Shahroze Rauf | News Editor
Featured Image: One of the Conservative Party posters found on post-secondary campuses.
Last week, York’s Keele campus saw posters by the Conservative Party of Canada calling students to volunteer. However, the rhetoric used by the posters caused frustration to boil on campus.
“Because you can only hear the same left-wing talking points from your professors so many times,” the poster states.
Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer replied to the remarks over the poster by saying he does not mean anything regarding his influence over who gets hired in post-secondary positions.
“It’s a way to get people engaged on campus and it’s meant to be a launching pad for discussions and debate and hearing other points of view,” Scheer says.
But this type of rhetoric can be detrimental according to professors at post-secondary institutions.
“There’s a Conservative message going out that somehow colleges and universities are these indoctrination centres, that they’re more like campuses in Paris in 1968 than they are currently,” says Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Teachers David Robinson. “They are diverse.”
Some students agree with this sentiment. Second-year journalism student James Mackin could not find the humour in the poster.
“I just think he’s pandering to people who were already going to vote for him no matter what. But it’ll probably vilify left-leaning students against him as well,” says Mackin.
However, as most students may believe that the posters painted professors as left-wing advocates, there are others who agree with Scheer’s humour.
“I do not find professors are professional. I can only think of a handful of professors who haven’t passionately expressed their political views. Of the ones who have declared themselves, only one was right-wing. Universities are indoctrination centres,” says third-year student Celia Lewin.
Lewin adds that the posters are meant to mobilize conservative students and recruit volunteers, rather than attracting new voters.
“Students are a hard demographic to reach, especially because the schools are governed by people who have a personal interest in keeping those students from getting involved,” Lewin says.
However, YFS Director of Environmental Studies Abdeali Saherwala disagrees with Lewin’s opinion. He believes that such an assumption could prove dangerous that social issues and education are all left-wing.
“I feel that most universities are left-wing. But that is not the institution’s fault nor are professors chosen for their political beliefs. I think with education on history, feminism, equality, equity and racial issues, people become left-wing or people who want to teach become left-wing,” Saherwala says.
York University Acting Chief Spokesperson Yanni Dagonas provided a statement from York saying that the university is committed to providing a non-partisan environment and would never comment on the activities of a political party during a federal elections.
“York considers the privilege afforded by freedom of speech as vitally important to robust and respectful dialogue. York values the expertise our faculty has accrued through robust research, data and evidence gathering. Academic freedom is fundamental to the mandate of universities to pursue truth, educate students and disseminate knowledge and understanding,” says Dagonas.
