NDP Leader Howard Hampton's "Tour for $10" came to Ottawa today, where Hampton and Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar urged local citizens to join a growing grassroots movement to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour today.

"Ontario's working families deserve a fair day's pay for a hard day's work," Hampton said today during a visit to the Octopus Books. "If Dalton McGuinty can give himself a $40,000 pay raise, he can increase the wages of Ontario lowest-paid and hardest-working citizens to $10 an hour today.”

Bill 150, the NDP’s Living Wage Bill, put forward by MPP Cheri DiNovo, would help 1.2 million Ontarians who earn less than $10 an hour right now. That includes 200,000 women and men who work hard for minimum wage. It would raise their pay to a living wage. Right now, minimum wage earners live below the poverty line.

"In a prosperous province like Ontario, someone who works full-time and works hard should be able to lift their family out of poverty. That's not happening - and that needs to change. We need a $10 minimum wage now," Hampton said.

While working families struggle longer and harder to make ends meet, corporate CEOs are rewarding themselves with record-setting raises, bonuses and perks and Liberal MPPs are rewarding themselves with a whopping 31% pay raise.

“A fair $10 minimum wage is good for workers, good for small businesses where people spend their wages and good for Ontario, which can enjoy a prosperous economy and healthy job creation like other places with a $10 minimum wage,” Hampton said. “The $10 minimum wage is an idea whose time has come.”

Hampton called on Ontarians to support the NDP's campaign for a $10 minimum wage. He urged people to visit the NDP Web site - www.ontariondp.com - to find out how they can take action now.