The big picture

The job of a candidate is to get the most votes. But people want to hear on outlook, a perspective on their personal lives, their province and their planet. As a minister I want to assure people that there is hope. As a voter, I want to hear the real issues discussed. As a member of a party, I am aware of the party platform, and respectful of all the thinking that has gone into it. As a candidate, I am very aware that people are often paying attention to every one of my words, hearing things that I may not have said or meant. I have learned to become careful with what I say on the campaign trail, and yet I often yearn for a more free-wheeling discussion.
Last night was a good example: Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket has a long, proud history of advocacy for social justice. The congregation's social justice group hosted an evening on poverty featuring short videos put together by the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition. ISARC was founded twenty years ago by anti-poverty activists from several faiths to monitor the activity and outcomes of an Ontario government Social Assistance Review process. The group watched the then Liberal provincial government let many of the Commission's recommendations go un-addressed, so it decided to stay together. Two decades later, another social assistance review has been commissioned by another Liberal government, and its report is due early in 2012. ISARC is waiting and watching.
And in the meantime, it is working with the Social Planning Councils of Ontario on a Poverty Free Ontario campaign. A poverty free Ontario. What a concept. It's not only doable, it would be much cheaper than letting people languish in poverty, where their health status takes a nose dive, and all kinds of unnecessary costs are incurred.
The challenge is philosophy, as I see it. Can we imagine a society where no is poor? Many people have swallowed the idea that if you have money you deserve it, and if you don't, you have somehow earned that fate. They don't acknowledge how slim is the line between getting ahead, and getting into deep poverty. All it takes is an accident, a disease, a marriage gone awry, a factory closing and suddenly a secure and predictable future is out the window. Does anyone deserve to lose everything because one thing went wrong?
We can do better. Much better. 
Good discussion at the event to sum up in the midst of a very concerned group, and a thank you and challenge from me to the congregation to keep working on challenging and countering the so-called meritocracy world view. This is going to take time. With all the talented, persistent, visionary people on it, we will get there. So a shout out to Rev. Dawn and the congregation at Holy Cross.