The whole policy looks like a cheap and deceptive vote- seeking ploy, the work of political marketing experts.
On Sunday evening, Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre sent this message on Twitter: “One more sleep until Christmas in July for Moms and Dads! # UCCB # YourKidsYourWay”
Poilievre, Santa Harper’s little helper, has been visiting swing ridings across Canada doing his best to let moms and dads know about the money coming Monday from the elves at Canada Revenue Agency.
The jolly old prime minister himself sent a letter to all 159 Conservative MPs, asking them to get out there and take credit for “the single biggest one- time direct payment in Canadian history.”
His MPs dutifully sent messages on social media, asking moms and dads to let them know when the cheques land, and Poilievre held a news conference wearing a Conservative Party of Canada logo on his shirt, promoting his party with our tax money.
That sort of ethical distinction is falling away as we near the election. The Santa Harper government is shamelessly promoting itself with government ads.
It’s hard to know how moms and dads will react to this because it is without precedent.
No previous minister has promised to bring Christmas in July, or pitched cheques with such cheek, wearing a party shirt instead of a suit.
The whole policy looks like a cheap and deceptive vote- seeking ploy, the work of political marketing experts.
Start with the name. The Universal Child Care Benefit is universal, in that all parents get it, but it has little to do with child care.
The Conservatives started making monthly payments in 2006, when they were first elected, replacing a Liberal daycare plan with payments of $ 100 a month for every child under six.
Daycare advocates complained bitterly but the program was fair in its way. Their payments went to everybody, including stay- at- home parents, who don’t benefit from subsidized daycare.
In October, the government announced it would add $ 60 a month for all children under 17, although most parents with older children have no child care expenses.
A report from the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that the largest net gain would go to those moms and dads.
This is not how you would design a program if you were seeking to help people struggling to pay for diapers. It is how you would design a program to win votes in suburbs around Toronto.
A Canadian Press data analysis shows 15 of 20 ridings that will receive the most money are held by the Conservatives.
Then there’s the timing. The first payment is for six months of benefits — $ 1,040 for a family with a two- year- old and an eight- year- old — just before the election.
The Tories are going all out to ensure parents know about the money, but they aren’t talking about the fact that, depending on family income level, they will have to pay back about $ 400 of that $ 1,040 at tax time, after they have voted.
The other parties have, of course, responded with their own vote- buying proposals.
The Liberal plan is means- tested, which means more money would go to people truly struggling, but it too is calibrated to buy votes.
And the NDP is promising to keep the UCCB and start a national daycare program, relying on a pixie- dust- powered money- creating machine to presumably be revealed during the campaign.
They will all promise you the world if you’ll only put an X next to their name. That’s politics. But it has never been as shameless as the Tories made it this week. Will it work?
Will moms and dads cash their cheques, and be grateful to Santa Harper, or will they resent being treated like rubes at a carnival?
We should find out when next week’s polls are released.
No previous minister has promised to bring Christmas in July, or pitched cheques with such cheek, wearing a party shirt instead of a suit.