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EXCERPTS
More than any other topic, child care is likely to be a parliamentary destroyer, given the cues last week from interim Liberal leader Bill Graham.
Liberals will work to defeat Stephen Harper's government if it tries to kill the Liberals' "nearly-a-done-deal" day-care agreements made with the provinces. And they, plus the NDP and the Bloc, heap scorn on Harper's plan for a much simpler, cheaper alternative.
There is an enormous chasm between the two leading parties in their thinking on how Canadian parents should be helped to cope with caring for their pre-school-age children.
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For Liberals, a universal, comprehensive program of child care and child development programs fits in with universal programs such as unemployment insurance, health care and a national pension plan. They argue that with so many working women needing child care, with kids in poor neighbourhoods at risk, with existing day care such a patchwork of private and public facilities and standards, it's time for action.
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The starkly different Conservative plan would give money to parents, not the provinces. Some might use it to pay for babysitters, others to pay for day care. Others might not spend it on child care at all.
The plan can hardly go ahead, however, if the three federal opposition parties stop it.
Citizens who prize frugal yet competent government need to demand more information. How many children are likely to benefit from the child-care plan? How many will remain at home with a parent? The comparative price tags of the two very different philosophies should be projected.
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No province has yet required that children attend government-run child care from ages 2-5. One wonders, though, if it won't one day be compulsory, given the argument by advocates such as Toronto's Mayor David Miller that such facilities will produce better-adjusted, more productive citizens.
A few months ago, Dryden said day-care development had been "stagnant in the last 10-15 years." Why? There wasn't enough money available to turn "babysitting" operations into high-quality day cares.
In the next election, this issue may decide the winner.
- reprinted from the London Free Press