Below is a statement by Jonas Himmelstrand of the Swedish family organisation, Haro, presented at the Familyplatform conference in Lisbon in May 2010. FamilyPlatform is a project financed by the European Commission to look into research areas for future European…
Read More “Are the Swedish state family policies delivering?”
BC's Assistant Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Children and Family Development is Sandra Griffin. She is with the Integrated Quality Assurance Team (broken link).She was: Executive Director of the tax-funded daycare lobby group, the Child Care Federation of CanadaExecutive…
Read More Daycare Lobby Head is a Top Bureaucrat in BC’s Ministry of Children and Family Development
Money goes to all day Kindergarten at the expense of community powered agencies. Agreement between the Ministry of Education and BC Assocaition of Family Resources Programs (broken link) acknowledges tension between Strong Start drop-in programs in school run by the…
Recently, some in the daycare lobby have suggested expanding parental and maternity leave Employment Insurance, increasing the benefits paid and having father-only leave. See Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) report "15 by 15: A Comprehensive Policy for Early Human Capital…
The percentage of kids who are "vulnerable," lacking "readiness," "at risk" or whatever they are calling it at the moment is determined by the percentage who fall in the lowest 10th percentile on any one of five "domains" in the…
Big Brother Goes to Kindergarten: BC Government Collecting “Sperm to Worm” Data on all BC Children For background, please see the Kids First article belowMay 6, 2009. Helen Ward. Kids First Parent Association of Canada - article (PDF): "Big Brother…
On Saturday (Sept 27—my baby turned 11 months) an NDP volunteer knocked at my door asking for my vote. I told her that the NDP's daycare favouring policy was a major concern to me. She was very sympathetic and agreed…
Read More A Victory for Parents and Kids: NDP Switcheroo on Funding Parents
Sept 25, 2008. Kids First Parent association of Canada - report (PDF): "4 Parties’ 2008 Election Platforms for Children’s Care and Well-being"
September 19, 2008Remember the "beer and popcorn" comment that insulted Canadian parents in the last election?During that campaign, Liberal spokesman Scott Reid claimed that parents would buy beer and popcorn (cars and videos were also mentioned) with the $100/month benefit…
Read More Beer, Popcorn and… Poppycock: NDP Talks with Kids First
From the Montreal Gazette on the NDP daycare funding announcement: (broken link)Layton also said daycare would offer support for children at key moments and serve as a preventive measure against violence."Good child care (and) after school programs give our children…
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked Canada last of 14 countries in spending on early learning and child care. Its says of its generally negative review of Canada: "We trust… that our external perspective, based on many…
Read More The OECD and Canada's Daycare Lobby: Ties Denied (broken link)
March 28, 2008Helen Ward, PresidentKids First Parent Association of Canadawww.kidsfirstcanada.org604-291-0088 The issue of funding 'private for-profit' daycare is where the daycare lobby gets internally conflicted between its left and right. The bed-mates start to fight, and as in most divorces,…
Read More Daycare Turf Wars: For-Profit Big Box vs. Non-Profit Big Box vs. State-Run Big Box
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's "finding" that Canada ranks lowest in spending on child care and early learning, and its predictable recommendations, need to be seen for what they are intended to be: propaganda tools for the domestic…
Should Daycare Lobby Heavyweights Wear Pink and Stop Bullying? Daycare Gurus Mustard, McCain, and Hertzman Slam Pro-Breastfeeding Economists The study that showed negative outcomes for Quebec daycare has been called "chicken shit" by Dr. Fraser Mustard, former Chair of Ballard…
