Care(full) Campaigning? A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of Childcare in the 2014 and 2018 Ontario Elections

Childcare in Ontario continues to face significant challenges both structurally and ideologically. Drawing on feminist ethics of care scholarship (Barnes, 2012; Held, 2006; Tronto, 1993, 2006; Sevenhuijsen, 2003), this study builds on the important work of Langford et al. (2017) in theorizing the care as central to political dialogue and a public good. The study employs a feminist critical discourse analysis (Lazar, 2007; Fairclough, 2003, 2013) to explore conceptualizations of care in childcare in political party platforms and advocate organization responses during the 2014 and 2018 Ontario elections. Analyzing both political party platforms and advocate organizations demonstrated that the economic and human capital rationales dominated. Emerging in 2018 was both a maternal emancipation discourse, and the broad employment of personalization as a discursive strategy. Based on the findings, recommendations for discursive resistance are explored.