You’ve watched the debates,heard the promises,seen the ads, and your mailbox has been overflowing with campaign literature.
While each political party releases campaign promises aiming to appeal to Canada’s 35 million and counting population, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose focus of the issues that impact students.
This election, Excalibur got in touch with a mix of candidates running to represent the ridings of both Humber River-Black Creek and Don Valley West. These are the federal electoral districts of York’s Keele and Glendon campuses, and we hoped to explore their stances on key issues affecting York students.
This time around, some of the candidates running in the federal election include four youthful York students amongst others who understand the importance of dealing with skyrocketing tuition rates, aboriginal issues, securing good jobs for graduates, and more.
If the old tale holds true, many students attend post-secondary school in hopes of getting a well-paying job in their field of interest upon graduation. But with the unemployment rate at around 13 per cent and the underemployment rate at 27 per cent, many students have to reconsider their options of how to get relevant work experience without falling victim to unpaid internships.
“The Conservative government will continue to focus on creating good, well-paying jobs for Canadians on top of creating an additional 1.3 million new, well-paying jobs by 2020 in all sectors,” says Kerry Vandenberg, Conservative party candidate and York student.
“I am personally committed to expanding the green energy sector into hydroelectric development as the most reliably proven and consistent of all the green technologies,” he adds.
Keith Jarrett, Green Party candidate and political science student at York says, “The long-term economic and social implications of a growing group of economically disconnected and socially alienated youth is very serious and very costly.”
“Our party will boost access to apprentice programs in key trades, supporting those with skills to train youth through financial support,” says Jarrett.
The Green Party also plans to develop a Youth Community and Environment Service Corps. It will provide federal minimum wage employment for 40,000 youth aged 18 to 25 every year for four years for a total of 160,000 youth positions, he says.
Each year in Canada, there is an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 unpaid interns working in hopes of gaining work experience and being hired in their field.
The Green Party will introduce legislation to ban unpaid internships in federally regulated industries and work with the provinces to cease the practice altogether, he says.
For many young people just getting out of school, they face a catch-22. They cannot get hired in new jobs because they lack experience. But unless they get that first job, they’ll never have experience, adds Jarrett.
“The NDP will implement a plan in partnership with the private sector and non-profits to help 40,000 young Canadians get jobs, co-op placements, and paid internships,” says Syeda Riaz, NDP candidate for Don Valley West and law and society student at York.
“We will put an end to the abuse of unpaid internships in federal jurisdiction workplaces and reinstate the federal minimum wage by progressively raising it to $15 per hour,” she adds.
“The Liberals will invest $40 million each year to help employers create more co-op placements for students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and business programs,” says Judy Sgro, the Liberal candidate seeking re-election in Humber River-Black Creek.
“To encourage companies to hire young Canadians for permanent positions, we will also offer a 12-month break on Employment Insurance premiums.”
The Liberal government will create 40,000 good youth jobs, including 5,000 youth green jobs, each year for the next three years by investing $300 million more in the renewed Youth Employment Strategy, says Sgro.
“We will also end the rule that discriminates against new workers and those re-entering the workforce by requiring them to accumulate 910 hours of work to qualify for employment insurance benefits, including training support,” she says.
With tuition fees for post-secondary education being one of the largest expenses for university and college students, institutions are seeing declining enrollment rates from low-income families who choose to opt-out of pursuing a university education due to financial circumstances.
“Since Stephen Harper took office, the level of student debt has risen by 30 per cent with the average graduate now expecting to owe more than $26,000 as they try to start a career and maybe even a family,” says Riaz.
“The NDP knows that for many young people, a quality college or university education is the key to a secure economic future,” she says.
The NDP will invest $250 million in additional federal student grants over four years, with an emphasis on helping students who need it most, creating as many as 50,000 new grants, says Riaz.
“Our party will provide direct help to students from low and middle-income families to help them pay for their education and ensure that debt loads are manageable,” says Sgro.
A Liberal government will increase the maximum Canada student grant for low-income students to $3,000 per year for full-time students and to $1,800 per year for part-time students, says Sgro.
“In addition, to help more students from middle-class families qualify for Canada student grants, we will increase the income thresholds for eligibility, giving more Canadian students access to even larger grants,” she says.
When it comes to debt repayment, Sgro says that the Liberal government will ensure that no graduate with student loans will be required to make any repayment until they are earning an income of at least $25,000 per year.
“As we (the Green Party) move towards the abolition of tuition fees in 2020 through constructing a system of federal grants collaboratively with universities and colleges, the Green Party proposes that the federal government forgive and erase any existing student debt to ensure that no student has more than $10,000 in debt to the federal government,” says Jarrett.
If elected into government, the Green Party will immediately cut tuition fees for students and their families without adequate financial means and remove the inadequate two per cent cap on tuition for all First Nations and Inuit students, says Jarrett.
“We will also eliminate any existing or future student federal debt above $10,000,” he says.
When it comes to youth aboriginal issues, a lack of financial resources deters Canada’s aboriginal population from pursuing post-secondary studies.
While Canada’s aboriginal population grows at six times the rate of the non-aboriginal population, the inequality gap between aboriginal and the non-aboriginal population also continues to grow.
According to a report by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, closing the educational gap would lead to an additional $179 billion in direct GDP growth, and over $400 billion in total growth over the next 20 years.
“It is unacceptable that after decades of neglect by previous federal governments, secondary school graduation rates are 35 per cent for First Nations students on-reserve, compared to 85 per cent graduation rates for other Canadians,” says Riaz, NDP.
An NDP government will commit to making a new investment in First Nations education of $1.8 billion over the next four years to ensure that every child can afford the same educational opportunities, she adds.
“We (the Conservatives) would provide $500 million to building and renovating schools on reserves, and would review the 94 recommendations released in June by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada,” says Vandenberg.
“We will also invest $567 million over five years to help aboriginal people and northerners in remote areas of the country to build stronger communities,” says Vandenberg.
“We (Liberals) will invest new funding each year in core funding for kindergarten through grade 12 programs, totalling $750 million per year by the end of our first mandate,” adds Sgro.
A Liberal government will also provide new funding to help indigenous communities promote and preserve indigenous languages and cultures by investing an additional $500 million over the next three years for building and refurbishing First Nations schools, says Sgro.
Alongside, indigenous women are more likely to be victims of racism, sexism, and domestic violence. Over a thousand of these women have been murdered or gone missing, yet the justice system has done little to protect them from any of these assaults.
Canada can absolutely afford an inquiry into the 1,200 missing and murdered indigenous women, says Riaz.
“When elected, the NDP will call a national inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in our first 100 days and provide $50 million in support,” she says.
Sgro says, “We (Liberals) will immediately launch a national public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada to seek recommendations on concrete actions that governments, law enforcement, and others can take to solve these crimes and prevent future ones.”
Jarrett adds, “The Green Party will set up task forces to address the treatment of aboriginals in the Canadian justice system and to investigate and address the disappearance of aboriginal women.”
“We must confront and undo the legacy of racism and colonialism that underpins these acts of violence,” he says.
With York’s population of 48,270 students, young people could easily shift the political landscape of York’s local ridings.
During the 2011 federal elections, 48 per cent of eligible voters in Humber River-Black Creek and 66 per cent of eligible voters in Don Valley West casted a ballot. If each student at York were to go out and vote, the low youth voter turnout of 38.8 per cent would almost double.
As discussed above, each candidate delivers promises of a strong representation in Ottawa and it’s simply a matter of seeing who your values line up with. At the end of the day, it comes down to us and who we choose to run this country on election day. See you at the polls.
Tatiana Prisiajny, Features Editor
Featured image courtesy of Tatiana Prisiajny
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