I’m a Conservative student who has worked on three election campaigns and spent a summer working for the Federal Minister of Health (Tony Clement). Tax cuts, smaller government, democracy abroad, stronger families, getting things done: this is what I believe in.
I have a few questions that I like to ask my friends whenever the inevitable topic—how I can support those conservative monsters—comes up.
Question #1: “Can you tell me with a straight face that the Liberals/NDP/Greens would do a better job?”
Question #2: “Are you as angry with the Liberals/NDP/Greens for their screw-ups as you are with the Conservatives for [insert beef here]?”
I don’t usually quarrel with those who answer “yes” to both questions, because those people have thought about the issue and are being honest with themselves. But those people are few and far between. A lot more people end up saying, “I never really thought about it that way before.”
Take an issue that is close to the hearts of students: tuition fees. According to the Canadian Federation of Students’ “Report Card on Education,” Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have “a bad habit of using provincial jurisdiction as an excuse not to tackle tuition fees head on.” Um, what? In the Canada I live in, the federal government transfers money to the provinces, who divide it up and pass it out to the universities. That’s not an excuse; that’s the Constitution.
Let’s apply Question #1 and ask whether the Liberals/NDP/Greens would do a better job. Our beloved Premier, Dalton McGuinty, being one of these Liberal types, seems content to sit on his hands instead of fixing the problem. The CFS gives Stéphane Dion an “F” for not coming across with the bread, so the Liberals are out. Ditto the Greens, who also get an “F.” That leaves the NDP, who get a B+ for saying they’ll “negotiate with the provinces to keep tuition fees affordable.” That’s nice of them, but between you and me, I don’t expect a whole lot of progress from some vaguely outlined “negotiation.” (This applies to Question #2—holding the NDP to the same standard as everyone else, and not handing them the keys to my heart because they made promises they’ll never have to keep.)
Now, the CFS seems to think that a party should be graded based on whether they’re willing to massively overstep federal/provincial boundaries and solve the tuition problem for us so that we don’t have to. I, like many Conservatives, hold the opposite view: the energy we students waste lobbying politicians could be directed towards changing the orientation of our student government and helping students regain some control over their lives.
Our desire to reduce the size of government does not come from some mean-spirited desire to hurt people, as the other parties would have you believe. Instead, we want the government to give us, and you, more room to grow. If that’s something you agree with, I encourage you to vote Conservative.
Josh obtained Degree #1 from this venerable institution of higher learning in ’06, and is working towards Degree #2 at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. He, and other Conservatives, walk among you and are friendlier than you’d expect.
