An article in the current edition of NOW Magazine looks at social assistance in Ontario. The article is aptly entitled "Poverty pariah," in light of how apparently unpopular Ontario's welfare system has become over the past 20 years.

As can be seen at the National Council of Welfare's Interactive Welfare Incomes Map, a single adult on welfare in Ontario receives $7,501 per year. In real terms, this benefit level is roughly 35% lower now than it was in the mid-1990s.

If we were to judge democracy using the language of business we would ask how it does on the "deliverables." In other words, does it deliver on its promises of equality? In a capitalist society it is virtually impossible to deliver anything like complete equality but the role of government in the period following the Second World War was to provide a measure of equality in a system whose foundation was inequality. It has always struck me that the term we use to describe our political economic system -- liberal democracy -- is an oxymoron. Or more accurately a system that tries to integrate two mortally hostile notions: property rights and democracy. These are two principles that cannot be reconciled -- eternal conflict is literally guaranteed.

More than 790,000 Canadians walked into a food bank in March, an increase of 18 per cent over the previous year according to a new report on hunger and food bank use in Canada.

Alberta, Nova Scotia and Ontario recorded the highest increases.

More than 72,000 people visited a food bank for the first time in their lives. Thirty-seven percent of those helped are children; half of the households are families with children.