Childcare - Let’s Keep it!
Childcare is more revolutionary than the Internet!
The day I got daycare spots for my two rascals was the day that a 6′3" big & burly & bearded CUPW negotiator cried on my front porch! He knew how hard I worked, what I was trying to do for my young family, my struggle, the constant systematic set backs, I would soar if only I could get childcare! He experienced catharcism and I got to go to university & work and the boyz got club med for kids everyday!
The daycare the rascals went to for 10 years was not just any ole daycare, it was the Glebe Parent Daycare, a unionized non-profit cooperative right by the Rideau Canal on 5th Avenue in Ottawa. The first daycare building in Ottawa specifically designed for the little ones. The teachers remain near and dear to my heart, and the boyz remain best friends with those they drooled on as babies and I have a great new community of friends. Daycare is liberating and a community building experience!
So, now that the Tories are in, the 30 years of hard work to get so close to a national daycare program is on the rocks again! Quite frankly lobbying to marry a same sex partner in Canada was an easy win compared to gaining universal quality childcare! Us babes have so much work to do still! Below is some info & links to a petition - so please sign & learn about the issue!
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MORE THAN 1,000 PEOPLE a day are signing on to save the child care agreements
Sign the letter: http://www.buildchildcare.ca/BE_petition.php/honourthem
Since Feb. 24th, more than 8,000 people have signed our online open letter to the prime minister and provincial premiers asking them to honour the child care agreements.
Many have been leaving thoughtful and brilliant comments on what child care means to them and how they see the Tory government’s actions.
We need to tap into more of the commitment to child care that exists across Canada on this issue.
Please forward this message to your friends, family, relatives and anyone else who shares your views on child care.
Invite them to go to www.buildchildcare.ca to sign the open letter.
HERE ARE SOME COMMENTS from people who have already signed the open letter
Spend our $$$$ on Babies not Bullets!" — Craig Cramm, St. John’s, NL
You have no idea the importance and diverse needs that rural licensed child care can provide to a community. We continue to be full, we continue to have waiting lists, we continue to need more funding, BUT most important WE NEED MORE ECE’s.– Deanna Way, Souris, MN
The health care act is one of the great things that make Canada what it is. Just think of the legacy left if we instead had given every Canadian a small amount of money to subsidize thier health care costs. — Ray Brinkman, Coquitlam, BC
Surely, with the collective wealth of this country, we can combine a small direct payment to parents as proposed by Harper with funding a comprehensive daycare program for the country." — Thomas O’Shea, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
No childcare means parents can’t work, welfare & unemployment rates go up. Some solution Mr. Harper!" Jeannie Lanzaderas, Brampton, ON
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ISSUES
Ken Battle of the Caledon Institute had analyzed the Conservative government’s election child care plan. See what he has to say. http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/564ENG%2Epdf
John Jacobs has written an excellent article called Conservative child-care plan comes at high price Alternative Link: http://tinyurl.com/jkn5d
THERE’S STILL TIME TO SIGN the open letter - http://www.buildchildcare.ca/BE_petition.php/honourthemChildcare-appeals mailing list - http://lists.cupe.ca/mailman/listinfo/childcare-appeals
ps-Chris Lawson who manages this list, taught me how to turn on a computer! thanks Chris!
