Calgary activists call for next prime minister to end poverty

Whoever wins Monday's federal election will find a stack of postcards waiting for them with a direct request — to end poverty in Canada.

That was the message delivered by activists across Canada on Thursday, who joined together as part of the seventh annual Chew on This! campaign.

Organizers chose to hold the campaign on Oct. 17 in conjunction with the United Nations' annual International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

"We're asking for an anti-poverty strategy for the federal election," said Poverty Talks! organizer Susan Gwynn.

"We're asking the new prime minister to look at implementing one within the first 90 days of office, and to make it fully funded and to make it comprehensive. And enough that it gives people the dignity that they need to live a successful life."

To spread that message, local organizers gathered at Calgary's Marlborough CTrain Station, handing out paper bags with snacks and postage-paid postcards.

"They can fill out [those postcards] with what's on it or add their own concerns and send it to the Prime Minister's Office," Gwynn said. "Hopefully from across Canada they'll get so many that they can't ignore."

Gwynn said organizers chose to hold the event in Calgary's Marlborough community to highlight the area's lack of resources and heavy concentrations of low-income housing.

"[We're highlighting] issues that come with extreme prolonged poverty. People not having enough of anything, really," she said.

"Not enough resources, not enough money, not enough time, not enough hours in the day, as well as drug addiction. Because drug addiction comes with prolonged, extreme, deep poverty.

"It's not a problem that happens because of drug addiction; drug addiction happens because of poverty."

Calgary resident Amber Cannon said she has seen the struggles of poverty first-hand.

"I grew up in a middle-class family, and it wasn't until I became a teenager and an adult that I realized what poverty was all about. I see people struggling all the time," she said. "But what's great about my community living in poverty is that we really hold each other up and carry the struggle together."

Cannon said she hoped the initiative would prompt those in power to listen to the voices of those who are struggling.

"This is an election year. Now is the time for us to have our voices heard and say, 'Enough is enough.'"