Angry in the Great White North

The Toronto Star has reverted to the standard Liberals-are-great style of reporting:

Thousands of new child-care spaces could be created in Ontario this year, as the province signs on to the federal daycare program, the emi>Toronto Star has learned.

Ontario is within days of signing on to Ottawa's $5 billion, five-year child-care program, giving the province $280 million this year to kickstart the creation of thousands of new daycare spaces.

"We've agreed on everything," provincial Children and Youth Services Minister Marie Bountrogianni said in an interview last night.

She described the money as substantial because Ontario spends $600 million a year on daycare now and the new money "is almost a 50 per cent increase."

Sounds great! Well, unless you believe that lowering taxes and letting parents decide how to spend the money on kids is better. But before you'd get that thought out, you would quake in fear as Darth Harper strides into the room [cue the Imperial theme music]:

But there's a catch &emdash; the federal Liberals must win passage of their budget in a fractious House of Commons with a possible election looming.

"As soon as the budget is passed, we'll get the money, according to [Social Development Minister Ken] Dryden," Bountrogianni said. "If the federal Liberals lose, we will lose this money."

Ms. Bountrogianni would have added more, but at that moment Darth Harper put a force choke hold on her.

But what's really interesting here is the speed with which this deal was signed. You see, Minister Dryden is making separate deals with each province:

The deal comes as the federal Liberal government abandons its plans to forge an ambitious national agreement signed by all 13 provinces and territories. Instead, Dryden has opted to make a separate agreement with each jurisdiction.

The Ontario pact includes an accountability agreement -- still being finalized -- that the money must be spent on early learning instruction and child care.

Doesn't that make him a "provincialist" along the lines of the Bloc Quebecois and the Conservatives? Wouldn't such an approach open the door to bilateral federal-provincial agreements on things such as health-care, something that might lead to experimentation and innovation?

This is a slippery slope the Liberals have started to slide down on. First, they'll start listening to the provinces. What next? Listening to the taxpayers?