BC, I heard again on the radio this morning, is the only province in Canada without a poverty reduction plan. Go figure. We are considered one of the richest provinces with the most robust economy, and beggars and homeless are lining our streets while Chinese millionaires launder their dirty money on our priciest real estate thus pushing housing costs out of reach to anyone who is not obscenely wealthy. And only in the last six weeks, on the heels of the coming election this spring has our prime minister, Christy the Clown Clark actually unveiled a low-cost housing plan that will provide 2900 new units to the tune of half a billion dollars, or, the price tag for a new roof on the BC Place Stadium.
During the Nineties this province was governed by an NDP government with Mike Harcourt, formerly Vancouver's very popular and progressive mayor, at the helm as premier. Under pressure from the rural conservative lobby (he did want votes, despite his party's social democratic platform), Harcourt turned against the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in this province, called them lazy deadbeats and parasites and welfare cheats and slashed provincial welfare rates.
In 2001 the BC Liberal Party, a newly minted coalition of conservatives, neoliberals and rightwing libertarians swept into power, drastically reduced welfare eligibility, tossed hundreds of poor people onto the street, and spiked our homeless population by nearly four hundred percent. In effect, the BC Liberal Party under Gordon Campbell, created our homelessness crisis. It has only worsened over the last fifteen years. And now Christy the Clown is going to shove out Five Hundred Million to see how many votes she can bleed her way in seven months' time with absolutely no guarantee that she won't somehow renege on her promise.
In the meantime we have newly minted legislation guaranteeing as a human right doctor assisted suicide. They wanted to broaden the qualifications and that had even the civil liberties folk on the same bandwagon baying like hounds in heat and lobbying for anyone who no longer wants to live to have the right to be bumped off by a physician, to hell with the Hippocratic Oath. It was only after hearing from an awful lot of Canadians with legitimate claims and fears of this legislation being abused that the criteria has remained at its narrowest, but there is no guarantee that the legislation cannot be reopened at a future date, amended and made available to many other Canadians eager to kick the bucket. And one particularly vulnerable group could be low-income seniors (our most rapidly growing population demographic) who could easily be manipulated into consenting to doctor assisted suicide, thus reducing the financial strain on our public health care system.
This government hates the poor. Otherwise our homelessness crisis would have been taken care of years ago. In the meantime, in the name of unfettered global capitalism, they keep putting band aids on the cancer, not really interested in solving the problem, but preferring rather to let Natural Selection take its course and extirpate from the face of the earth the poor children of God. And don't get me started about criminally low welfare rates and disability pensions that no one can survive on, much less minimum and low wages that remain significantly less than what anyone can be expected to live on with dignity.
All I can say in this blog post to all of you, Gentle Reader, is this: Wake up! These poor and homeless people whom you walk past, judge, ignore and despise every day are your brothers, your sisters, your children, your fathers and mothers. We are our brothers' keeper. It is time that we stopped reserving our compassion for those whom we think deserve it and learn to share our hearts and lives and substance with those whose poverty makes us want to look away in contempt and self-loathing. We hate the poor, or should I say, being poor myself, that you hate us, because you are us and we are you and you in your denial of your poverty simply cannot gut the idea of having to look your smallness and fragility in the face. Own up. We are your mirror. It is time for us all to come together, despite our hating and hateful governments.
If the people will lead, the leaders will follow.
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