Politicians have been making promises on child care for more than a quarter century

Watching Michael Ignatieff these days is like watching a movie rerun, in the dubious expectation of a different ending.

MONTREAL—If political promises could turn into public child-care places, every baby born in Canada would have a guaranteed one by now.

After all, it has been more than a quarter of a century since Brian Mulroney's Tories first introduced such an undertaking in a federal platform. Since then, the child-care commitment has had a prime spot in the program of the Liberals or the Conservatives or both in every single campaign.

With...