At least one Lib blogger is proud of Gerard Kennedy's plan to devote .7% of GDP to child care by 2012. And in isolation, the plan is indeed one worth pursuing. But what kind of message would it send to make (and meet) a commitment to supply precisely that amount as just the public contribution to child care, when the same percentage commitment to foreign aid made 37 years earlier has completely fallen by the wayside?
Which isn't to say that there's anything but a glaring need for real investment in a child care system. But if Canada really can reach the same numerical target that much more easily on child care than to meet its commitment to improve the condition of those worst off in the world, that can only speak poorly of our willingness to participate in the improvement of the human condition generally. And the same applies particularly to Kennedy if he doesn't plan to ramp up foreign aid spending on at least a similar path.
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