John Robson: More Government Bungling on the Daycare and Pharmacare Files

Commentary It would take exceptional mental gymnastics to declare that what the under-stretched, over-funded Canadian government really needs now is expensive new social-engineering projects. So here we go. First, universal cheap daycare and, when it proves “a highly expensive and predictable” disaster, as the National Post just editorialized, you move on to pharmacare. Well, they do. Anyone seriously interested in “evidence-based decision-making” would instead ponder that Britain has a health-care system similar in principle to our own, and similar waiting-list problems. But their system includes dental care, unlike ours… and they also have a dental waiting-list problem, unlike us. Conclusion? Here’s where things get weird. Supposedly it proves the free-money system works and we should expand it. As with “$10-a-day” daycare. Even though no sane person believes you can look after a kid properly for that amount....