Reports last week that Canada’s Minister for Middle Class Prosperity was unable to provide a definition of “middle class” read more like something initiated by the wits at The Beaverton than actual news stories.
Asked in the House of Commons to provide the number and percentage of individuals she considers to belong to the middle class, minister Mona Fortier, newly-crowned champion of those-who-are-getting-by-just-fine-thank-you responded, “The income required to attain a middle-class lifestyle can vary greatly based on Canadians’ specific situation.”
Just to be clear, she added, “Canada has no official statistical measure of what constitutes the middle class.”
So who does she represent? Hard to say, but the ministry’s mandate letters apparently indicate Fortier is to work with finance officials to ensure the department has “the analytical and advisory capabilities that it needs to support and measure the impact of an economic agenda focused on growing the middle class and those people working hard to join it.”
Tough to do perhaps, without any way to know whether that group has grown in size or whose quality of life is to be measured.
Silly as it is, the episode does give one pause to wonder why a group that is, by definition, comfortable, needs the focus and attention of an entire ministry. Or why it’s even on the government’s radar. I mean, really, the whole idea of a middle “class” insinuates the existence of an “upper” and “lower” class and from what I can recall from long-ago history classes, the feudal system has been largely discredited.
Mostly of course, it’s the on-the-nose title of the Ministry of Middle Class Prosperity that’s been generating chuckles. It’s a bit reminiscent of the Ministry of Bureaucratic Affairs from the old British television sitcom Yes Minister. Sounds okay until you think about it for a second.
As faux pas go though, the media mockery of this middling ministry highlights the scale of scandal our federal government has been generating of late, which has been pretty minor. Other recent examples have involved the prime minister’s facial hair and his choice of donut shops.
Come to think of it, maybe this minority government thing isn’t such a bad deal after all.
