Mr. Harper, leave the child-care program alone
MAUREEN MCTEER, lawyer and author, and an activist for the rights of women and children
Globe and Mail
Feb 6, 2006

Almost 30 years ago, as a pregnant law student, I joined the fight for a national, high-quality and publicly funded child-care program. Today, about to become a grandmother, I am forced to do so again.

Most of my generation spent our children's young lives balancing motherhood and work responsibilities -- including those at home. We breathed a sigh of relief last year when the federal Liberals kept a promise made by every government during every successive election campaign over the past three decades. Finally, working (or studying) Canadian families who needed quality care for their children would have systems of care with specific safety and educational standards.

But now, less than a year later, the Conservatives want to turn back the clock for working Canadian families. In place of a child-care program, they plan to mail a $1,200 cheque to each family with a child under 6 to do with as they please.

In his first press conference last week as prime-minister-designate, Stephen Harper made clear that his party's political ideology would trump the needs of Canadian children. He insisted that "Canadian parents and families expect Parliament as a whole to deliver them that benefit." Who wouldn't? Such a taxable direct payment may appease his own conservative constituency, at the expense of a program for the seven out of 10 mothers in the work force who have children under 6, but that ideologically driven decision is not about providing or improving child care.

Mr. Harper and his Conservatives have choices.

In this case, if they so want to keep this anti-child-care election promise, then do so. Send every Canadian with a child under 6 a cheque. Heaven knows, they can always use whatever is left after the taxes on that $1,200. But leave the bilateral child-care agreements with the provinces in place. Better still, work to improve them so all Canadians with children benefit from publicly funded programs and child-care options, and systems of the highest quality. Certainly, this is a vision worthy of our families and children across Canada.

If he does this, Mr. Harper wins on both counts. He pays back his political constituency and also shows he is capable of real vision and leadership for the benefit of our children and grandchildren.