Where the contradictions meet: women and family security in Canada in the 1990s

Family and security are both contested ground in Canada in the 1990s. The family and family values are lauded sentimentally on both sides of the 49th parallel. Yet, more and more families, Canadian and American - families with children, aging couples and the working poor - are lining up at food banks. Security is also hotly debated. Politicians and accountants become passionate about debt, responsibility and competitiveness, particularly global competitiveness. At times, the contradictions between these views emerge vividly, as when politicians, every now and again, actually meet the poor and chant mantras about the goodness of life in Canada (according to the United Nations) and poverty as an unfortunate cost of global competitiveness, while the faces of hungry babies and children reveal hopelessness.