Student lobby group pans Greens, Conservatives

With only one week left before Election Day, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) has released a report card ranking the four national parties’ focus on students’ issues.
The report card, which grades parties on issues including approaches to tuition fees, support for graduate research, aboriginal education, post-secondary funding and copyright reform, ranked the Conservatives and Greens in a virtual tie for last.
According to Ian Boyko, the CFS’ government relations coordinator, the poor marks accorded to the Greens were a reflection of the group’s relative lack of concern for education issues.
“Some parties – like the NDP – talked about a variety of [students’] issues, and had those in their platforms with costings. The Green Party’s platform, though, was pretty thin. They had a small section on education, but little in the way of targeted funding, and nothing talking about a national plan for tuition fees.”
When asked about the CFS’ demand that the federal government attempt to regulate tuition fees across the country, Boyko likened the proposal to the Canada Health Act, which regulates provincial use of federal healthcare funding.
“[Tuition] is like healthcare,” he said. “There’s some wiggle-room between what governments are allowed to do, and what they really can do.”