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Buried well beneath the major political drama rocking this nation of late (not to mention the distorted reality show playing out to our south) was a modest bit of good news: Canada’s poverty rate declined by 20 per cent between 2015 and 2017.

I say “modest” because this is according to Canada’s recently adopted “Official Poverty Line” known as the Market Basket Measure, which is based on whether a family can afford a “basket of goods and services representing a modest, basic standard of living,” including things like food, clothing, transportation and shelter (but not extras such as post-secondary education). Thus, it represents a rather restrictive approach to assessing poverty. Also, because it is based solely on the cost of a basic basket of goods, this poverty line does not budge, even if Canada as a whole gets richer.

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This contrasts sharply with the Low Income Measure, the most widely used international approach. This sets the poverty threshold at half the median income. In addition to being considerably more generous than the Market Basket Measure, the Low Income Measure rises if the median income increases, reflecting the notion that, as a society gets richer, everyone should share in this prosperity.