LIBERALS MAKING FOOLS OF THEMSELVES AGAIN

PM's aide apologizes for remark on parents
Suggests child care money would go to beer
and popcorn Martin has to put daycare pitch
back on course
Dec. 12, 2005. 01:00 AM
LES WHITTINGTON
OTTAWA BUREAU
BEAMSVILLE, Ont.—Paul Martin's high-profile daycare
pitch was knocked off track yesterday when his chief
spokesperson said the $25 a week that parents would
receive under a competing Conservative plan would
be blown on beer and popcorn.
Martin, who took his campaign to the Golden
Horseshoe, sought to nullify the remark by aide Scott
Reid by saying it's obvious that parents would spend
any cash from Ottawa wisely.
"Parents are concerned about their children and they
are going to use that money in a way that I'm sure is
responsible — let there be no doubt about that,"
Martin told a news conference after touring a Niagara
winery.
Martin declined to apologize for his aide's
beer-and-popcorn comment, but noted that Reid had
already done so.
Mr. Reid you and your bigwig friends
who hire at minimum wage and want
workers to work on weekends/later
shifts where childcare is not being
provided FOR has taken advantage of
the poor for too long.
In a panel discussion early yesterday on CBC-TV,
Reid was arguing that the Tories' plan to help with
child care is inadequate because it would provide
parents with $25 a week per child to use as they see fit.
"Don't give people $25 a week to blow on beer and
popcorn," Reid said.
Later, Reid apologized, saying "it was a dumb way to
make my point and I apologize because obviously,
no responsible parent would make that choice."
"These insulting remarks unmask what the Liberals
really think about parents, that they can't be trusted to
do what's right for their own children," said Edmonton
Conservative incumbent Rona Ambrose.
"This arrogance explains why the Liberals are
opposed to giving all parents direct support to help
them make the child care choices that are best for
their family," she added in a statement.
Not all families work 9-5pm like the rich
Liberals are promising to increase child-care spaces
and encourage early learning programs by spending
an additional $6 billion by 2015 to make their existing,
$5-billion project a permanent federal policy.
The Conservatives say the Liberals are creating
"institutionalized" child care that ignores the needs
of individual families.
Instead, Tory Leader Stephen Harper has proposed a
five-year, $10.9-billion initiative that would give parents
$1,200 annually for each child under the age of 6
regardless of the parents' daycare choice.
A Tory government would also spend $250 million a
year to encourage employers and communities to
construct new daycare facilities.
Discussing the issue yesterday, Martin said "what the
Conservatives are simply saying is,
`We will cut you a cheque.'"
That in itself is a good thing, the Liberal leader said,
pointing out that the Liberals' National Child Benefit
program provides $9 billion a year to low-income families.
But "what we're doing is building a national system"
The liberals give extra money
to the poor and then remove
it from their welfare checks
making it harder for them
to get up go out and find
jobs or evenfeed their
children.
This problem was addressed
before. No one listened then
or is listening now.
with more daycare spaces and early learning programs
provided by qualified practitioners, the Liberal leader said.
Of Harper's child-care approach, he said: "If the only
thing that you do is give parents money, then those
people who have found child-care spaces are obviously
benefiting because that ($25 a week) will help them one
or two days a week. But what about the other days of the
month, when they don't have the option to find a
child-care space?"
I am sure by then Mr Harper will find a
contructive way to change how daycare
is run and we will have daycare 7 days a
week too.
Meanwhile, the federal Liberals were hoping to reap a
bit of a publicity benefit when provincial health ministers
gather in Toronto today to announce targets for wait
times in five areas — cancer care, heart treatment,
diagnostic imaging, sight restoration and joint
replacement.
The announcement arises from a commitment the
provinces made as part of a deal with Martin in which
Ottawa agreed to provide an extra $41 billion for
health transfers to the provinces over 10 years.
Liberals were circulating background material intended
to show how Martin had fulfilled his commitment to
improve wait times across the country.
For instance, for Ontario, the federal Liberals reported
that the University Health Network has found that wait
times for elective procedures have fallen to four weeks
from 12 months a year ago.

Time for a change I say