CanWest Editorial Policy: Benefits? What Benefits?

With the Cons' announcement that they'll correct a couple of the more glaring flaws in their "child care benefit", each of the three main federal parties has now offered at least some additional funding for Canadian families through tax benefits. And by any direct comparison, the Cons' proposal offers the least support of the three.

So naturally, CanWest's post on the topic...utterly ignores the New Democrats' and Libs' child tax benefit proposals, instead comparing the Cons' proposal to the other parties' plans to build a national child care system.

Which means that instead of providing an accurate picture - that the other parties are both making greater benefits available, and planning to create child care spaces where the Cons have failed completely - CanWest manages to give the false impression it's only the Cons that are proposing to provide any money directly to families. And all this under a headline and introduction which mirror the Cons' language about "modest" programs.

Fortunately, CanWest's previous efforts to do the Cons' work for them don't seem to have paid off all that much. But the fact that the other parties will once again have to try to correct misleading information from the media can only give Harper an undeserved advantage going into the last week of the campaign.