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It is apparent that at the heart of political campaigns are the divergent views of the role of government, and the goal of universal publicly funded social programs, including early learning child care.
As a former child and youth care worker, and as an advocate of high quality, universally accessible, publicly funded child care, I am distressed by discourse around this critical issue.
Although examples prevail from nearly all political parties, the Conservatives are especially culpable in perpetuating an atmosphere of righteous and fear-based rhetoric, which emphasizes a viewpoint that universal child care is a threat to the definition of family and the authority of parents. This misguided viewpoint feeds on and further ingrains the misconception of many who see public child care as big government telling families what to do.
Our most prominent political parties further entrench what has become an ideological battleground between stay-at-home parents and working parents. Some stay-at-home want to be, some don't; some working parents want to be, some don't. It's incumbent upon us all to not make these people's circumstances and choices into a divisive ideological discourse, which pits parents against one another.
This futile exercise only further delays the creation of desperately needed childcare policies and programs for an increasing number of desperate families and their young children, for whom a tax rebate of $100 per month is irrelevant.
- reprinted from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix