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Originally Posted by FanIn80
Not sure if it's been stated or not, but the Industry Minister was correct.
It is not the responsibility of the federal government to ensure your neighbour's child is fed. Child welfare falls under provincial jurisdiction, not federal, and what he said was that his (the federal) government isn't about to take over ("usurp") jurisdiction from the Province of British Columbia.
The federal government gives money to the provinces, but it is the responsibility of the provinces themselves to handle these things.
When Moore responded by saying his quote was taken out of context, he was actually telling the truth. Now, could he have been more political in his original answer? Sure, he could have said something like, "Well, even though I go to bed every night and cry myself to sleep at the thought of starving children everywhere, we do have to work within the system right now, and that system says that the responsibility of caring for and feeding underprivileged children falls completely on the provinces themselves. The federal government, which is the level of government that I work for, can only provide funding to the provinces. We are unable to actively take part in the distribution of that funding at the provincial level."
It's just another quote pulled out of context by a media outlet, and then thrown to the Liberal wolves for... well, whatever wolves do with words typed out on the Internet. I'm not entirely convinced that wolves even know how to use computers in the first place, but I guess that's a post for a different topic.
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I'm calling bull#### on several fronts here.
First. Even if he did mean that the federal government has no role to play and child welfare is a provincial responsibility, he would be absolutely dead wrong. As has been pointed out by many, many people here there is a strong role for the federal government to play in terms of helping child poverty. SOMETHING EVEN MOORE HAS SINCE STATED.
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All levels of government, indeed all members of our society, have a responsibility to be compassionate and care for those in need.
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But more importantly, if it is your intention to say that the federal government has no role in an issue, you would say exactly that. You would not say "Is it my job to feed my neighbour's children? I don't think so. HAHAHAHA!" By saying "my neighbour's children" he is making it personal. If he said "It's not my job to feed everyone's children" you might be able to argue that he is saying that it is not his job as a federal MP to provide that service. But that's not what he said. He clearly meant that it is not society's job to take care of one another. Once he realized that he shouldn't be saying exactly what he believes and instead he should be saying the things that would help the Conservative party get elected, he back-tracked.