Cape Breton's persisting poverty

Special to The Canadian

The latest report from the General Progress Index for Atlantic Canada (GPI Atlantic) on poverty in the region reaches back 21/2 millennia to quote Aristotle’s observation that “revolutions arise from inequalities.” That’s followed with a more contemporary reference to 2005 riots in France, “a poignant reminder of the potential consequences of marginalizing the poorest households.”

Many on the "left" subscribe to the notion that the modern welfare state, which seeks to ensure that the basics of life are available to all, came about as a defensive strategy on the part of the privileged who held the wealth and power. It was either state social support — basic food, shelter, clothing, health care and so on — or Bolshevism, so the story goes.

The idea lives on in warnings such as GPI’s that society has to do more to relieve poverty and correct the growing gap between the rich and the poor or else some unspecified upheaval may ensue. The idea of Nova Scotians threatening the social order beyond an occasional unruly protest in Halifax is a bit far fetched, however.

The problem, arguably, is the reverse: it’s not that the issue of poverty and inequality is threatening the established order but that it has so far proved impossible to sustain this issue in the foreground of the region’s politics so that it could be more effectively addressed.

Editorial reference, LINK

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