Today is Blog Action Day. As of right now, 9,394 blogs representing over 10 million readers have registered to talk about poverty. The event is aimed to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. Organizers suggest that bloggers post “on-topic” … connect the issue of poverty with their blog’s theme/content.

I discovered that last week the Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) released a report — Canada’s Vital Signs 2008 — that indicates that the level of child poverty in Canada hasn’t really changed in 20 years. Shocking.

The CFC’s official release contained 2 highlights in particular that were striking:

• More than one in five Canadian children (23 per cent or 1.6 million) lived in poverty in 2006. This is virtually the same level as in 1989, when Canada pledged to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000. At the current rate, achieving this goal would take 43 more years or until 2050.

• While the median income of non-immigrant Canadian families increased by over 5% from 2000 to 2005, immigrant families’ incomes fell by one per cent and recent immigrants’ (those in Canada less than five years) incomes fell more than three per cent. The situation is most striking in Canada’s largest cities, where recent immigrants’ incomes were half the median income of non-immigrant families: Toronto - 50 per cent, Montreal - 51.1 per cent, Vancouver - 51.8 per cent.

The October 16, 2008 edition of The Globe and Mail will distribute the Canada’s Vital Signs 2008 report across Canada. The report will also be downloadable on the CFC’s website.

What can one person do? The 2008 Blog Action Day website has some interesting ideas here.

But also, remember: on this day — the day after the night before — we are all hearing and reading about the lowest Federal election voter turnout … ever. Find your riding here and challenge your newly re-elected/elected Federal MP on why their specific efforts to eliminate poverty here in Canada won’t take another 43 more years.