The Province could use a new moniker on its license plate - "Charitable Manitoba". In a new study by the Fraser Institute comparing charitable donations among the provinces, Manitoba comes out on top. More Manitobans donated to registered charities than any other province. And as a percentage of income donated to charities, Manitoba outstripped the country again.

You can hardly think of charities without the United Way springing to mind. Co-author of the Fraser study, Jason Clemens said that he "wouldn't be surprised if the hard work and commitment of the rural and Winnipeg United Way campaigns significantly influenced charitable giving in Manitoba."

But Manitoban's generosity stops where charitable giving in the United States begins. The same Fraser study reveals a growing 'charity gap' between American and Canadian donors. On all counts, Americans are more generous. And an increasing number of US taxpayers are making charitable donations. The opposite trend is occurring in Canada.

Plot a graph comparing the downward dip in charitable donations in the 1990s and the upward direction of taxes over the same period and a picture begins to emerge. High taxes in Canada relative to the US have diminished after-tax incomes and consequently strained the capacity of Canadians to share their leftover wealth with the needy.

Despite the charitable efforts of Manitobans, it still is not enough for some people. Like clockwork, the poverty industry ratcheted up the Yuletide guilt-o-meter with the release of their inflated statistics on the growing poverty gap.

As though it were mortal sin, the so-called rich have become richer. And the poor At this point you'd expect to hear that the poor are getting poorer.

Not so, says the National Council on Welfare. In a remarkable turn of events, Council president John Murphy recently announced that the poverty rate in Canada is in retreat for 1997 and 1998, the last year for which statistics are available.

That prosperity is helping low-income Canadians is good news to everyone but the anti-poverty activists. Some of them prey on Canadians' heightened sensitivity to society's disadvantaged. Take for example Murphy's comments to the media.

"About one in five children was poor," notes Murphy from his report. Now for the knockout punch. "That is hard news to swallow as the rest of the country prepares to enjoy a holiday season after yet another year of economic prosperity."

In other words, if we cannot all celebrate the holidays equally, some anti-poverty activists would have us all equally miserable.

Rarely do you hear a peep out of the anti-poverty activists over high taxes, and squandered tax dollars that could have found a higher purpose. The National Council on welfare should conduct a new study, this time on government obesity and how it frustrates generous charitable donations.