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The federal Conservatives continue to insist that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion will axe the Tories' $1,200-a-year child-care allowance, despite his pledge to boost the fund.
On Monday, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Rona Ambrose stopped in Fredericton and, like she has done elsewhere in the country, claimed the Grits would chop the child-care allowance if elected.
Ambrose didn't announced new programs, but instead highlighted the Conservative record on child care, such as the government's allowance of $1,200 a year before taxes for each child under age six, along with $250 million a year to help provinces create daycare spaces.
She warned that such initiatives would disappear under a Liberal government.
"We are the only party that has a real child-care plan," said the Edmonton-Spruce Grove MP and former environment minister.
"We have put billions of dollars in cheques into mailboxes for moms and dads. There's no other program like it. There's no other party that has a program like it."
Dion has promised to enrich the Tory program.
Last week, the Liberal leader pledged to double child-care cash for low-income Canadians and add $350 to the annual credit for all families.
The Liberal announcement, which repeated pledges in the Grit's Green Shift plan, counters a Tory ad that claims Dion would cancel the taxable, $100-per-month benefit introduced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Ambrose, however, wouldn't back off her claim, saying the Liberals' record on child-care initiatives is lacking.
"Before the Conservative party became government less than three years ago we had no child-care plan in this country," she said at the campaign headquarters of Fredericton Conservative candidate Keith Ashfield.
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Monday's event, complete with children playing with toys on the floor, mirrored a similar staging last week in Ottawa.
In that case, an Ottawa children's shop owner said she felt duped after she and several other moms, expecting a major announcement on child care, wound up as props in a Tory campaign photo.
Krista Thompson, who co-owns Boomerang Kids, said she was contacted by a Conservative organizer looking for a place where Ambrose could reveal new daycare details that never arrived.
- reprinted from the Fredericton Daily Gleaner