See text below.
EXCERPTS
A Conservative government would cut income taxes for middle-income Canadians, reduce employment-insurance premiums, boost student loans and provide daycare money directly to parents under plans included in the party's confidential spring campaign brochure.
The brochure, which was obtained by The Globe and Mail and prepared last May when the Tories failed to bring down the government, also suggests focusing foreign aid to a smaller number of "truly needy countries," improving ways to resolve trade disputes, and appointing only elected senators to the upper chamber. The opposition also says it would ape the Liberals by implementing all of the present government's "tax cuts, both personal and corporate."
The document appeared last May on the party's internal campaign website and was intended for MPs and workers to download as they knocked on doors searching for votes. The party prepared a similar brochure for the 2004 campaign that served as a précis for a beefed-up document.
Perhaps most interestingly, the party advocates providing child-care money directly to parents. The Liberals' current program flows money to the provinces, which then use the cash to fund daycare spaces. At least one province -- New Brunswick -- has opposed the Liberal policy because it wants the right to provide assistance directly to stay-at-home parents.
"On issues like child care, Canadians need choice -- not bureaucracy," the brochure says.
- reprinted from the Globe and Mail