I don't know what you mean by unfair penalty against the poor. My liberal view is that Canada could do better in narrowing the gap between the poor and middle class by improvements to the educational system. In Nova Scotia the Indians run their educational system with better results than the majority white---87.7 per cent graduating from high school.

Canada was last in early childhood development in a 2008 UNICEF study of 25 countries. Developing a universal, affordable and educational daycare system would strengthen Canada enormously for the highly competitive years ahead. Australia is making tremendous progress and the US state of Georgia, of all places, this year started a star system for daycare quality.

Canada and the US are rich countries. They can afford universal programs to make their communities healthier, happier, more competitive in home and world markets, with less welfare and dependance, food stamps, dilly-dallying. Slovenia, Norway, Portugal, Japan, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand are setting standards in these respects; we shouldn't be too far behind.