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Harper Backs MPs Depiction of Liberal Day Care Plan as "Soviet Style"

By John-Henry Westen

OTTAWA, April 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Liberal MP Omar Alghabra (Mississauga-Erindale) was incensed in the House of Commons yesterday that Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant had compared the Liberal day care plan to "Soviet style" day care.  "Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Conservative member for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke said that the Quebec model of child care, adopted by the former government, was a soviet style child care," protested Alghabra.  He demanded Prime Minister Harper apologize for the remarks.

Gallant on April 10, said in the Commons, "It has been recognized, even by the defeated Liberals, that the problem of allocating billions and billions of dollars for a day care program with no control on how that money is eventually spent is the greatest weakness in the top down approach to government programs. . . The drive to provide Soviet style institutionalized day care is being pushed from the top down, not the other way around that has been suggested by the opponents of giving parents choice in child care."

Gallant added, "for the previous 13 years, Canadians ha(ve) been saddled with an interventionist government that without a doubt has been anti-family. The worldwide trend away from Soviet style institutionalized day care has been very pronounced in those countries that were formerly part of the old Soviet empire and are now democracies. Our plan to provide benefits directly to families is in tune with the experience of other democratic countries."

The Renfrew Nippissing Pembroke MP is backed up by authors on the subject. 

Peter Shawn Taylor, writing in the Fall/Winter IMFC Review, 'Comparing Canada's family policy to other nations', compared Canada's Liberal day care plan to that of Hungary.  "During communist rule (1949-1990), the predominant feature of the national family policy was factory-provided daycare," wrote Taylor.  "During these years, childcare was seen as a means to boost the female labour supply and increase economic production. In 1980, there were nearly 70,000 Hungarian enrolled in formal daycare. Since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, child care usage has fallen dramatically in Hungary due in part to greater preference for at-home care. In 2000, the number of children in formal child care stood at 30,000."

In response to the Liberal demand for an apology, Prime Minister Stephen Harper replied, "I would observe that after 13 years in office over there the Liberals had not created any child care spaces. They had not given any money to parents. I would say their plan did crumble, just like the old Soviet Union."

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