Mahatma Gandhi never wore a mask, struck a policeman, advocated property damage or incited a riot. Instead, using -and indeed honing - the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence, overturning over a century of oppressive British colonial rule.
Gandhi's methods were in stark contrast to the 100-day student protest in Quebec, but Gandhi had a mission and a just cause.
The Quebec students who have taken their confrontation to the streets and the subways do not. It's one thing to be considered a distinct society, but looking at recent events in Montreal, it would appear this society seems more bent on extinction.
Quebec students began their protest ostensibly over a government-imposed tuition increase.
It didn't take long for Quebec labour unions to join in the fray along with members of the Parti Quebecois, the official opposition party in Quebec's National Assembly. In football this would be called piling on, in Quebec politics it's called let's take any cause, real or imagined, to defeat Jean Charest and the Liberal government.
Tuition is not the issue. Quebec has the lowest tuition costs in Canada. Currently the annual average in Quebec is $2,519. In B.C, it's $4,952. At UNBC, tuition has just been recently raised to $4,721. As an aside, this makes UNBC with its first-class rankings one of the best education deals in Canada.
Ontario universities average out to $6,640 annually while Alberta tuition costs are $5,662.
The Quebec government has proposed an increase of $325 a year for the next five years and has even offered to extend the time period to seven years. In both cases the student protestors have said no.
If minimal tuition increases in Quebec are not the issue, what is? Looking at the evidence, it's a vocal minority of troublemakers wildly swinging at every issue they don't like, or more seriously, don't understand.
As an example, the lead student activist group titled CLASSE is calling for a cut to funding that goes to university research. Currently it's 26 per cent.
They're also calling for an $18 million cut in university advertising, plus a moratorium on building satellite campuses. What great way to endear themselves to the rural populace.
The truly sad side to all of this is that if those students and potential leaders think they have a legitimate voice in governing the affairs of the province, they're desperately in need of a reality check.
First, the Quebec economy is in deep trouble and it's been noted by many that Quebec has become our Greece. Quebec is debt ridden, plus it's in the midst of major investigation into years of municipal and provincial government corruption.
Second, Quebec is a have-not province. This year, our benevolent Canadian equalization formula will send $7.3 billion to Quebec. Unemployment in Quebec is 8.5 per cent, higher than other provinces and to top it off Quebec has Canada's highest per capita debt while its residents pay Canada's highest income tax rates. Those making over $78,120 a year pay whopping a 24 per cent income tax.
None of the current demands of Quebec students, or the union leaders backing those students, or the hanger-on tactics of the opposition Parti Quebecois will do anything to improve Quebec's sad state of fiscal affairs. If ever a province needed an economic wakeup it's Quebec, yet it seems incapable of addressing even the most basic corrections. .
Quebec has become is its own worst enemy, ignoring its self-inflicted failures while lashing out madly at remedies.
*** *** ***
A touch of class.
Liberal Member of Parliament Joyce Murray was in town Tuesday to listen and learn. Murray is from New Westminster; she was a provincial Liberal Minister of Environment in the first Gordon Campbell government and in her younger years worked as a tree planter. Pardon the pun, but her roots are in the Interior. While here, Murray spoke to the Chamber of Commerce and it was refreshing to hear Chamber CEO Jennifer Brandle-McCall describe the visit as nonpartisan. Too often visiting opposition politicians treat a visit as one-way opportunity to beat up the government. From all accounts Joyce Murray rose above that. Could it be there's hope for the federal Liberals after all?
Bruce Strachan is a former B.C. cabinet minister and Prince George city councillor. His column appears Thursdays. E-mail: [email protected]
