Huron Expositor, 2007-03-28, Page 4Page 4 March 28, 2007 • The Huron Expositor
Opinion
Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK 1W0
One of the sad ironies of life, as the adage goes, is
that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
That truism was never so evident as recently
when Forbes magazine released its growing list of
billionaires while the anti -poverty group, Ontario
Campaign 2000, reported that the poor and work-
ing poor numbers continue to grow and that more
children are living in poverty in rich Ontario.
In fairness, billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren
Buffet and Canada's Thompson family certainly do
their share of philanthropic work.
It's a sad commentary on one of the richest
provinces in Canada when 478,000 children live• in
poverty in families on welfare or with parents who
simply don't earn enough to provide basic necessi-
ties.
The Canadian economy is one of the richest and
more stable economies in the world and as the! d-
eral government continues to rack up multi -billion
dollar surpluses, it suggests that .we are rich
enough to assist the most vulnerable. The country
has the means to ease the burden on families.
The government of Mike Harris introduced a
clawback of federal supplement payments for peo-
ple on welfare years ago. Ottawa's National Child
Benefit provides $3,200 for the first child and less
for other children. - The amount is comprised of a
payment of $1250 that goes to most Canadian fami-
lies and a supplement of up to $2,000 paid to fami-
lies -with the lowest incomes. Queens Park is finally
reversing that decision in last week's provincil bud-
get.
Also of assistance to the working poor will be the
proposed minimum wage hike to $10.25 per hour
over the next three years. But, it's yet to be seen
how the hike will affect small business owners who
employ minimum wage earners.
Working families need decent wages to live on
and require assistance in raising families. Parents
on welfare face the same financial burden.
There is an uncomfortable dichotomy here in that
Ottawa is taking in more from Canadian workers
and realizing billions in annual surpluses and yet,
those funds go iiito infrastructure such as Toronto
transit.
It is a sad commentary that poor children in
Canada are getting poorer.
Goderich Signal Star
`Fierce' is a type of beauty
I can appreciate
Like almost every
woman I know, I have
always struggled with
body image and that bal-
ance between looking
acceptable to others and
being comfortable in my
own skin.
Born with a father who's
6'2" and comes in at vary-
ing weights over 200 pounds and a mother
who was 5' and seldom weighed more than 90
lbs. as an adult, I was always regarded as a
"big girl" who looked like her dad by my tiny
mom.
While it didn't take long to realize I was
pretty much the same size as most of my
peers at school, I'm certain that one of the
attractions to feminism for me as a young
woman was its rejection of all the confining
definitions of what a woman must be.
I agreed wholeheartedly that the fashion
industry was a sadistic bunch bent on keep-
ing women so paranoid about their appear-
ance that they'd have no time or confidence to
take on the job of running a government or a
major corporation.
Imagine my surprise - and guilt even - that
I now find myself glued to the TV every
Wednesday to watch America's Next Top
Model.
Despite "supermodel" Tyra Banks' apparent
by Susan Hundertmark
crusade to show that mod-
els are more than just a
pretty face pouting into a
camera to sell whatever
product is at hand, this is a
show that capitalizes on the
very worst behaviour a
group of young women will
stoop to when competing
over who's the prettiest,
who's the sexiest, who's the best.
But, with all the predictable cattiness and
back-biting aside, I find myself interested in
the young women who still manage to show
poise, friendship, strength and growth in that
estrogen -soaked pressure cooker environ-
ment.
I watch the show with my daughter, who
even at 10 is already feeling - along with her
peers - the horrible pressure to judge, dissect
and ultimately loathe her own body - the
seemingly inevitable result of being a woman
in far too many cultures.
Together, we cheer on the young women
with spirit and individuality. We support the
token "Plus size" models, who compared to
the far -too -skinny regular models, actually
look like real women. And, we talk about the
peer pressure and mean spiritedness we find
it all too easy to relate to.
There's lots about this show that reeks of
See I, Page 5
Ron & pave
Hey Ron....
did you know
that Jewish
People don't
eat pork?
Of course,
It's in The
Bible.
The Bible says a lot about the -
foods that different religious
groups eat or don't eat. Like
pork and shellfish.
by bavid Lacey
Anything int%Nope, h
there about checked
broccoli? �—�--J
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