the second coming of mike harris

yesterday (or i guess the day before that now) harper announced his daycare plan to the nation. The plan consists of a $1200 payout to parents, a year for every child under the age of six. harper’s claim is that parents would know better then the government on how to provide care for their child if they had a daycare choice.

here is why harper’s daycare policy is just an outright bad idea:

1) after taxes each parent will have about $1000 not $1200
2) his plan doesn’t create more daycare spaces
3) this is not near enough money for a year’s worth of daycare for a child
4) doesn’t ensure that the money is supporting the child’s needs
5) furthermore, the CONS policy endorses private daycare

this policy really reminds me of the harris/eves policy in onario during their time at QP.

basically what the harris government decided was that they would give money back to parents who put there kids into private schools. the argument put forth by the harris pc’s was that parents should have a choice where their children go to school. that’s all fine and good but what happens when a significant number of people pull there children out of public schools? people loose their jobs and schools close. In addition private schools would be able to charge whatever they wanted for an education. i know that all you neo-con thugs will argue the market will create competitive rates, but we all know that’s b.s. because essential goods and services have no limits in price… just look at gas/fule for example! furthermore, there would no longer be any regulation on what needed to be taught to students. it would ultimately be up to the private school and there would no longer be an option for a well rounded education particularly in rural areas.

the harper rebate is essentially the same. it would not allow for a public system that would offer quality and readily available daycare for all canadians. Instead it encourages private interests and hampers the ability of the parent to work full time or at all. $1200 hardly compensates for a years worth of work … particularly for low income parents. the liberal daycare plan provides the real deal for Canadians with children

fresh

p.s. sorry if this is a little incoherent … i wanted to get a post in today because i’ve slacked the past few days.