An Education Policy of Respect…Michael Ignatieff Better Tread Carefully

Although my tenure as VP Policy is coming to an end soon, the one issue which I worked on most was education. As education has its own section in the constitution, this is pretty clear provincial jurisdiction.

As a youth wing in Quebec, we have been pretty clear with what we want. We want the federal government to create a dedicated education transfer, as it was before 1995. We want funding to the provinces restored. That is a fiscal imbalance issue. The costs of provincial services are rising and the federal government has the money.

In the 50s and 60s it was called co-operative federalism. From that we got a Pension Plan and Medicare…not bad. If the provinces stuck to their hard lines then, we would have neither. Back then there was a federalism of respect.

The term “education standards” sends a shiver down my spine. How will any federal government pass this without another interprovincial war? How do we prevent Canadian flags from getting taken down? Here candidates must tread very carefully. I wasn’t all that pleased when I heard that Michael Ignatieff was proposing a plan on education, but I took a look and suggest you take one too.

Michael proposes something similar to the Canada Health Act in making three core principles in what is called the Access Agenda. I will call them the three pillars of education: Equality, Affordability, and Mobility.

Equality meaning everyone will get the same quality of education whether they are in a city or region. Equality of opportunity should apply to the quality of the university education itself.

Affordability ensuring no student is left behind. IF YOU HAVE THE GRADES, YOU GET TO GO. That is the best possible way to ensure true equality of opportunity in Canada. To that extent, the federal government will provide an option to everyone based on their level of income. All Canadians will have access to a certain extent. Since this is not directly spending money on the education itself, it is indeed constitutional. (barely)

Mobility means that all Canadians should be able to move freely within the provinces and get educated. We must remove inter-provincial barriers to education make credits transferable. If the federal government can do it for workers, it can also do it for students.

BECAUSE the education transfer was promised, I have no reason to see why provinces would be against such a plan other than sheer stubbornness. Once the imbalance has been addressed, the provinces can no longer blame the federal government for the problems of students.

I can proudly take this plan to my constituents in the Youth Wing in Quebec and to the student lobbies and say this plan is achievable, attainable, and constitutional. The ball is now in the court of the provinces. We need co-operative federalism to make a comeback!