Harper: Keeping his foot on the chest of the needy so they stay down

Conservatives dismantling social programs built over generations

OTTAWA—Nathaniel Parent has known hunger on and off for most of his life.
 

Now cleaning offices for $11 an hour while he awaits a chance to acquire better job skills, the 21-year-old former foster care ward from Midland, Ont., finds himself choosing between student loan payments and food.
 

“For the most part, I don’t eat very often,” Parent says. Sometimes when his debt has to be paid, he says, “I do choose to pay it and it’ll be like, OK, I’ll just wait to eat or maybe have something at a friend’s house.”
 

Parent, who says he often went without food as a child before being placed in foster care, adds that it’s a struggle for many of his acquaintances to keep from winding up on the street.
 

He currently pays employment insurance premiums but, Parent says, like most people he knows, he wouldn’t expect to see any of that money if he lost his job. “I have no faith in that system,” he says in an interview.
 

From the unemployed to low-income families and poor seniors, more people than ever are struggling with grim choices as they try to cope in the leaner, meaner Canada presided over by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

READ MORE: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/12/09/conservatives_dismantling_social_programs_built_over_generations.html