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That sort of ethical distinction is falling away as we near the election. The Santa Harper government is shamelessly promoting itself with government ads.

It’s hard to know how moms and dads will react to this because it is without precedent.

No previous minister has promised to bring Christmas in July, or pitched cheques with such cheek, wearing a party shirt instead of a suit.

The whole policy looks like a cheap and deceptive vote-seeking ploy, the work of political marketing experts.

Start with the name. The Universal Child Care Benefit is universal, in that all parents get it, but it has little to do with child care.

The Conservatives started making monthly payments in 2006, when they were first elected, replacing a Liberal daycare plan with payments of $100 a month for every child under six.

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Daycare advocates complained bitterly but the program was fair in its way. Their payments went to everybody, including stay-at-home parents, who don’t benefit from subsidized daycare.

In October, the government announced it would add $60 a month for all children under 17, although most parents with older children have no childcare expenses. A report from the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that the largest net gain would go to those moms and dads.

This is not how you would design a program if you were seeking to help people struggling to pay for diapers. It is how you would design a program to win votes in suburbs around Toronto.