B.C. NDP doubles down on child care, while parties fight for votes in Maple Ridge

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Horgan on Thursday at first praised the Green-NDP childcare plan, saying it created 20,000 new spaces, of which 700 would benefit families in Maple Ridge, as well as several $10-a-day pilot projects. Then he turned on the plan, describing it as the best he could do while constrained by the Greens.

“The Green party in 2017 would not support our $10-a-day plan,” said Horgan. “So we pivoted to do the possible. Politics is about the art of the possible. Our Green colleagues would not support the childcare advocates’ plan. So we pivoted to put in place pilot projects so we could demonstrate not just to the greens, but to other British Columbians, how important this was. And then we went about creating thousands of spaces that reduce costs for families.

“That’s what governing is about. I’d know that it’s preferable to say, ‘You said you would do this, and you only did that.’ We did what was possible in a minority situation, keeping our partners as content as we could. That’s why I’m asking British Columbians for their support today, so that we can have a stable government that is exclusively focused on their needs, not on backroom deals.”

Horgan appeared to forecast another 10 years for completion of the $10-a-day childcare plan, though he didn’t directly answer questions about whether the first almost-four-years of his government would reduce that timeline to six years.

“We’re going to be working in the next mandate, which is a four-year mandate, to ensure we’re providing as many spaces as we possibly can,” he said.