It was only a matter of time before someone took on Hilary Clinton’s statement that it takes a village to raise a child. I suppose too it was inevitable it would be a politician who looked at the cost to the public purse of doing so. Such seems to have been the case with our provincial finance minister, Iris Evans. After all, if one is trying to show prudency with tax money, how better than to talk to Bay Street financiers about looking in every corner of one’s balance sheet? Particularly if the object is to pry them loose of $5 billion dollars. For a provincial government, that means demonstrating probity and thoughtfulness in funds spent on social services, education and welfare.
Evans has had first hand experience in the field of family issues and values, having had social services, including child and family services, as her cabinet portfolio before being placed in charge of the provincial coffers.
One can’t help but picture Evans standing behind a podium, confidently confiding in an audience of buttoned-down millionaires in downtown Toronto sipping their post meal coffees and Grand Marnier, pronouncing that a mother’s place should be in the home. Visions of Leave it to Beaver, Bringing Up Father and Ozzie and Harriet leap to mind. Oh, for the good old days.
Of course at that time there were some chinks in the system. Women, who had been urgently sought for the workplace during the Second World War, had been displaced by returning veterans. There was no public debate about who should get preference for a job — men before women. Married before single. Times were very tough for wartime widows and their children. Governments did respond, but the paradigm of normality was two parent families with a working father.
On the other hand, one needs to be just a little careful about the idealized home life of those days. After all, Cinderella had had a stay-at-home mother. That tale is a classic example of child abuse and neglect.
Some 30 years ago I was involved in a task force of federal public servants, directed by our ministers to provide ideas on what types of assistance the Canadian government should give to single parents now that it was becoming clear that divorce was on the increase and the voice of women was being heard at the ballot box. We debated income tax measures, childcare subsidies, universal and private day care, training of childcare workers and provincial jurisdictions. We debated the financial struggles in raising children in a single parent home, the role of the absent father and the necessity of not punishing traditional families where the mother voluntarily stayed at home to be with her children. Blended families were not yet prominent. Information on children’s developmental and mental health issues were not very well known, although we looked at the Swedish and Israeli experiences. We debated the issue of paying professional day care workers to help out, but not grandparents, especially in rural and remote communities.
Which brings us to today. We are still debating all these same issues. Evans’ political pain has certainly sparked a debate over family values. It should also spur us on to re-explore the balance between parental responsibility and state support for our changing family structures. Let’s send her a friendly wink and a vote of thanks.
Dr. Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
