This is an invited piece from a member of the Esurio Editorial Team.

For both groups seeking to engage in poverty reduction or prevention activities and academics seeking to explore issues related to poverty, the first question that must be answered is, “What is poverty?”  The answer to this question drives the selection of strategies and interventions for community groups, the selection of research questions and plans for academics, and the choice of standards that will be used to judge success or failure of anti-poverty efforts.  This paper outlines some of the most common definitions of poverty in use in Canada today, as well as some more progressive understandings of what it means to be poor.