It's nice to see compromise and a move from election platforms two days into the new Parliament. Why, soon it will be as if what is actualy policy was what was promised all along. Most pleasing is reading that the child care plan wasn't really te child care plan and that the new plan is actually going to be something in the nature of a plan for the care of children and not just a partisan money toss:

Opposition Leader Bill Graham challenged Harper yesterday to reinstate the five-year, $5 billion program, citing an interview Human Resources Minister Diane Finley gave to the Toronto Star. Finley acknowledged tax credits, such as those the Tories promised in the campaign, haven't stimulated an expansion of daycare spaces in the past, and said the government is now looking at "other incentives" and alternatives to the tax system to do so. "The minister responsible admitted ... such tax credits fail to create child-care spaces," Graham said. "Will the Prime Minister now admit he is wrong, or does he plan to push ahead with a plan that his own minister admits will not work?" Harper said his government will be "flexible" on how it puts together its $10.7 billion program on child care but provided no more detail.

After the interesting and important debate on Afghanistan last night - in which all parties represented their positions forcefully but, yes, the debate one that the new Prime Minister was never going to allow - it will be good to watch where we are actually going on many matters now. Too early to talk of flip-floppery and, in any event, this is a weak situation which mainly allows for sensible compromises if you let it.