Ottawa Metro: ACORN promotes poverty reduction as election issue
- Details
- Category: Ottawa Living Wage Campaign
- Published on Wednesday, 16 June 2010 14:16
June 16th, 2010 by Tim Wieclawski -Ottawa Metro
Poor people don’t vote. So why should politicians care about their issues?
That’s an attitude Michelle Walrond, a member of the ACORN’s tenants’ advocacy group, has run into in the past, but times have changed.
“When we got poor people to vote, and it was noticeable, they started paying a little attention,” she said yesterday at a rally at city hall, where ACORN released its platform for the upcoming municipal election.
ACORN is hoping to push poverty reduction to the forefront in the buildup to election day on Oct. 25.
The platform consists of a number of points aimed at making Ottawa a more affordable city for low-income earners. Candidates who support things like the living wage policy for municipal employees and holding transit fare increases to the cost of inflation, will get an endorsement from ACORN and its 5,000 members in Ottawa.
“It’s absurd that people work for the government of a city that doesn’t pay you enough to live in that city,” said Walrond. “If a candidate wants our vote, then they need to support the issues and policies that we believe are important.”
After seeing bus fares rise seven per cent per year for the previous three years, Jean-Dieu Muhamzi said it’s time they keep to the rate of inflation.
“It needs to be affordable to low-income families,” he said.
Read the original article at: http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/553111--acorn-promotes-poverty-reduction-as-election-issue
