Bridging the Gap of Wealth and Poverty

Bridging the Gap of Wealth and Poverty

There are issues and problems faced by every government regardless of their party lines. Each citizen has an ideal about what they want the government to do and how they should handle any given situation. A simplistic definition of public policy is the course of action set out by a government in an attempt to resolve a problem (Defining Public Policy). Generally it is a necessary exercise on the part of the government in an attempt to provide a plan in response to the wants and needs of the people it represents.

One such issue that requires a change in Canada’s current public policy is the growing gap between the Canadian’s wealthiest and poorer residents. There is no singular explanation for this shift in income inequality but rather a copulation of economic triggers and social changes causing a determinate to society which the government can’t ignore.

One of the causes has been the global economic crisis (Sealy and Anderson 52). As the rest of the world entered into a recession so too has Canada. This recession will mean greater unemployment, reduced spending and stunted economic growth. It will unfortunately have a more profound effect on the poorer people (Alexander and Fong 2). It will impact wealthier Canadian’s but they have better access to the means necessary to ride out the storm, at least for a while.

Two other triggers which seems to go hand in hand are technology and globalization (Sealy and Anderson 54). We have all heard the stories about automation in factories and technology’s negative impact on the economy. From the introduction of machines to help build cars to your local ATM machines, technology has been functioning to replace humans in the work place. This progression towards machine over man has led to two things happening; middle class blue collar works have lost their jobs yet skilled IT experts needed to run these machines have become highly sought after and highly paid. These...