The 2019 Canadian federal election ended on Monday with the Liberal Party forming a minority government. The Liberals can negotiate with either the NDP or Bloc Quebecois to form government, although, realistically, they are far more likely to end negotiations with the NDP.
How would a Liberal-NDP minority government impact students? Examining each party’s platform can show us their vision for education.
The Liberal platform shows that they’ve committed to keep student loans interest-free for two years after graduation, and that graduates won’t have to pay back their student loans until they’re earning more than $35,000 annually. While these policies are beneficial to graduates, they do nothing to address the cost of tuition, and they have no impact on current students.
This will become a recurring theme as we analyze Liberal policies: they are beneficial to a very specific and small subset of the population and are narrow in their scope. The fact that the benefits of such policies are enjoyed by such small groups results in wasted effort and ineffectual impact. Meanwhile, the Liberals can claim they’re making efforts to appease the larger population of students.
The Liberals promised that students who are parents can pause their loan payments until their youngest child turns 5, while accumulating no interest. Again, an excellent policy with a narrow scope that only applies to students who are parents, a relatively small subset.
Lastly, the Liberals have promised to increase the maximum Canada Student Grants for full-time students from $3,000 to $4,200. This policy is broad in that it applies to all students taking student loans. However, it fails to address the overall cost of tuition. As such, it is an incremental step in the right direction.
There’s a significant change in tone when moving onto examine the NDP’s education policies. The NDP acknowledges skyrocketing tuition costs and the resulting crushing student debt in their platform, while promising to put a cap on tuition and reduce it over time if elected. This is the most broad post-secondary-education policy possible, and it would benefit all students across Canada.
The NDP’s final vision for tuition is to eliminate it entirely by incorporating post-secondary education into the public education sector; this would also eliminate the need for student loans. As well, it would increase access and demand for post-secondary education, which would result in higher education rates across Canada.
Even though a Liberal-NDP government is likely, it’s also true that the NDP won’t be able to negotiate every one of its education plans into forming government. All we can do is lobby our local representatives to implement the NDP’s broader plans in the upcoming government.