my response to the budget is becoming boilerplate, as the liberals so often are themselves: the liberals tend to have a habit of announcing ideas rather than plans. it's quite frustrating.

canada was very close to enacting what looked like an excellent daycare system in the waning days of the paul martin administration, before it was torpedoed by a selfish, opportunistic, power-hungry jack layton, who saw an opening to put his own party into government by trying to shift the nature of the spectrum. he wanted an ndp-conservative matchup, with the liberals as third party, and he actually got it - for a while. but, the country didn't just have to endure ten years of catastrophic petro-dictatorship under stephen harper, but lost a wealth of excellent proposals in order to do it.

so, is freeland's proposal as good as ken dryden's?

it doesn't seem like it, but it's hard to say, because it's just a vague idea right now. how do you critique an idea? you can't. i haven't seen anything about ece, or the importance of preschool in a child's development. rather, it just seems like a plan to help women get rid of their kids, so they can more efficiently generate surplus value for shareholders. that's how this is being presented - not as a plan to help children maximize their potential, but as a plan to send women back to work.

but, i want to make the bounds clear - this plan should be judged against dryden's, and that is how i will judge it. if it does not meet those standards, i will reject it.

what am i expecting?

i'm expecting a subsidy program. i'm not expecting a childcare system.