National Daycare Blunder

Well, Scott Reid really put his foot in his mouth, didn’t he? He came across as a pompous jackass, showing a great distrust in Canadians. It sure was another PR blunder. Or was it? Read on…

In fact, I would argue that Reid hit the nail squarely on the head. To say that Harper’s proposal would give money to parents to spend on daycare or other child-rearing programs is absurd. For a great many Canadians (the majority I presume), child care in many different forms is affordable. Expensive perhaps, but affordable. So if a family can aleady afford the care they want, where will the extra money go to? Probably to things like cell phone bills, beer, movies, snacks, coffee, you name it. If a family does not follow a strict budget, it can be difficult for them to accurately and wisely allocate their money. Even if an accurate budget was created and followed, moving the extra money into the child care category will obviously just free up more money in another category. Hence the beer and popcorn remark.

The people that support Harper’s proposal indicate that the Liberals do not trust Canadians on how to spend their money. Trust ain’t got nothing to do with. Hell, I’ll take the $2400 and it will go straight into my rrsp. You see, I have a detailed budget and I know exactly where my money is going. My kids’ needs are always met first, so any extra cash/windfall goes to other things.

Of course there are some less-fortunate people that are on the cusp of making ends meet and they could use the money to finally afford and obtain some type of basic child care.

So who else would want to implement Harper’s proposal? People that do not use daycare, but like the idea of getting $1200 per child per year. Will they use it for a private nanny? Of course! And the money they save from spending on the nanny goes to…?

Martin’s daycare plan has faults too. For instance, 100,000 daycare openings will likely have little to no benefit for families living in rural areas of Canada. However, at least every Canadian will know that 100% of the daycare spots will be put towards their intended use. As for Harpers plan, I would expect only a small minority of people actually use the money to implement an alternative child care program.