I got a letter from my MLA Ida Chong yesterday. I know. A whole day of keeping this from you, but I was sick. Sick with a terrible cold, not just her reply.
Apparently, when you take something up with your MLA, she is not there to help you solve a problem. She is there to play a game of tit for tat. You give her your information, and then she takes a few weeks, and then writes you a letter on fancy letterhead that says, “You were wrong.” And she might have well have said, “I told you so!” at the end.
What I’m getting at, is that I raised my concern that we have actually lost spaces in the region in the last year. She, and her assistant, disputed my information, and said they would get back to me on this. I should have picked up on it then. The lack of concern about the real issue of a province-wide child care crisis, but I thought that maybe this was her way. Sadly, there was no concern, just a little embarrassment over not being sure of her facts. Well, my friends, it turns out that they have their numbers, we have ours, and still families are left with impossible child care situations.
I just don’t understand her. I don’t understand how she can keep going in this political career, when she isn’t fighting for anyone. She isn’t doing the right thing. And she certainly isn’t listening to the concerns of her constituents. If she thought I took the time out of my life to write to her on multiple occasions, to set up a meeting, to arrange child care, and show up at that meeting well prepared, just to have her tell me my numbers are wrong. That the Ministry asserts that there are 161 more spaces in the region. In a province that needs 11,000…well I’d say she’s missing the point.
I won’t bother to disagree with her numbers, because that seems to me to be falling into her trap. To keep me busy arguing about numbers of spaces, ignores the reality that parents and children are facing every day. Children do not get a second childhood Ms. Chong. I thought you ageeed with me there. There is no time to waste! Get on with creating a universal child care system, that treats child care providers with an acceptable level of respect, by paying them well!
Just start doing it. Because the longer you waste arguing over the numbers, is one more day that children in my community don’t get access to the quality care they deserve. It’s one more day that parents struggle to get food on the table, because their child care bills are so high. It’s one more day that there is undue pressure on single parents and their children. It’s one more day closer to another child care provider LEAVING THE FIELD, because she just can’t pay her own bills, or imagine a future in a career that pays the bare minimum.
These women, and I’m thinking of my own son’s preschool teachers right now, put their hearts into their work every day. They have patience with our children. They take the time to celebrate their achievements, and make each child feel special and loved. It’s an awesome thing, Ms. Chong. You really should drop in sometime, and then try and tell me that you don’t think they deserve a teacher’s wage. Better yet. Tell my son that you don’t think his preschool teacher is a teacher. I think he’d disagree. He’s only four, and he gets it. Why don’t you?!
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