REALity September 2018                                                                                         Ottawa, ON

Rather than returning tax dollars to parents so that they can have more economic freedom to decide themselves what is best for their young children, the Liberals are trying to advance the unpopular top-down, one-size-fits-all, state day care rejected by so many socialist states as inferior.  In doing so, the feminist, Liberal government has disregarded studies that found robust evidence that the Quebec state model of day care has negative effects on the emotional and physical well-being of children placed there, as well as affecting parental attentiveness.  It also costs a minimum of $10,000 per child with no similar amount given to parents for children cared for at home.  Nevertheless, Trudeau has chosen to forge ahead with this unpopular feminist, ideological project under the guise of the Early Learning and Child Care Framework, disregarding the fact that day care is a provincial responsibility.

He is never inhibited by financial considerations when promoting his favourite agenda of feminism.  Consequently, to further entrench feminist ideology, Trudeau has now allocated $100 million to fund projects to “explore, test and develop innovative approaches to support day care services targeting children under 6 years of age”.  Funding will start with $10 million, granted for the years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.

This is part of the $7 billion, 10-year allotment announced in the 2017 budget.  It falls under Employment and Social Development Canada.

The whole purpose of this project is to encourage women to enter the paid workforce in order to broaden the tax base which will, incidentally, provide Trudeau and his cronies with even more money to disperse to their favourite projects.  In this effort, Trudeau is responding to the global drive by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to encourage mothers to work in the paid workforce supposedly to achieve “equality”, “narrow the gender gap” and solve “economic problems”.  It is no accident that the Secretary General of IMF is Christine Lagarde from France, who also happens to be on Trudeau’s hand-selected Gender Equality Advisory Council, which he organized (without success) for the G7 countries meeting in Quebec in June.  Even some feminists taking part in the G7 panel #The Future is Feminist recoiled at the thought that women were being used to raise the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

It is also no accident that Trudeau transferred $440 million to the World Bank Group in 2016/2017 which has praised Canada’s feminist International Assistance Policy promoting abortion rights, among other feminist demands.  The World Bank is also tying its funding to developing nations, by demanding that these countries pursue “gender equality”, i.e., provide feminist ideology to the developing countries.

It is a very cozy world of left wing progressives, who are using the taxpayers’ money to pursue their own personal agenda.

Trudeau’s multi-billion dollar, multi-lateral agreement with the provinces, the Early Learning and Child Care Framework, isolates itself from the daily concerns of most mothers and fathers and focuses on getting mothers to supposedly acquire “equality” by having their children raised by state-run unionized “experts”.  There is nothing progressive about this.  Interestingly, Trudeau’s own family does not follow this model – Trudeau prefers to have a nanny, paid $40,000 per year by the taxpayer, to look after his children.

REAL Women believes that the ideal situation is for every family to look after its own children in its own home, if they choose.  However, we know that because of economic necessity, illness, and other family circumstances, substitute child care is often an essential and valuable service to families.  The child care choices, however, must be made by the family, not the state.