Poverty In Canada Essay

of existing and shape the quality of life of individuals. These factors of existence often lack for people in poverty as they experience on going stigmatization, discrimination and poor-bashing, resulting in a poor quality of life. People associate their poverty related experience with stress, degradation, social and material deprivation, and the overall quality of life. Comparing poverty rates of Canada to other nations shows that Canada is not doing so well and public policies are insufficient compared to many other wealthy countries. As mentioned earlier Canada being a liberal state is undeveloped and relies on market oriented approaches to solve poverty (June 15 Lecture). Canadian overall poverty rates are high, around 12% as mentioned in the OECD report, …show more content…
Canada will be compared to other nations on important indicators that include life expectancy, low birth weight rate, infant mortality rate, childhood death by injury and maltreatment, and teenage pregnancy rate. According to the Chapter 12, Canada is ranked 7th out of 30 for men and 8th out of 30 for women for life expectancy within the wealthy developed nations. Although the average life expectancy has reached 9.4% from 1960-2007, it is still below OECD average of 10.7 years. Some of the nations with greater life expectancy for men and women includes Japan, Switzerland, Australia, and Italy. For infant mortality rates, Canada is ranked 24th out of 30 wealthy nations, its 2007 rate was 5.0/1,000. Although it exceeds countries like Turkey, Mexico, and USA, the rates are much higher than countries like Iceland, Sweden, and Japan. Low birth-weight is an important factor, reflecting range of health problem across lifespan. Canada low birth-weight was 6.1 per 100 newborns in 2007, giving it a rank of 10th out of 30 nations (Raphael, 2011, pg.376). Countries who exceed Canada include Iceland, Sweden and Finland, while countries who have higher rates include Turkey, Greece and USA. Canada's rate for