently been chastised by the internationally-respected Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. They said the gap between the rich and poor in Canada was growing faster than in most other developed nations and that our government needs to stop that trend.

We do not have money for the environment (we rank 28th out of 30 countries), medicare, promised pharmacare, child care (child poverty is at 17 per cent, or 1.2 million children), badly needed housing, or for renewal of failing infrastructure, etc., but we have no problem financing George Bush's war or bailing out financial institutions.

Our social spending as a percentage of gross domestic product is 25th of 30 major industrial countries. It is a national disgrace and it's time politicians understood that a society is judged by how it treats its least fortunate citizens, not its richest.

Remember when our country used to be respected for its social programs? Our call was for a "just society" as Prime Minister Trudeau called it at the time.

…. There are too many people suffering from grinding poverty, deprived of decent food, shelter and clothing in this land of plenty.

There are those who have been taking the lion's share of the wealth of this country for far too long. For example, by the time we have our first coffee on the morning of Jan. 1, our nation's 100 best-paid CEOs will have earned the equivalent of an average wage-earning Canadian's annual income of $38,000. According to Statistics Canada, the richest 20 per cent of Canadians are getting richer, the poorest 20 per cent are getting poorer and the rest of us are struggling to stay even or are going under.

… To change things, the unconscionable greed of the rich and of their corporations must come to an end. Our government bails out the banks and corporations but doesn't put a moratorium on house foreclosures or bring social assistance and unemployment insurance levels up for those in need at the bottom.

Enough is enough.

The epitaph of Tommy Douglas, the man judged as the greatest Canadian of all time, reads: "Courage, my friends, it is not too late to build a better world."

His was a vision of a socially, economically and environmentally just and sustainable society. It is long overdue for us to start down that road.