A couple of weeks ago federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff promised that if elected Prime Minister he would institute a national childcare system.

Liberal Leaders have been promising some form of a national childcare system in every election since 1993 and yet nothing has happened - despite three Liberal majorities and one minority during that time period.

Readers must forgive us for taking Ignatieff's promises with a large grain of salt. In our view, anything a Liberal leader says about a national childcare system simply can't be taken seriously.

Not surprisingly, when Ignatieff made his promise, he offered no specifics about how such a system would work. He offered no ideas for how the federal government would pay for such a massive new bureaucracy.

It is hard to take any Liberal promise on this matter seriously until they unveil a formal plan for how their new system will work and how much it will cost.

In this new era of giant deficits, looming cuts to government programs and services and high unemployment, Canadians expect and deserve more from their leaders than vague promises that have been made countless times before.

We can't hold Ignatieff responsible for the failures of previous Liberal Prime Ministers. Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin both promised a national childcare system if they were elected. Both were elected and they ignored their promises (Chretien was particularly adept at this feat - he ignored his own childcare promises three times!).

However, we should expect that Ignatieff would be specific about his own promise on this front. How will his promised national childcare system work? Who will pay for it? How will it affect private daycare operators? Will Canadians that prefer to send their children to private daycares be able to opt out of the federal system and still receive the same benefits?

Childcare is a major issue for parents across Canada. On this issue Prime Minister Stephen Harper is clear. He doesn't believe in a national strategy and instead sends parents $100 every month for each child they have.

If Ignatieff believes the current system is inadequate then we need to hear his proposal and then have a legitimate debate about the merits of each system.