Taking up the campaigns for a federal child care program as an example of social movement advocacy for policy change, this thesis examines how social actors have understood the need for better federal social policy related to child care in Canada. I develop a policy and advocacy history to preface a theorization of child care advocacy according to Tronto’s (2011) four phases of care. My method of inquiry is grounded in the voices of the advocacy movement; I rely on interviews conducted with advocates, researchers, and a Member of Parliament who are organizing to achieve a national child care system grounded in the QUAD principles: quality, universality, accessibility, and developmentally appropriate child care. This project contributes to literature which develops the history, approaches, and goals of the child care movement as a ‘usable past’ to both strengthen the cognitive praxis of the movement and inform its pursuit of policy change.