Toronto's new lost generation (Conservative-bashing editorial)

Toronto (Red) Star ^ | 03/03/06 | Carol Goar

[Heartofsong83]

Toronto's new lost generation Mar. 3, 2006. 01:00 AM CAROL GOAR

Peer into Toronto's baby carriages if you want a glimpse of the city's future.

The face looking back at you isn't likely to be white. Six out of every 10 children born in Toronto belong to a visible minority. And the proportion is rising. Two-thirds of infants have mothers from outside Canada.

There's a 30 per cent chance the child's life will have begun in poverty. That compares to an 18 per cent probability in the rest of Canada.

There is a 25 per cent chance the infant's parents will split before his or her sixth birthday. Family disruption is a fact of life, even for toddlers.

There is a 15.6 per cent chance the child will not get proper nutrition during his or her formative years. A well-balanced diet is beyond the reach of many families.

There is a 5.2 per cent chance you'll be looking at a low-birth-weight baby, who is prone to infection and development problems. That is above the provincial average of 4 per cent.

Most strikingly, you'll see all of Toronto's income disparities magnified. In the city's richest neighbourhoods, the babies will be healthier, better fed, better dressed and better prepared to learn than their counterparts anywhere in Canada. In its poorest neighbourhoods, the newborns will be smaller, poorer, sicker and more precariously housed than infants in most of the country. Not coincidentally, these low-income districts — which include a large swath of Scarborough, the downtown east side and the entire northwest quadrant (stretching from Dufferin St. to Highway 427 above Highway 401) — are where most new immigrants live.

This statistical profile was assembled by Toronto's medical officer of health to get politicians and community activists thinking about how to prevent today's warning signals from becoming tomorrow's crisis.

Dr. David McKeown presented his findings to the city's Board of Health this week. He focused on Toronto's youngest citizens because their life paths can still be changed.

But that will require money, which the city does not have. Toronto has to cut its spending, not make new investments, to close its $7.7 billion budgetary gap.

It will require early learning programs in the city's poor neighbourhoods, which Toronto just lost the opportunity to provide. The newly elected Conservative government in Ottawa is dismantling Canada's embryonic child-care system, which would have included 6,000 new openings in Toronto, most of them for low-income children.

It will require pay levels that allow workers to raise healthy children, which the provincial government doesn't demand. Ontario's minimum wage ($7.75 per hour) falls 20 per cent below the poverty line for a single person — let alone a family — set by the National Council of Welfare.

It will require welfare rates that enable single mothers to feed, clothe and house their children adequately, which Ontario doesn't have. Under current rules, a lone parent with two dependants is expected to run a household on $1,119 a month. That is 57 per cent below the poverty line.

It will require adequate English training for newcomers, which most school boards can't offer. The province's rigid education funding formula has forced them to skimp on everything that lies outside the standard curriculum.

And it will require a national government that understands the link between childhood deprivation and poor health, which Canada appears to lack. Prime Minister Stephen Harper eliminated the ministry of public health in last month's cabinet overhaul.

Faced with all these obstructions, members of the board of health lapsed into a mixture of anxiety, frustration, pettiness and academic detachment.

One member suggested that city officials rethink their language, given that "visible minorities" in their report now constitute Toronto's majority.

Another pointed out that she had 20 years' worth of reports, similar to the one produced by McKeown, and precious little to show for all the paperwork.

A third quibbled over the term child poverty, insisting it was the plight of low-income women that ought to be addressed.

Several pressed McKeown for advice, recommendations and solutions. But the doctor had no handy prescription in his black bag.

It was a sobering afternoon.

Toronto sees where it is headed, but can't change course. It knows what needs to be done, but can't do it. It envisages a better future, but can't get there.

A generation from now, those babies in the prams will look back and wonder how a smart city got it so wrong.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

[WOSG]

here's a 30 per cent chance the child's life will have begun in poverty. That compares to an 18 per cent probability in the rest of Canada.

There is a 25 per cent chance the infant's parents will split before his or her sixth birthday. Family disruption is a fact of life, even for toddlers. "

So Toronto is importing poverty and brkoen homes ... and there is NO suggestion to actually change this?!?

"It will require adequate English training for newcomers, which most school boards can't offer. The province's rigid education funding formula has forced them to skimp on everything that lies outside the standard curriculum."

Nothing wrong with that. Bilingual education is a proven failure.

[NZerFromHK]

But isn't Toronto also monarchist in the sense that monarchism is yet another stick that can be used to poke at the United States? Vancouver is ideologically leftist but I feel Toronto is probably acting contrarian in the sense that if the United States went pacifist tomorrow it would move conservative.

And I see travel guides such as Lonely Planet still describe Toronto as a politically and socially conservative place. Yikes!

[Heartofsong83]

Toronto is the worst of all worlds. It is not monarchist, but it hates EVERYONE else, from the 905 area suburbs (although less so today) to the rural hinterlands of Ontario to other provinces (especially Quebec and the West) to other countries. (At least that describes 70-80% of the population there)

Toronto is as far as it gets from conservative, either socially or fiscally. That travel guide is using information from 50 years ago.

[Heartofsong83]

Exactly. Even in a Conservative majority, there would be no Toronto members. The majority would come from picking off another 15-20 seats in Ontario, plus another 15 or so in Quebec, a few more in the West and perhaps in the Atlantic region.

[Heartofsong83]

That is racism - being used by the left, who usually cry tolerance!!! Oh the hypocricy!!!!!!

[NorthOf45]

That pretty much says it all.

Torstar CEO, David McGuinty may enter Grit race

[Loyalist]

The Toronto Star editorial board can wax rhapsodical about the glories of Toronto's tolerance and diversity, from their enclaves in the Annex and Rosedale, because they don't have to live with it.

Set them loose in Jane-Finch, armed only with their supercilious attitudes, and let the denizens thereof tear them to pieces.

[TheMole]

But isn't Toronto also monarchist in the sense that monarchism is yet another stick that can be used to poke at the United States?

No, trendy pomo Toronto hates monarchism because that is part of the Old Canada, the actually existing historical nation. Toronto today is multiculturalist uber alles and wants to annihilate all traces of history befre the multi-culti age.

BTW, here's a picture of the drivellist responsible for the article. She's the one on the left. Original caption: Toronto Star reporter Carol Goar receives the 2005 Community Caring Award from Karen Murphy, Peel Branch Board Chair of the Canadian mental health Association. My caption: Yes, she looks like mental health might be an issue.