Campaign Insider - Responding To Questions

Campaigns can be difficult because many see them as opportunities for expressing long-held opinions. My development work overseas is well-known, as is my role in Parliament as the International Cooperation critic. And so some send me messages complaining that we should be caring for our own people first, sometimes forgetting that I still assist in directing the London Food Bank. Yet these are sincerely held opinions and an election is as good a time as any. So part of my work during the campaign involves responding to such messages these best I can, usually late at night. Below is one such response I sent to a person who stated strongly that charity must begin at home.

Thanks for your recent inquiry concerning charity beginning at home.

You likely know of my background and how I feel that our aid to other countries is an essential part of who we are - always has been. This has also led to our elevated reputation worldwide as a compassionate and caring country and has also resulted in Canadians assuming significant roles in international organizations like the UN, the World Bank, and special commissions established for global efforts at easing poverty in the world. It has been a badge Canadians have worn with pride, especially since the days following World War Two.But I want to wholeheartedly concur with your sentiments about our failure to deal with so many Canadians here at home. I think your comments about seniors' pensions, the homeless, lack of veteran benefits, fixed incomes, hunger, and children living in poverty are entirely correct.As you're probably aware, I still direct the London Food Bank - now in its 25th year of operation. I've also taken part in many senior and child poverty initiatives to deal with the severe neglect of many of our own Canadians. So I'm fully sympathetic to your assessment of our domestic needs. But the issue of domestic assistance and foreign aid is not either-or. This country now has more money flowing through its veins than at any other time in our history. Sadly, past governments of different stripes have seen benefits given to the wealthiest of Canadians while they have left those in more risk struggling to adapt. Senior's pensions are a clear example of this. We have failed almost across the board to care for most at-risk seniors who struggle to make ends meet, while at the same time permitting corporations at home to accumulate more and more of Canada's yield. Some say this has been a successful strategy, leading us to be one of the leading economic countries in the world. I say that no country is healthy that denies its own, lost in the mounds of all this cash and credit.Just tonight I spoke with a group of seniors at Wolseley Barracks in London, many of them struggling on fixed pensions. They had gathered to present me with an award for what I've done in fighting poverty here in Canada. Sadly, I had to inform them that I felt like a failure on this file. After all the years of my entire adult life fighting poverty, I felt that we were still prioritizing poorly as a country concerning our own needs. Yet those seniors who fought in wars and built this country with their own ingenuity and hard work nevertheless thought the effort was important and pressed me to stay involved with restoring Canada's image overseas through good diplomacy and foreign aid. That's why they're such special Canadians in my mind - they see our job as undertaking both issues with common sense and generosity. They were angry that our foreign aid levels have been frozen for the next five years. Many of them belong to Lions, Rotary, churches, and numerous other organizations that are involved extensively overseas. I was humbled at the sheer weight and compassion of their "Canadian-ness."Thank you for your observations concerning our failures at home and I commend you for stating them with such clarity. But we have enough money in this land to do both, just as the older generation established decades ago and continues to press for today. We have to rearrange our priorities so that financial growth and sustainability will be distributed more efficiently through this nation - especially to those that built such a solid land. Likely, that includes you and I thank you for your service to all Canadians. So many of our citizens established the system of being generous abroad while being generous at home that it would be sad to break that bond with previous generations.Respectfully,Glen Pearson