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EXCERPTS
Michael Ignatieff hasn't been twiddling his thumbs during Parliament's prorogation. The Liberal leader has been coming up with a list of policies he'll put in place if voters instruct him to form the next government.
One might assume his No. 1 priority will be devising a strategy to deal with the crippling deficit and the still-fragile economy. But no -- his No. 1 priority is creating a universal child-care system.
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The problem? There are two, actually. The first is that the majority of Canadians don't agree with the Liberal one-size-fits-all child-care agenda. They made that very clear when the Paul Martin Liberals were defeated in 2006, even though the government had a $5-billion national child-care program on the table.
The second is that Ignatieff hasn't got the money to do it, and that little detail doesn't seem to faze him one bit.
"We will find the money, because it seems to me an excellent investment," he said. "I am not going to allow the deficit discussion to shut down discussion in this country about social justice."
It seems to us that the very antithesis of "social justice" is putting kids in day care now and forcing them to pay for it for the rest of their lives. The enormous costs won't go away, they'll just trickle down from generation to generation.
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Ignatieff's grand announcement has most people shaking their heads in disbelief. But perhaps this comment helps explain his motivation: "It's a legacy issue for the Liberal party," he told reporters.
That strikes us as rather arrogant, especially since this isn't about the Liberal party, or its place in history. This is about what's best for Canadian taxpayers and their children, and the best is not what Ignatieff has to offer.
- reprinted from the Windsor Star