See text below.
EXCERPTS
The problem with your editorial? There are two, actually.
First, you claim the majority of Canadians do not support a national child-care strategy. Not true.
An Environics poll during the 2006 election showed that more Canadians preferred the Liberal child-care plan to the Conservative one.
The Liberals may have lost the last election but it certainly was not because of child care.
Second, you say that a national plan is too expensive, with costs that will trickle down from generation to generation.
On the contrary, recent research by an economist, Robert Fairholm, found that investment in child care more than pays for itself in terms of benefits to society, with a $2.54 payback for every dollar invested.
A national child-care strategy is what's best for Canadian children and their families. Bravo to Michael Ignatieff for recognizing this.
Carolyn Ferns, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, Toronto
- reprinted from the Windsor Star