The new strategy builds on and expands the foundation put in place during the first five years of the Action Plan to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion. [...] The Act to combat poverty and social exclusion may have been well ahead of its time in Canada but not in the rest of the world. [...] The preamble to the Act to combat poverty and social exclusion sets out a series of core principles and includes reference to Québec’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. [...] The idea of a strategy to reduce poverty and social exclusion was first presented in an August 2002 document entitled The Will to Act; The Strength to Succeed. [...] The document discussed the prevalence of poverty in Québec by both population group and region, and set out a range of actions for tackling the problem.