Excerpts from the letter:
We believe that every child in Canada deserves high quality child care. In this election, three of the major political parties agree.
The Liberals have promised national legislation and an additional $5 billion over five years to build a universally accessible early learning and child care program; the New Democrats propose a similar program over four years. The Bloc Québécois wants federal funding to expand Quebec's innovative child care system.
The Conservative platform is silent on child care. Instead, Conservative leader Stephen Harper has declared that "rather than boost spending on institutional daycare, we'll offer tax breaks to families with children, no matter how they are raised" (May 28, Saskatoon). His proposed across-the-board tax deduction of $2,000 per child would be worth a few hundred dollars for modest and middle-income families and nothing for the poorest families.