OTTAWA - An Ottawa children's shop owner says she feels duped after she and several other moms expecting a major announcement on child care wound up as props in a Tory campaign photo.

Krista Thompson says she was contacted by an organizer in Conservative MP Royal Galipeau's office who was seeking a place where moms and tots congregate.

Thompson, a 37-year-old mother of three, co-owns Boomerang Kids which sells a range of children's products and offers free exercise and social gatherings each weekday morning.

The Conservatives told her they were looking for a place where Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Rona Ambrose could reveal new daycare details, says Thompson.

The shop owner saw it as a good chance for marketing exposure and offered moms a 20-per-cent discount on store items, along with free T-shirts, to attend.

"But we're not partisan," Thompson said Wednesday. "The truth of the matter is we agreed to do it because they said they were making a big announcement about child care. And what became evident by the end of the day was there was no announcement.

"I'm feeling incredibly naive in this whole thing. ... I'm a whole lot more eyes-wide-open after this than I was before.

"It's embarrassing."

Galipeau's campaign manager, Wendy Noble Woodcock, could not immediately explain what happened.

"I was told there would be a child funding announcement so that's what I told them because that's what I was told," she said in an interview.

In fact, Ambrose broke no such electoral ground. She instead went over the old Conservative child-care plan of $1,200 a year (before taxes) for each child under age six, along with $250 million a year to help provinces create daycare spaces.

The Tories have also cut taxes and offered other benefits to sweeten a policy that offers about $400 million less a year than the Liberal plan for national child care that the Conservatives scrapped in 2006.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has promised in this election to double the $1,200 yearly benefit and also create more spaces.

Ambrose says the Conservatives have created 60,000 new child-care spaces when in fact the provinces have announced plans for those spots. It isn't clear how many have actually opened.

She made the comments after pushing a stroller during a brief walk with the assembled mothers as Tory supporters snapped pictures and waved Galipeau campaign signs.

Olga Milliken, 35, said she was lucky to find a child-care space for her daughter Katya, 13 months.

Milliken will return to her research in two months to complete a doctorate in health economics.

"It's very difficult to find a space, extremely difficult -- almost impossible. And obviously I think the government can do a lot to help mothers because it's a very difficult choice for the mother to decide when to start working. And sometimes it's not a choice.

"I think helping with daycare spaces is much more important than giving money."

Like several of the other mothers interviewed, Milliken has not yet decided how she'll vote on Oct. 14.

Thompson volunteered in the 2006 election for Conservative John Baird's campaign and for Liberal David Pratt before that.

This time, she's "sitting on the fence" while she watches all parties before deciding how to vote.

She stressed that her business often gives discounts to its exercise participants and never meant to suggest a financial benefit for seeming to support a particular party.

To drive home the point, Thompson says she'll invite MPs of other political stripes to visit the store and meet her customers.