Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The more things change

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, January 21, 2011 11:36am - 17 Comments

Jacob Serebrin looks at how the discussion of education policy has and hasn’t changed since Lester B. Pearson addressed the University of British Columbia in 1965. He also digs up a Canadian Press clip from the time that recounts the heckles Mr. Pearson was treated to at that speech and one earlier in the day.

Shouts of “Yankee parrot” and “go back to the U.S., Mike” greeted the prime minister as he spoke for 35 minutes almost without pause before 2,900 in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

He seemed to be replying to the hecklers when he said: “Whining anti-Americanism is not the same as vigorous Canadianism.”

Earlier, he faced good-natured needling as he spoke to about 4,000 students at the University of British Columbia.

“What’s new, pussycat?” one student shouted as Mr. Pearson was quoting statistics on university financial problems from the recent Bladen report. “Mike for the Senate,” another interjected as the 68-year-old Liberal leader finished his speech.

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  • Emily

    Well it's true that clods will always be with us….even past the 'student age' of those times. I assume that's why we get transcripts of speeches to this day.

    I'm glad heckling has gone the way of the dodo…although 'spin' isn't a good replacement.

    Pity we don't yet have free university. Pearson was ahead of his time.

    • Emily

      Amazing how thumb-monkeys can't address actual points. LOL

      • DBM

        That was very meta.

        • Emily

          So pick one point.

  • Realistic

    As an ardent liberal supporter I too pine for a leader like Pearson, but what are we going to do about Iggy now that he has come out with those American Democratic Party syle attack ads?

    • Emily

      Oh please. LOL

  • Emily

    Well as long as everyone is good with no clods, no heckling, no spin and free university, I'm satisfied.

    • John.K

      What have you got against motherhood and apple pie? :-)

    • Thwim

      I don't know about free. But certainly no Canadian should have to forego post-secondary due to cost.

      Personally, I'm in favor of loans which have the interest paid off so long as good progression is being made, and for which the principal is forgiven if the student chooses to work in Canada. The rate of forgiveness can vary so that we can encourage graduates to go to underserved places.

      • Emily

        I'm a firm believer in the principle that university should be free…just like elementary and secondary school.

        Especially now that we're in the knowledge age.

        • Mike R

          Good idea. And how will you be paying for that? Cash or charge?

          • Emily

            With your fighterplane money, honey.

        • Thwim

          There's an argument to be made that the reason primary and secondary school are free are because they're compulsory.

          After having looked at the stats, I'd agree that having post-secondary (not just university) be free is very likely a winning idea for a society.

          That said, it's unlikely to be taken on just like that. The loan system would make for a decent transitional means — ones that might satisfy the short-sighted fiscal hawks, and would also work to keeping our training here in Canada, while making it essentially free for Canadians.

          • Emily

            They're not compulsory. School-leaving age used to be 16, and it's now 18 in Ont but home-schooling is big as well….and religious groups unfortunately get a lot of leeway on subjects.

            We have loans already….students have huge debt before they ever leave university. I don't know what training is done outside Canada, unless you mean Canadians at foreign universities.

            Primary, secondary, tertiary education….should all be free.

          • Thwim

            Nits. It's basically compulsory, in that only a very small number of the eligible population doesn't take it. Post-secondary is exactly the opposite.

            And yes we have loans already, that's why I went into more detail with the plan. Not just loans, but intelligent forgiveness of the loans.

            By "keeping our training here in Canada" I meant keeping the graduates we make here in Canada. After all, people will take advantage of a totally free education. They'll get educated in Canada, and then, once the taxpayer has paid for that education, leave to another country. That's what I'm trying to avoid with the loan forgiveness route.

          • Emily

            It's not compulsory to graduate high school. In fact we have a high drop-out rate.

            High school wasn't always free, and most people didn't go. We've been here before, with all these same arguments year ago.

            Graduates will go all over the world, as well as stay here….the same is true for students elsewhere.

            We currently have 2.7 million Canadians living and working in other countries. The 11th province.

      • http://twitter.com/MichaelTripper @MichaelTripper

        re:no Canadian should have to forego post-secondary due to cost.

        true, I did and it's an awful story. coming soon

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