An education with nowhere to go

I am wasting my life. I found myself thinking that on another one of my long drives. The ones through a grey winter's countryside with nobody else on road. Working as a driver gives you time to think. The sad part of it all is I'm too smart for my job. I have double honours degrees in history and political science. I also have a college graduate diploma in journalism. Still I'm forced to work for low pay in a mind numbing job. There are no entry level positions in my field. I've come to realize that higher education doesn't open the doors it once did.

For years, the government has pushed university degrees as the be all and end all. The labour market increased demand for educated workers as well. Then the 2008 recession happened. While blue collar and minimum wage jobs bounced back, white collar ones didn't. Many university grads are waiting tables, or cleaning cars. Now that everyone has a university education, degrees don't carry the weight they used to.

Entry level professional jobs have given way to volunteering and internships. Those do not pay the bills, and do not generate tax revenue. Employers want experience. Typically this means a minimum of two years in the real world. Grads lack the experience needed to get good jobs, but there are few paths for getting that experience.

This is why I took exception to recent comments made by Michael Ignatiff. He's another stuffy academic that Liberals seem to love. Iggy wants to push education big time should he be elected PM. That's all well and good but it doesn't address the job problem. Pursuing knowledge is a wonderful thing, but it's useless if you can't practice it.

Not a single party at both the federal and provincial levels has addressed the job shortage for new grads. They need meaningful full time work in their own fields to succeed. Mark my words, ignoring this issue will lead to a brain drain. At best, we'll have an entire generation under-qualified for their age group and career level. We're wasting a colossal amount of fresh talent because there are no real world opportunities for beginners. All we've done is create the world's most educated Wal-Mart employees.

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Google vs China: A Battle of Two Evil Empires

Google did something rather unexpected this week. They told the People's Republic of China where to stick their censorship. Google's Gmail service had a major breech of security several months ago. It was discovered last week that the Chinese government had been behind it. Of the email accounts hacked, several belonged to Chinese democracy advocates. Google claims that no critical information was stolen.

In response to the hacking, Google launched back more than a warning shot. They shut down all censorship on Google.cn, the Chinese portal. Several years ago, the company had instituted censorship on the search engine to appease the PRC. People visiting Google.cn were barred from searching for terms such as democracy and the Tienanmen protests. That is until last week when Google refused to comply in retaliation. The company is now debating whether they should continue to operate in this country. Google's mission has always been to give people free and easy access to information. That's why they came under such heavy criticism from Western human rights and free speech activists when they volunteered to comply with Chinese censorship in the first place.

There is some debate as to why Google is pondering leaving the PRC. Some say that it's because rival Chinese search engine Baidu is taking over their market in that country. Regardless of the case, it's a major blow to a country who has often considered itself invincible to foreign criticism over its poor human rights track record. If Google pulls out, it leaves a huge gap in Chinese access to information. China has been aggressively attempting to muzzle anything online that sheds the Communist Party in a bad light, that the government finds immoral (such as pornography or Falun Gong), or inspires reformers and democracy advocates. However, much like in Western nations (such as wired neighbour's South Korea and Japan), the Chinese have come to rely on the convenience and economic benefits that the internet provides. Much of those benefits are provided through companies like Google. Stopping the information flow would be a major setback.

Of course Google leaving does benefit the PRC somewhat, in that they can gain tighter control content through domestic, or even state owned search providers. It's bad for people who were talking advantage of Google's supposed security to hide their pro-democracy and pro-human rights activities. In fact, the Communist Party may end up on top eventually should Google leave. In the mean time, they've exposed themselves wide to attacks from reformers and Western critics after this little international incident. Maybe more will be inspired to oppose the socialist oligarchy that has held an iron grip on the country for 60 years. Now if only other Western IT companies would show the same balls and refuse to bow to censorship, we'd be laughing. I'm looking at you Mr. Gates and Mr. Balmer.

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Organic Food Has No Health Benefits?

Well there's another big shot at the greenies who have been pushing the eat local, eat organic mantra as both a healthier and more eco friendly lifestyle. A large study conducted by the UK's Food Standards Agency has found that organic food showed no difference in nutritional value or evidence of additional health benefits over regular produce. The findings back up a similar study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The Soil Association, a UK based environmental group which promotes sustainable eating is cautioning against the results, regardless of them being proven with proper scientific method by two separate and independent studies. The data also supports an investigation by ABC's 20/20 several years ago (when organic labelled food first started appearing) that examined organic and regular produce for toxins. The small study found that there was little difference and that organics could actually harbour more harmful bacteria. The conclusion, always wash your produce no matter how it was grown.

So why discuss this on a politics blog. Well, organic food has been a bit of a political football lately. Remember the whole fuss over raw milk earlier this year despite countless scientific studies, backed by the UN, which labelled it as a hazardous product? They used the same "less chemicals better for you" line even though pasteurization only heats the milk to kill bacteria and nothing else is added. One of the biggest problems concerning organic food is a lack of regulation. Currently, there are no set laws in Canada and the US which dictate exactly what can and what cannot be labelled organic. Therefore, something could be called organic and may not be. With consumers being asked to pay more for organic food, which has now been proven to have dubious health benefits, it's time to get some labelling regulation in place whether farmers like it or not. The current system is akin to gouging or selling snake oil.

Source: BBC News

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Racism on the Left Part 2: Antisemitism

Jewish groups around the world are claiming instances of antisemitism are on the rise. Traditionally, this sort of behaviour was restricted to neo-Nazis, skin heads, Ku Klux Klansmen, and other white supremacists. Recently, pro-Jew, pro-Israel has moved to a right wing dominant ideology. Liberals style themselves as being tolerant of other religions and ethnicities yet we've seen an increasing number of attacks against Jews by left wing groups. No more has this been seen than in the halls of university and within labour unions. Currently, many universities in Canada are preparing to hold their Israeli Apartheid Weeks, in an effort to compare Israel's treatment of Palestine to blacks in South Africa. The description is incredibly inaccurate but still holds a powerful symbolism for those who participate in such events. However, such events mask strong underlying antisemitism.

Perhaps the most infamous example in recent years has been at York University. Jewish students often complain of harassment and assault on campus by Muslim and left wing students. It's one thing to oppose what a country does but to demonize its citizens to the point of forcing them to hole up in their student office is a blatant hate crime. However, where are the outcries? Where are the students union and Muslim campus club leaders being hauled in front of the human rights commission? There is an incredable double standard when it comes to hate speech in this country that the left openly endorses. Take Mark Styne for example, a Jew, who was forced in front of the kangaroo courts because some Muslims deemed his work to be offensive to their culture. Eventually he was deemed not guilty of anything yet he still spent years defending himself. We have the same Muslim groups crying from the mosque pulpits and university campuses proclaiming that Israel should not exist and that Hitler was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Nobody does anything. Another example was when Ontario CUPE leader Syd Ryan attempted to black list Jewish-Israeli professors from the province's universities over Israels Gaza action in late December. After what I would describe as mild public outcry, his proposal was eventually toned down to those who work with Israeli military institutions. Ryan is a long time provincial NDP and federal Liberal supporter and as left wing as they come. He received wide support for his backlist idea within the union itself until he was told to back off by the national heads of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Ryan did not loose his job as CUPE Ontario president though, nor was he reprimanded in any serious way. If I was running a university and had said that I would not hire Chinese professors because of the PRC's rights record, I would most certainly be called a racist. They would throw me to the dogs and I most certainly would loose my job faster than you can blink an eye. Maybe you could turn a blind eye to Ryan if this was the first time he had done such a thing, but he has a long record of similar slurs.

Of course this is not to say that all left wingers are antisemitic. Within the United States, the Jewish community almost exclusively supports the Democratic Party and Barack Obama has publicly supported Israel. However, there is a rather large faction within predominantly left wing universities and labour unions that are antisemites. They say it takes three people to bully someone. The bully (labour unions, university groups), the victim (Jews), and those who stand idly by while the bully assaults the victim. That last group happens to be mainstream Liberals who let members of their parties and their supporters get away with these actions without saying anything. By creating a double standard, liberals have bred a culture of racism within their own halls. It's time for mainstream liberals to take a long hard look in the mirror if they want to proclaim they are the ones for tolerance of all races and ethnicities. People like Syd Ryan need to be publicly denounced by their mainstream liberal colleagues, followed by having people like him immediately sacked from power.

Update 03/05/09: Michael Ignatiff's guest column in the National Post today echoes what I've said here. So maybe some mainstream liberals are starting to stand up against their far left colleagues.

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Me Fail English?

One of my relatives thought it would be an excellent idea to give me a three month subscription to the Toronto Star for Christmas. The reasoning behind it I later found out was so that she could get a discounted subscription. They can't even give that paper away. Sprawled out on the front page of today's Saturday Star was the headline "Race, Poverty Matter as Early as Grade 3". I didn't read the article since I cannot stand the Star but it did have a chart breaking down literacy between race and family income. The chart examined the pass rates for the grade 3 literacy test. Top performers were East Asians (Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean) with 68% pass rates. Whites and South Asians (Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Sri Lankan) tied for second place with 60%, and South-East Asians (Thai, Filipino, Malay, Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, Indonesian, Singaporean) rounded out third with 55%. At the bottom of the list were blacks (43%), Middle Easterners (40%) and Latinos (37%) rounded out the bottom three. For income, those with parents over $100,000 had a 66% pass rate while those with parents making less than $30,000 had a 47% pass rate.

The Star of course is trying once again to stir the race and class war pot, as social democrats are inclined to do to keep themselves relevant. There's a whole lot of arguments that can be made here, such as systemic racism by whites is keeping blacks behind while "Islamophobia" is holding Muslims back. Or that poorer people cannot afford school supples and books. I guess poor people have never heard of a library. (They loan you books, for free!) However, there is one huge problem that the Star completely misses, and that is that on average half of Toronto third graders can't read! That is alarming considering that this is a first world country with a properly funded education system. Typically, people like the Star would blame Mike Harris, despite the fact he hasn't been premier for some seven years now. When these children started school, the self styled "education premier" Dalton McGuinty had already been in power for two years. Obviously the education system is failing our students. Of course I still remember my first hand experience with this. I was never taught how to write an essay properly until grade 12 when I finally had a teacher intelligent enough to show me. Children are forced to deal with vague instruction and lack of help from lazy educators and even lazier parents. Ironically, after all those years of getting bad marks on high school papers, it turned out to be my strongest skill in university. Earlier, my weakness in math was blamed on attention deficit disorder. Of course I didn't have it, and once again poor educators were to blame. All I needed was better motivation and my parents pushed me to do better. I learned that I had to only rely on myself. When things went wrong, I was the only one to blame, and that made things easier. When I think back to my school days, I had a startling number of really bad teachers who had no business in that profession.

What about the race aspect though. Why are 20% fewer backs able to read than whites are? A lot of it has to do with culture. African-American culture doesn't exactly encourage its members to excell, just the opposite. They're fed the same old garbage that whites are always going to keep them down so therefore there's no point in trying. As much as I dislike Obama, one has to admit he is a well read individual and I have known many other blacks who are the same. Why are they excelling while they others aren't. Simple; their parents pushed them to do so. If you are constantly told you'll never make something of yourself and that's somebody else's fault, you're going to start believing that. Then again, that's what liberals do, and is why the Star is framing the story this way. According to them, when you or your children fail, it's always somebody else's fault, never yours. By using this thought process, the black community is sabatoging the future of its own youth. The same goes for Latinos and Middle Eastern kids. By the same token, there's still the issue that less than two thirds of white kids can read, yet they're supposed to be the ones in society's good graces getting the best of everything. How well one does in school has nothing to do with their race or parental income; it has everything to do with their drive to succeed. We're seeing these numbers because parents and educators are failing to encourage students to do well. Race based schools won't fix this problem, but hiring better educators who are dedicated to those they teach will. Somebody just needs to give these kids a good swift kick up the backside.

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The Why Files: School Bans Oh Canada

Every so often, I come across news stories regarding strange rules or behaviour and I just have to ask myself "why?" In the first of what I hope will be a continuing series, lets head over to New Brunswick and to Belleisle Elementary School where the principal has scrapped the daily tradition of singing Oh Canada before classes.

A principal's decision to eliminate the morning tradition of singing O Canada at a tiny New Brunswick school has sparked outrage among parents across the country and renewed a heated debate about the encroachment of political correctness in the classroom.

Principal Erik Millett of Belleisle Elementary School in Springfield, N.B., a small community about 90 kilometres southeast of Fredericton, scrapped the morning ritual in the summer of 2007, citing concerns from several parents. But the issue failed to gain much notice until this week, after a mother complained about the policy to local media.

The debate has since traveled to the upper echelons of government, drawing a sharp rebuke from federal Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson, who said publicly he views Mr. Millett's decision as an assault on a proud tradition.

For his part, Mr. Millett has stood firm behind his decision, offering a myriad of reasons for nixing the morning anthem - most notably the effort to accommodate parents who did not want their children taking part. Citing privacy reasons, he has not explained the source of the parents' objections, whether religious or otherwise.

"Is it right or is it fair for children who are not allowed to sing the anthem to be forced to?" Mr. Millett asked in an interview with the Telegraph-Journal newspaper. "Different families have different beliefs.... It's not up to me as a school administrator to subject kids to something their parents don't want them exposed to. I have to protect the minority rights as well as the majority rights." --National Post Thursday January 29th, 2009

Well, this is certainly odd as I cannot find anything possibly offensive about singing our national anthem. I do know that New Brunswick does have a sizable francophone population but I was unaware of any strong separatist movement existing there, so that rules out that as reasoning. Maybe it has to do with immigrants being offended by it, to which I ask "why are you even in this country if you don't like what it stands for." Most likely, it's political correctness run amok and creating victims of "offensive" content where none exist. For making a fool of himself for the tireless practise of trying to hard to be inoffensive, Erik Millet, you're being inducted into the Idiots Hall of Shame.

I'm also adding Google to the Idiots Hall of Shame because of the way Blogger handles bold and italics. Why is it I can't turn off italics after I've written something using it. I hit the button to turn it off, it shows it is unselected, yet it continues to write in italics. Could somebody please fix this?! Blogger has been a bit squirrely lately, which is why some of the text layout in my recent posts looks off.

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Remember, These People Are Professionals...

It's been two years since I wrote a piece mocking academics for being out of touch with modern society. I think the York University strike by teaching assistants and contract staff has only reinforced my negative view point of academia. The Canadian Union of Public Employees has become Canada's second most powerful union. It is perhaps only superseded by the wealthy Ontario Teachers Federation. At one time, people only entered the public service out of a sense of duty, or that was the only job one could get. People never joined the public service to make money. Now, it seems that notion has done a complete 180. Today, public employees are some of the best paid workers in the country, have iron clad job security, and benefits even most can only dream of. Still, that's not enough for these people. It seems like every time their contracts go up, they go to the bargaining table, turn down lucrative new contracts, fain outrage, and go on strike. In the end, they're forced back to work by the legislature and end up getting their exorbitant demands. This is exactly what has been going on at York U, where striking staff refused a 9% pay increase when most of us will be lucky to see a raise at all. Of course you get the same pithy slogans about the strike not being about money and that they're fighting for something bigger, like more funding for post secondary institutions. Please. Is that the best they can do? The strikers at York U have effectively held students hostage. They have become the real victims in a fight about pure greed. It's extortion. The legislature is now debating back to work legislation, which CUPE has determined to fight since it would effectively end their scheme. Of course, we get another pithy slogan about that fight will protect all unions since any big corporation will just be able to get parliament to force striking workers back on the job.

Of course, all these slogans and actions we've seen and heard a million times. Today, CUPE's job action reached a new low. Today, four CUPE members during a march to Queens Park to protest the back to work legislation allegedly assaulted Toronto Police officers. Eye witness reports noted that police were trying to keep a lane free for emergency vehicles, which is standard proceedure in these situations. The strikers kept repeatedly moving into the lane when police moved in to corral them. An altercation broke out where witnesses said the strikers attacked first. Of course, CUPE is claiming police brutality and that they had done nothing wrong. I believe the union did this deliberately to make a political statement. This is a typical protest tactic that you see at G8 summits. However, there's a big difference here. These people are supposed to be professional academics. Does refusing orders to keep a lane free for safety reasons and assaulting police sound professional to you? Remember that these are the same people who are educating the next generation. This move will most certainly backfire on the union. York's reputation has already been severely tarnished by the strike and this is just another black eye. The university has already seen enrollment drop by 25% for the 2009/2010 school year. If enrollment and revenue declines, the university will have no choice but to lay off staff. In doing this, CUPE has effectively cut off its nose to spite their face. Though the allegations have not been proven in court, the university would be wise to fire the employees who were involved in the altercation.

The altercation is not simply a black eye on York or even CUPE alone but one on academia as a whole. Academics have always been radicals, or at least for the last fourty years. Take Bill Ayres for example. However, it is generally expected that professional people do not act in a violent manner towards other human beings, no matter who they are. On one hand you've always had academics proclaiming to be passificts, then you have them attacking police. These actions drag down the public perception of their entire profession. This is why I believe the government has to take swift action against CUPE and make an example out of them. This behaviour is not appropriate.

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Message to York U Students: Sue CUPE

For the years I spent in university, the students' union complained to no end about high tuition fees. Indeed, education today is a vary expensive prospect no matter where you go to school. Now imagine you fork out $5000 or more in tuition and are suddenly forced out of class by TAs on an unjust labour strike. That would leave your blood boiling. Well, that's exactly what's happening at York University, where apparently the working conditions (in a fully heated and air conditioned building with comfy offices) border on being Dickensian. The TAs are fighting for better benefits and the university has already tabled a vary generous 9%+ raise over three years. During this recession, most of the real world will be lucky to get a raise at all over that period, let alone 9%. Of course you get the usual BS that it's not just about money but we all know it is. It just proves how decadent the public services unions have become that they have the gall to strike over such petty things when people are loosing their jobs left right and centre, with thousands more unable to find work at all. It just shows that they live in a total fantasy world.

The Ontario government tabled legislation today to force the striking workers back on the job. However, Howard Hampton has chosen to filibuster the bill, which is highly irresponsible. Ironically, students are one of the NDP's biggest constituencies, which Hampton has effectively alienated. Many students struggle to pay for education and now that money they paid for a service they didn't receive is gone forever. It is a breech of contract in my opinion between students and the university & instructors. The province has promised to increase student loans to the affected students. However, saddling them with even more debt is not a solution. It does not look like McGuinty is going to provide any real aid. My advice to York students would be to launch a class action law suit against the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE has to be punished for stealing the education and money from hard working students. The union should pay back every penny owned to students for holding them hostage. A successful suit would set a powerful precedent, making unions think twice about going on frivolous strikes, which this one is.

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Are Study Groups Cheating? Ryerson Says Yes

Today, Ryerson university decided not to expel a first year engineering student for hosting a Facebook study group that was allegedly used by students to cheat on assignments. However, the university is still imposing academic penalties on the student, who will loose 20% of his year over this fiasco. You can read more details in the newspapers. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe this student has grounds for a lawsuit to get his 20% back. The whole incident also exposes who far behind the most "progressive" institutions are in this country.

Sites like Wikipedia and Facebook are popular among university students. The latter is a social networking site. Recently, many students have been setting up Facebook study groups to discuss notes and assignments without actually having to meet. Gone are the days of the long hours in the small rooms at the library, though universities haven't seemed to realize that yet. I don't use social networking sites, but I can't side with the university on this issue. It's absolutely ridiculous and a colossal waste of time on Ryerson's part. How is such a group any different from the students meeting at the library and working on the assignment together? According to them, this is cheating too but those groups aren't the ones being attacked. It's also worth noting that this particular student had only started the group and wasn't responsible for the posts in question. Seems to me he is just being made the black sheep. In my opinion, no academic offense was committed here. The university acted irresponsibly and should be made to reimburse this student's year, the money he spent fighting this, plus extra for them having sullied his good name. The whole issues just shows how technologically backwards today's academic institutions are in this day and age. Sure, they have all the latest gear but they're scared to death of it, and are hysterical students will use it to cheat. I think acts like this are punishing the majority for a small handful of people who would have cheated whether the technology was there or not.

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Afro-Centric Schools: TDSB's Jim Crow

It's ironic on the month that people in the US are celebrating his life, Dr Martin Luther King Jr must be turning in his grave. On Tuesday night, the Toronto District School Board, in an 11-9 vote approved of afro-centric schools. The pilot project will begin with three schools in September 2009. It's ironic that this decision was made by a socialist board that vocally advocated egalitarianism in every other issue.

This whole thing just boggles the mind. So we're going to take black kids out of the regular schools, place them in a school with only black kids, then put them in the real world back with everybody else and hope they do okay? Mind you, the United Stated ran a similar program in the south-east. Unfortunately, the program was ended in the 1960s due to those racist civil rights activists who demanded that black people shouldn't receive special treatment. The difference here is that all kids can go to these schools, in theory. In reality, we know that parents of children of other races will not likely enroll their kids in an afro-centric school.

The message I'm getting from the TDSB is that black kids are indeed inferior to kids of other races. This is why they need special treatment focusing on their special needs. It's almost as it the TDSB is dealing with bunch or retards. This plan reeks of Jim Crow even though it was developed with the best of intentions. As the old adage goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Not only is this "un-Canadian" in our supposedly multi-cultural society, the big question now is where does it stop? Will we now have to have Asian based schools, or Indian based schools? John Tory was chastised by the Liberals in the last provincial election for wanting to bring public funding to religious schools. Now the TDSB brings public funding to race based schools and the Liberals seem to be okay with it. This once again exposes McGuinty as the weak leader he is. If he truly practiced what he preached in the last election, the province would have shut this plan down as soon as the vote was tallied. McGuinty has said he will not allow these schools to open in any other boards but that does not go nearly far enough.

Once again, the afro-centric schools are a left wing band-aid solution to a major problem. As I have said, the problem I believe with black youth is internal to their own culture. Just ask people like Bill Cosby who has been saying that for years but usually gets ignored or called an "elitist". They've bought into this lie, developed by their own people no less, that they are unable to compete with whites due to systematic racism. These schools only further reinforce such a lie. To not live in the ghetto, poor and uneducated is not the "black way". Afro-centric schools don't help because the real world is not Afro-centric. It doesn't matter if the black person ends up working for a white person, or an Asian, or an Indian. Your culture means squat when you get out into the actual working world. I really don't see how these schools are going to serve these kids, or ensure their success after graduation. They may reduce dropouts, but they're setting them up for unrealistic expectations in the future. Only the black community can solve it's internal problems and these schools are not part of that solution.

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Religious School Funding a Bad Idea

I think this is one of the first election's I've experienced where I did not know who to vote for. It seems that all three candidates running for the major parties are poor. I usually vote conservative but John Tory has struck a nerve with me on the issue of religion and schools. I consider myself a secular conservative, a Libertarian Republican to borrow a US term.

I strongly believe that church and state should be separated. To use an extreme example, take a look at Iran of pre-2001 Afghanistan. The merging of church and state clearly has been a negative for those countries. Here we try to keep them apart, and so we should. That is why Tory's plan to extend funding to faith based schools bothers me. There are two reasons why it does. First of all, why do we need multiple education systems when the public system is fine as it is. School is supposed to prepare one for higher education or the job market, not for religious instruction. That's what church is supposed to be for. I have been a strong opponent of the Catholic school system for that reason. I'm not one of these people who wants "God" removed out of every government context like many atheists in the US however, I don't think its unreasonable to keep it out of schools. This is yet another case of multiculturalism run amok. This country spends way too much time and effort trying to please everyone, which is impossible.

Secondly, there are also numerous economic factors that make this a huge problem. The Ontario government spends a huge chunk of the budget on public education. Despite what Liberals and teachers would have you believe, it is a very well funded system. However, full funding to faith based schools would put a serious strain on the budget. Now you may be saying "But Mike, I choose which school I pay for through my property taxes." Maybe so but 100% of education is not funded that way. Most money goes into a single pot and is dolled out according to what these schools "need". They'll all want new buildings, their own texts, supplies, hire their own staff, etc. to fulfill their "special needs" as a faith based institution. All that costs money, money that has to come from somewhere. By doing this, we will cheapen the public system and then we really will have funding issues. I don't like the idea of my tax dollars going to fund a system that supports something I don't believe in. My tax dollars don't fund the local church or mosque. Why should they go to find religious schools?

Yet another thing regarding religion and schools mentioned by Tory as also upset me. He supports creationism in schools. In an article with the Toronto Sun, he noted that he supports evolution as part of the Ontario curriculum but also would like to see students learn about the alternatives. The problem with these "alternatives" is that they have absolutely no scientific merit. Where are we, Kansas? Evolution is a proven scientific theory. Creationism, or intelligent design, or what ever the hell you want to call it has no place in public schools.

I want Mike Harris back.

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