Angry in the Great White North

From the CBC, this one-sided report on lack of daycare spaces:

The Conservative government has not produced any new child-care spaces despite promising before the election a year ago to create 25,000 spots within 12 months, critics say.

In a report to be released Thursday, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada calls on the government to abandon its plan, which it describes as piecemeal. The non-profit group demands the government come up with a more comprehensive strategy.

"There has not been one new space created," Monica Lysack, the association's executive director told CBC News.

"Somewhere around 80 per cent of children don't have access to licensed early learning child care programs. So there's a huge need."

The CBC does some research to help the story along. Well, along in a particular direction:

During the campaign before the Conservatives won the election of Jan. 23, 2006, Harper promised to ease the child care crunch. He promised to give families $1,200 a year per child under six. Parents have been getting their cheques since July.

Harper also said a Conservative government would create 125,000 spaces over five years with the help of the private sector and non-profit organizations that would get a $10,000 tax credit for every space created.

What the Conservatives actually promised was to continue the Liberal program for one year, then roll out their own program. It's in the platform book from the election.

The CBC forgets to mention that.

So if no childcare spaces have been created, let's blame the Liberal Party program cobbled together by Ken Dryden just before the government fell. If we must criticize the Conservatives for something, let's criticize them for continuing to fund a Liberal childcare black hole.

And one more thing. Monica Lysack's organization, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, was funded by grants from Status of Women Canada, as revealed by small dead animals.

Of course we all know that funding for Status of Women Canada was cut by the Conservative government, figuring money could better be used solving problems than complaining about them.

So I think it's fair to say that Monica Lysack is out to get the Conservatives at any price, even if the $1 million dollars in funding once delivered to her organization was used by the Conservatives to create some childcare spaces in 2007. Remember, she was paid by the Liberal Party using our tax dollars to agitate for exactly what the Liberals were going to deliver -- a massive, publicly-funded, one-size-fits-all daycare system, while likely outlawing any competing private system.

Lysack works for the Liberal Party, not for parents or their children. Follow the money.

But what's really annoying is that I could find all this out in 15 minutes of research. The CBC, on the other hand, wtih $1 billion in government funding, would rather run Lysack's screed without any critical review or analysis.

So we can save $1 million to be used for child care by cutting Lysack loose and forcing her to find a real job. How many child care spaces can we buy with $1 billion?