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Federal Party Profiles on Post-Secondary Education Issues

On Nov.. 21st Student vot- ers will be asked to vote for the best candidate to represent their concerns in parliament in Ot- tawa. Prince Edward Island resi- dents. will be choosing a member of parliament for each of the four ridings of Malpeque, Egmont, Cardigan, and Hillsborough.

To address the educational con- cerns Canadian students share, the Canadian Federation of Stu- dents (CFS) circulated a ques- tionnaire of 16 questions to the National Offices of the three ma- jor political parties. The UPEI’s Student’s Union, with the coop-

eration of this paper’s editors, wishes to present the responses of the three major parties (NDP, Liberal, and Progressive Conser- vative) in a four part series in this paper. The Student Union hopes this valuable information will be useful to you as voters on election day, The first three questions and

Chronology of Free Trade Between Canada and USA

- by Malcolm Gorrill

Free trade has been the dom- inant issue in Canadian Politics over the past few years and is a prominent issue in this year’s fed- eral election. Since free trade has become a partisan issue, the de- bate over the recently negotiated Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States has “been heated, controversial, wrangled, and quite confusing. The average observer knows lit- tle more about this momentous agreement than he did a year ago. The purpose of this article is to put the current free trade debate in historical perspective. The following is a brief chronological study on Canadian—American re- lations. Hopefully this can make the current debate a little less chaotic.

1755-63...Great Britain takes over New France; has a huge un- divided North American Empire stretching from Hudson’s Bay to Georgia.

1776-83... The 13 Colonies rebel against Britain; Permanently divide the English—

speaking peoples in North Amer- ica.

1783...Thousands of Loyal- ists flee republican America into British North America and cre- ate two new colonies—Ontario and New Brunswick; these peo- ple naturally have little love for America.

1812-1815...The War of 1812 between Great Britain and the U.S.; the Americans attempt to annex BNA: this further antago- nizes ill-will between Americans and British North Americans.

1854-66...Reciprocity Treaty between America and BNA. 1867...Upper and — Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. form the Domin-

ion of Camada; one principal rea- son for this Confederation is the fear of American annexation.

1879...The National Policy of John A. Macdonald and the Con- servatives. The three parts of this policy: 1) The erection a tariff wall along Canadian border to promote investment in Canada while protecting infant Canadian _industries from Americar. compe- tition; 2) the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway; 3) the settlement of the West.

1891...Wilfrid Laurier and the Federal Liberals campaign for un- restricted reciprocity with U.S.; Conservatives appeal to:‘The old man [Macdonald], the old flag, the old policy.” The Conserva- tives win federal election of that year. °

1911...After 15 years in office, Wilfrid Laurier and Federal Lib- erals complete a free trade deal with the United States, but are defeated mainly on that issue in general election of that year.

-1983...Federal : ; Liberals appoint Donald Macdon- ald as Chairman of two year Royal Commission on the Eco- nomic Union and Development Prospects for Canada. If you ever have a few minutes to spare, study this Royal Commission. It only consists of over 280 sepa- rate studies located in 72 vol- umes! If you don’t feel like read- ing the whole report, the fol- lowing information can be ob- tained by glancing through Vol- ume 1 of this Royal Commis- sion, Entitled Francois Vaillan- court, Research Coordinator, In- come Distribution and Economic Security in Canada. On page vii, Donald Macdonald discusses this Royal Commission and says: ‘ [This] is the most thorough ex- amination of the Canadian eco- nomic, political and legal sys-

tems ever undertaken by an -in- dependent agency’ On the same page, Macdonald reveals that the Commission’s Research Program was jointly directed by Dr. Ivan Bernier (Law and Constitutional Issues), Dr. Alan Cairns (Poli- tics and Institutions of Govern- ment), and Dr. David C. Smith (Economics). The Commission’s purpose is stated on page ix: ‘At its most general level, the Royal Commission’s research program has examined how the Cana- dian economy can better adapt to

change.’ there are four main research

areas in this Commission. The Economics section covers Vol- umes 1-27. The covers of these volumes are colored red. The Politics and Institutions of Government section (green) goes from Volumes 28-45. The Law and Constitutional Issues sec- tion (blue) covers Volumes 46- 58. Federalism and the Economic Union (light green) goes from 59— 71 (there is also Volume 72, which covers The North).

1983...Brain Mulroney, a Fed- eral Progressive Leadership can- didate, says: ‘Free trade affects Canadian soverignty, and we will have none of it, not during lead- ership campaigns or at any other

88...Brian Mulroney and the Fed- eral Conservatives push for and complete a Free Trade deal with the U.S.; the Liberals and NDP denounce this deal, saying it will weaken Canada’s soverignty.

1988...Free Trade Bill passes House of Commons; Liberal Leader John Turner calls this the ‘issue of his life’ and orders Liberal-dominated Senate to not pass Free Trade legislation until general election is called.

November 21,1988...To be de- termined by Canadian voters ©

~5

responses are as follows:

Post—Secondary Education Financing

Question - In the present system of higher education fi- nancing the federal government transfers over $5 billion per year to the provinces for education, yet provincial governments are not bound to spend these monies on education. Would you work to change this system (Established Programs Financing) after the election?

Loan ZA BP

Progressive Conservative Party — one of the basic prin- ciples governing post-secondary education in Canada is that the constitutional responsibility for education lies with the provinces. However, social economic factors have made higher learning a mat- ter of national importance and, as a result, the federal govern- ment contributes significant re- sources to post-secondary educa- tion. We will respect the letter and spirit of federal—provincial arrangements for post-secondary education.

Liberal Party -— Yes, we would work to change the Estab- lished Programs Financing sys- tem. Funds which are ear- marked for post-secondary edu-

cation should be spent on post—"

secondary education and not on other areas like roads.

‘DEMOCRATS

New Democratic Party . New Democrats have opposed tI financing formula of Establishe Programs Financing since 19% when the Liberals and Conse vatives voted together to repla ‘50/50 federal—provincial finan ing with ‘a system of block fun ing.

Since: that the fe eral contribution for the ty programs of health and pos secondary education has fall from approximately 50 per ce to approximately 40 per cent. \ believe a new formula must nc be derived to meet the nee for health and post-seconde education and to reflect a 1 tional consensus on these imp tant needs.

time

Part of building this const sus would be a significant c tribution of new federal fur supporting health and po secondary education under tablished Programs Financing

Question — Currently, s dents pay 12 - 20% of the c of their education through tuit fees (from $800 — $1,800). Wo you encourage Canadian peo secondary institutions to raise ition fees paid by students? W percentage of the cost of hig education do you believe stude should reasonably be expected pay through tuition fees?

Progressive Conservat Party — No reply was availab

Liberal Party — Stude

* don’t mind paying their fair sh but the Liberal Party real! that the vast majority of stude

...Cont. page .3

ELECTIONS CANADA