Actually, Mr. Speaker, as I pointed out in my own remarks, when I was a child, I went to a local community-based child care centre. No, it was not institutional. It was not a government-run daycare program, as the member across the way suggests.
He believes that parents who have a stay-at-home mom or dad are not doing their jobs. That is what the NDP believes. The member believes that community-based neighbourhood child care providers are not good enough. He believes that grandmothers, aunts, and uncles who step in to raise children throughout the day, while parents are at work, are not of high enough quality.
The NDP and the Liberals believe that there is only one kind of childcare that is acceptable, and that is government-owned, government-run, government-provided bureaucracy that in the past has not only failed to meet the demands of people but has failed to actually meet the promises of the politicians who made them.
The Liberals promised such institutional day care. Over 13 years, they did not create a single space. They spent billions of dollars, but it did not result in any benefit for parents on the ground.
We believe that regardless of the choice parents make, the dollar should go in their pockets, and they should decide how to raise their own kids.