May 2001
Editor's Notes
by Kristin McCahon
Let me confess at the outset of these remarks that I don't know anything about children. I have none of my own. In fact, I know almost no children; my neighbourhood has few of them, and those who are there have no interest in me. My friends have, generally speaking, married late. They either have no children or very young ones. (If the latter is the case, I rarely see them—or their children—as they are completely absorbed in living lives full of diapers and car seats and formula and day care.)
Consequently, when Institute staff decided earlier this year to devote an issue of Fraser Forum to children's issues, I was devoid of helpful suggestions. How could I help when children's issues didn't really seem to affect me?
As I read the articles that form the focus of this issue, however, I became aware of just how critical children's issues are to all of us—me included. While children aren't a big part of my life, I do care that the children in my community, and by extension, my province and country, grow up to be productive, sensible, well-adjusted, considerate, happy people. It is quite apparent that, in order to become such people, they need a lot of help and guidance.
The help that children need isn't primarily financial. As Chris Sarlo explains in this issue, while there are children in Canada who do live in homes where there isn't enough to eat, much of the poverty some children endure is a form of emotional poverty. How can we expect children to develop into secure and caring individuals if no one seems willing to care for them, or if their parents frequently squabble with each other, or if the money that should have been spent on their care was drunk or gambled away?
We don't have to know much about children to know that today's children are the next generation of plumbers and financial advisers and brain surgeons. So even if we aren't parents, it behooves every one of us to care a great deal about each aspect of children's well-being. This issue of Forum enables us to think clearly about some of those aspects.
—Kristin McCahon
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