Candidates need to stand up for kids this election
Coquitlam Now
September 19, 2008
Letters By: Joyce Barrett

…. the Conservative government's anti-crime policies are as simplistic as their idea that if you give $100 a month to every family that has a young child, you'll somehow solve Canada's child-care crisis. Neither one is going to work….

If modest-income families want to have one parent at home raising their children full time they could be supported through a fairer taxation system rather than a universal monthly payment that gives money to people who don't really need it.

If both parents need or want to work or for single parents, we should invest in a child-care system that works. We should remember that Stephen Harper and his Conservatives cancelled the former Liberal government's child-care plan, which would have brought $1.25 billion in desperately needed funding for child care to B.C. alone -- which brings me back to an anti-crime policy that could actually work.

If our society provided high-quality, affordable child care, not just for preschoolers but for children throughout elementary and middle school, and if we paid our child-care workers a reasonable salary so they would be able to stay in the profession, then children would have the opportunity to develop additional long-term caring relationships with responsible adults, they would be encouraged to interact positively with their peers and they would be safe from the forces that prey on vulnerable pre- and young teens.

… It may sound like an old-fashioned idea, but think about the forces that set you on the path to a productive life. And the next time you talk to a candidate, whether federal, municipal or provincial, ask what they and their party are planning to do for children. Remember the saying, "If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much."