This is a topic that, for us in India, has been intellectually challenging and politically contentious. Yet, poverty measurement and identification are important for at least three reasons. i. First, a credible measure of poverty is a powerful instrument for focusing the attention of policy makers on the living conditions of the poor.
An important reason Canada fared better than other countries was that our financial system was more robust. Canada’s banking system was rated “the soundest in the world” by The Banker magazine three years in a row, from 2008 to 2010. No Canadian financial institutions failed – or had to be rescued by taxpayers – during the crisis.