One over-privileged baby. Ninety-three thousand poor children. Which one deserves the headlines? OK, OK, we're not totally hardhearted. We can understand why the world's attention was riveted on England this week as the happy drama of the new royal baby unfolded. It seemed a fitting fairy-tale followup to the fairy-tale wedding that captured hearts around the world in 2011.
But we can't help feeling more than a little disconcerted by the attention being lavished upon one of the most privileged children on the face of the planet - especially given the state of children's lives right here in our own backyard.
While millions of dollars' worth of bets were being laid over the royal baby's name, while Twitter was swamped with chat and speculation about the royal birth, we were all forgetting a story that hit the headlines just a scant couple of weeks ago.
B.C. once again has the distinction of being the worst in the country when it comes to child poverty.
According to recently released figures from Statistics Canada, B.C. is tied with Manitoba for last spot with a child poverty rate that rose from 10.5 per cent in 2010 to 11.3 per cent in 2011. That means 93,000 children living in poverty - up from 87,000 in 2010. For children with lone-parent mothers, the poverty rate jumped from 16.4 per cent to 24.6 per cent, or 27,000 children.
Those numbers are nothing short of distressing.
Thanks to First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition for leading the charge to demand action from government. Let's all add our voices to that call and make sure the message is heard.
So go ahead and be excited about the new royal arrival. But let's face it, the little prince will want for nothing. In the excitement over his arrival, let's try not to forget about our own neighbours who aren't so lucky.
