Ottawa, Ontario September 28, 2020
Media Release
Trudeau the Patriarch
The Speech from the Throne last Wednesday was an excellent example of what Liberals do – spend, spend, spend.
Prime Minister Trudeau and Finance Minister Freeland’s plans will add billions more to the federal debt, now at $883 billion, for our children and grandchildren to pay. This is of little concern to Trudeau and Freeland since they will not be around to deal with the problem they are creating.
At the same time, they are centralizing power for themselves by stepping wildly into provincial jurisdiction in their proposal for national childcare and pharmacare. In case the Liberals haven’t noticed, healthcare and social services fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial governments. Pharmacare and daycare are further examples of provincial jurisdiction which the Liberals are attempting to assume.
The throne speech did not put a price tag on daycare, but back in 1999, a leaked federal discussion paper from the Department of Health concluded that such a program would cost, at that time, $12 to $15 billion annually. Inflation alone would raise this to $18 to $22 billion a year in 2020.
The ears of feminists certainly pricked up when they heard the magical words in the throne speech that there would be “significant, long-term sustained investment to create a Canada-wide early learning and childcare system”. According to the throne speech, it was necessary to provide high quality spaces for children to ensure that women would be able to return to the workforce. The real purpose of this is to provide further tax dollars from women’s paid employment so that Trudeau will have more money to throw around to his friends and supporters. In short, the value of women to Trudeau is the amount of money they can contribute to the GDP, not their value as mothers to the next generation. Expensive daycare should not be provided for the purpose of improving the economy, but rather should be for the benefit of children. According to numerous studies, the daycare offered by Quebec, for example, has not benefitted most children.
If Trudeau had any respect for the intelligence and integrity of women, he would have increased the childcare benefits to let women have the option to decide themselves what type of childcare they want. Instead, in a paternalistic fashion, Trudeau chose the type of childcare that he would make available, to which all women are now required to adapt – one size for all.
Significantly, much of the pressure for a national plan comes not from parents, but from childcare lobbyists who have been heavily funded by the Status of Women since they were formed in 1982 to research and lobby for a national daycare plan. These lobby groups have the most to gain from a national plan, since it will guarantee them financial security for their working lives by placing them on the government’s payroll with secure income and benefits.
Feminists have used the pandemic to loudly demand that women require government-funded universal daycare, otherwise they will not be able to return to work. On the contrary, women want flexibility and choices in the workplace and home, not government authoritarian policies.
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For further information contact:
Pauline Guzik
National President
REAL Women of Canada
Cathy Smith
Western Canada Board Member
REAL Women of Canada
Ottawa Office
Phone: (613) 236-4001
Email: realwcna@rogers.ca
Toronto Office
Phone: (905) 787-0348
Email: realwcto@realwomenofcanada.ca