If you listen to left-leaning journalists, economists and think-tanks, you’d think that the main cause of chronic child poverty in Canada is a lack of good paying jobs. That’s not true. The biggest cause is broken families.

Statistics Canada published a report this morning documenting the latest trends in incomes in Canada. The results confirm a long-standing trend, namely that single moms, valiantly endeavoring to juggle the responsibilities of parenting with their job, are having a tough time bring home enough income for their kids.

About 606,000 children aged 17 and under lived in low-income families in 2008… Roughly 218,000 of these children in low income lived in female lone-parent families. (Source)

Leaving aside the issue of how Statistics Canada defines “poverty” (which is hugely controversial among economists) these statistics show that about 36% of children living in “poverty” are in broken families. We could hold a symposium gathering economists from around the world to tinker with the definition of “poverty”, but the broad conclusion would be the same: broken families are causing huge financial hardships on women and children in this country, not to mention the emotional distress. Unfortunately, policy makers refuse to see the elephant in the room and instead focus on creating new social programs to supplement incomes. The only lasting solution is to return to values that promote more stable families. Since that’s the root cause, that’s where the solution needs to be directed. There are no quick fixes, unfortunately. Part of the solution would involve better education so that people avoid getting into bad relationships and to make men less prone to dump a women that they impregnated.

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