Time to vote for Canada's kids

Cover of Campaign 2000’s report card, Investing in Tomorrow (February 2026) Credit: Campaign 2000 website

On May 26, 2026, the Social Planning and Research Council (SPRC) of Hamilton released its report on child poverty, Family and Child Poverty in Hamilton by Ted Hildebrandt. This report is the first time Hamilton used the Campaign 2000 framework to examine family and child poverty using taxfiler data to highlight that Hamilton’s child poverty rate of 21.1 per cent in 2023 is higher than both the Canadian (18.3 per cent) and Ontario (19.9 per cent) rates. That means one in five children in Hamilton live in poverty. That’s over 24,000 children — enough to fill both the TD Coliseum (18,000 capacity) and Ron Joyce Stadium (6,000 capacity).

Campaign 2000 was launched in 1989 by the federal government under Brian Mulroney. The goal was to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000. Solving child poverty has eluded both Conservative and Liberal governments despite funding brilliant research that offered viable solutions.

Campaign 2000’s report card, Investing in Tomorrow (February 2026), lays bare the fact that national child poverty rose for the third consecutive year. Nearly 1.4 million children live in poverty with over 802,000 children living $15,000 below Canada's official poverty line. At the pace the Liberals and Conservatives are going, eradicating child poverty will take 400 years.

When first introduced, the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) raised many children out of poverty, but it no longer has the power to do that. During the Ontario Basic Income Pilot and while folks were receiving Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB), families were able to improve their social determinants of health. Under CERB the national child poverty rate declined 40 per cent from 2019 to 2020 – the largest year over year decrease since the federal government decided to eradicate child poverty.

We have proven solutions based on quantitative and qualitative data and we know from the Mincome Pilot, the Ontario Basic Income Pilot and CERB that it’s financially feasible and can be rolled out quickly. So, what’s preventing governments from implementing the sustainable solutions that would keep Canadian children out of poverty?

Professors Dennis Raphael and Toba Bryant just finished writing a paper titled, Is Promoting Health Equity Through a Wellbeing Economy a Trojan Horse for a Post-Capitalist Socialist Economy? Will it Make it Through the Public Policy Gates?

Their paper disproves the wellbeing economy which essentially is an economic model designed to prioritize the health of people and the planet over Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. This is the type of economy in which all Canadian children would thrive.

Unfortunately, Liberal and Conservative governments are more than happy to fund robust research into the various ways child poverty could be eradicated. What those governments lack is the political will to create and implement policy that would effectively end child poverty.

Instead, these governments wait until researchers become frustrated and leave their field or move onto a different field of research. Incoming researchers who are enthusiastic and naïve are given a new strategy to investigate, research and report on — like the wellbeing economy. Despite being thorough and meticulous with their research and recommendations, the work sits on a shelf somewhere and is never implemented. And, so the cycle goes because ending child poverty does not improve the GDP as much as military contracts or building pipelines or even cleaning up major oil spills.

Governments are over a quarter century past the original deadline of 2000, yet during those 37 years child poverty increased and it has, I would argue, reached epic proportions.

The well being economy is as much a Trojan horse for bringing post capitalist discourse into the public policy arena as Campaign 2000 was for ending child poverty.

Conservative and Liberal governments have a long history of making promises that are never realized. Remember Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Burlington MP Karina Gould’s promise of proportional representation replacing first-past-the-post? How about Prime Minister Mark Carney promising not to invest in or build any more oil pipelines? Or, election promises that the Ford government would not cancel the Ontario Basic Income Pilot program? Or, privatize Ontario’s healthcare? Or, touch the Greenbelt? Or, privatize water and waste water management? Or, Ford and his MPPs claiming that they are fiscally responsible. Really Stan Cho? Is spending $16,000 of tax payers’ money on hotels and meals actually fulfilling your fiduciary responsibility?

No more Trojan horses! And, no more broken election promises!

It’s time to implement Democracy Watch’s Honesty in Politics campaign that would fine politicians who make false promises or misleading statements during elections and while in office. An independent watchdog agency would have the power to investigate and financially penalize not only the politician caught lying, but also their party.

We don’t even have to quibble over whether the given politician fulfilled 20 per cent or 50 per cent of the promise that was broken. Let’s just go after the 100 per cent failed promises and misleading statements for now. That should generate enough money to jump start a Basic Income — something I refer to as a Universal Standard of Living — that would raise Canadian kids out of poverty.

It’s time to push beyond the familiar and embrace politicians and parties that are actually going to generate the necessary changes that will lead to realistic, lasting policy changes that really benefit Canadian children. That means voting NDP and Green at all levels of government.

This fall, ask municipal candidates how they plan to lift children in your municipality out of poverty; improve their housing, education, healthcare; and how they will “motivate” the Ford government live up to its obligations for implementing $10 per day childcare and building truly affordable housing.

Because all of Ontario’s kids deserve better.

*A version of this article was originally published in The Hamilton Spectator (June 13, 2026).

Hear my July 23, 2026, conversation with Professor Dennis Raphael as we discuss his paper co-authored with Toba Bryant, the Wellbeing economy a Trojan horse for post-capitalist socialist economy, here.

Listen to my Rabble Radio interview with Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch regarding the Honesty in Politics campaign (March 2023), here.

Thanks to everyone who read today’s article. With your financial support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.

You can also find my work in Public Parking Publication, herizons, rabble.ca and on my Wix site. Follow me on Instagram, X @doreennicoll61, Bluesky @nicollneedschange and Facebook.