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This framing of the issue — we give you all the things, while the Liberals would take them away — may have struck the Liberal leader as oversimplified. Some clarification was in order. OK, now roll tape.

Trudeau’s comment was treated, then and after, as a gaffe, largely on the strength of the Tory reaction. But in substance, there was nothing gaffe-like about it. It’s just a point of view, one the Conservatives happen to disagree with

“Benefiting every single family is not what is fair,” he pointed out. “What is fair is giving help to those who need it most … ” But by then his words were barely audible over the braying of the Conservative bench.

Ho ho ho. What did he just say? Benefiting every single family … not fair? Hoo hoo hoo. Hee hee hee. Harper, hardly able to contain a smirk, stood up to deliver the coup de grace. “Mr. Speaker, you see what happens when someone goes off script.”

Trudeau’s comment was treated, then and after, as a gaffe, largely on the strength of the Tory reaction. But in substance, there was nothing gaffe-like about it. It’s just a point of view, one the Conservatives happen to disagree with.

Stripped of the theatrics, the exchange captures a fundamental difference in the Conservative and Liberal approaches to social policy this election. Compare, for example, the Conservatives’ Universal Child Care Benefit with the Canada Child Benefit the Liberals propose should replace it.

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The UCCB, true to its name, is universal: the same $1,920 per child under six goes to every family, no matter what their income. The CCB, by contrast, is targeted, delivering more to those “who need it most,” that is, to families on very low incomes, than the existing mix of child benefits (including not only the UCCB but the targeted Canada Child Tax Benefit/National Child Benefit Supplement): a base benefit of $6,400 per child under six, vs roughly $5,900. The higher a family’s income, the less they receive, until at around $192,000, the benefit is withdrawn completely.