Four of six candidates run- ning for the Hillsborough seat in the November 27th federal election were at UPEI last week. In a debate hosted by the university’s Political Science Society, the four politician were given.an opportunity to tell an audience of university community members their party’s platform.

There were several recur- ring themes through out the evening, but matters of post-sec- ondary education took centre stage.

“This election presents all Canadians, especially young Canadians, with very different visions of our future,” said Liberal candidate Shawn Murphy. “More dollars will be provided for research and development for our university which we consider the economic drivers of this country.”

Murphy’s party is responsi- ble for the Millenium Scholarship, a federal program of financial assistance for student, criticized by provincial governments, candi- dates, and students, which proved relatively uneffective in reducing student debt.

Murphy added that his party would continue to make uni- versity education more affordable for all young canadians who wished to pursue post-secondary education. But most important believes Murphy, is that jobs were available to young graduates.

Canadian Alliance candi- date Gerry Stewart, made little mention of his parties policies in regards to eduction in his opening statement.

“We will restore the health and education funding that has been slashed by the federal govern- ment,” Stewart said. “We will restore that back to the 1993-94 levels.”

Instead, he emphasized

lack of support given by the

Chretian government to the Canadian Armed Forces. “We will rebuild and

reform our justice system, and.

work towards finding proper fund- ing for our Canadian military which has been so beleaguered by the cuts and has severely affected our ability to be an international presence,” Stewart said.

But when asked about the Canadian Alliance’s stand on the state of post-secondary education, Stewart said his party was commit- ted to reforming the Canada Student Loan Program by instating interest relief, loan remission, and

‘adopting a system by which stu-

dents would be granted financial assistance according to their -aca- demic record.

Dolores Crane also criti- cized the Liberal government’s ini- tiatives in funding education.

“I am very unhappy with the direction of this country when I sit back and think of the situation of students I to talk to everyday in the campaign,” said Crane. “Many of these students are carrying around a debt load between 20 and 30 thousand dollars.”

Crane gave the example of a veterinary medicine student she had recently met with who’s debt has now reach over 50 thousand dollars.

“How that has happened,” explained Crane, “is that over the last seven years the Liberal govern- ment’s stand on education has basi- cally been a policy where by, it’s prescription for poverty, the death sentence as far as | am concerned.

“It used to be, a long time ago in this country, when you could get an affordable education whether you were rich or you were poor.” Crane continued, “But at this point in time we are almost at the stage where we have to be

wealthy in order to be well educat- ed. I don’t like to see that happen- ing and I don’t like the direction the country is going in.”

Crane added that the debt load on students was far too high, and that therefore the surplus accu- mulated by the liberal government should be reinvested in students. She emphasized cutting tuition fees, allocating grants other than programs such as the Millenium scholarships, and making students more competitive on the world market.

Fourth and final candidate, Progressive-Conservative Darren Peters,. voiced his critique of the federal government’s stand on post-secondary education.

“Education is [an] essential service and post-secondary educa- tion, [an] area where provincial and federal cooperation is required,” Peters said. “It is anoth- er area where misplaced federal priorities have had a negative impact.

“Federal support for post- secondary education has dropped by 50 per cent since 1979-80, total federal support for post-secondary education represents 1.6 per cent of total spending,” he added. “Obviously not a Chretien, not a liberal priority.”

Peters said he believed that every student in the audience felt the impact, and that students were therefore forces to deal with higher student debt.

The conservatives, said Peters, are committed to the restoration of the federal chair of funding and want to insure that stu- dent loans can be repaid as a per- centage of after tax income. Also, the party plans to work to support more university research.

BJ McCarville, Student Union President, met the candi-

dates prior to the debate. She felt that although the candidates had demonstrated a genuine concern about post-secondary education during this meeting, the debate had not done the four candidates jus- tice.

“On the issue of education, the’ NDP and the Conservative [candidates] took the lead and empathized most with the current crisis in post-secondary educa- tion,” said McCarville. “[They] have genuine concerns in making changes.” .

Some criticisms by party representatives were uncalled for, said McCarville, who is still unde- cided as to which party she will vote for in next week’s election.

“(There] were a lot of attacks on the Liberal party,” she said. “I felt like the crowd was almost too hard on this new candi- date. No one really examined the faults of the other parties.”

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