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If you believe the Conservatives, the options in child care policy are limited to either the nanny state or the Santa state.

It is that latter approach that the government has adopted, with social development minister Pierre Poilievre declaring on the weekend that it was “One more sleep until Christmas in July for Moms and Dads!”

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Conservatives in this country once believed that public money belonged to the public, and that only socialists regarded redistribution programs as presents for the state to dispose at whim.

This increase in the child benefit is Canadians’ money, not the government’s money and certainly not the Conservative Party of Canada’s money, despite Poilievre’s decision to launch the benefit wearing a CPC-emblazoned shirt.

Not only are we Canadians paying for the government to give some of us some of our money back (and then tax it), we are also paying to be told about it incessantly because the government is apparently very concerned that some parents might not collect. Conservative MPs, following the prime minister’s instruction to tout the increased benefit, are obediently telling people to tweet the prime minister to let him know — personally! — that their money arrived safe and sound. Thanks, Santa!