By: Patrick Leclerc

I don’t know about you but when I hear that elections are coming up, I immediately become anxious. This anxiety isn’t fear by any means, it’s more an unsettling feeling that nobody really knows what they’re voting for. The most recent elections seem evident of exactly that.

Many students seem to be voting without knowing what they are supporting. Students may vote for one side merely so that the opposing side does not get into power.

For example, there are those claiming that they will vote for literally anyone but the current premier, Kathleen Wynne. The issue is that, as far as I’ve seen, that nobody has been doing their research. I’m not advocating that you should all go out and vote for Wynne, I’m arguing exactly the opposite of that.

We should all be doing our research. A quick search would even suffice to an extent. Every party’s political platform ends up online relatively quickly after they announce that they’re running,

For a democracy to work well, everyone should vote. As far as this, we shouldn’t vote for someone just because we don’t like the other candidates. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve met many people who say they’ll vote for the opposition of a certain party just because they don’t agree with the party in question. This could lead to politically inept people being put into power or you could be voting for someone whose actual policies you don’t agree with.

These kinds of things happen because people don’t look up policies, or maybe because some students don’t understand why one vote matters. Though the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance has been working on projects that help students understand the importance of voting and how to do so, at this time, election awareness along with these campaigns should be increased. When students don’t understand why their vote matters or for students who are not accustomed to voting in Canada how voting happens, we lose some valuable voices of students in politics.

We should all be doing our research. A quick search would even suffice to an extent. Every party’s political platform ends up online relatively quickly after they announce that they’re running, though there are many issues with researching a party platform online.

I believeone of the biggest issues of them all is clickbait. By clickbait, I’m mostly talking about titles of articles that can be misconstrued. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose looked at a juicy title of an article and made an assumption based on the content of a poorly supported, but sometimes convincing article.

Unfortunately, clickbait is where a lot of voters’ “political knowledge” comes from. The best way to avoid issues like this is to go directly to the party’s website or any official Canadian government website. I know it sounds tedious, but I think the only way for voters to get an actual stance on who they’re voting for is to interpret a party’s policies by themselves, without any biased sources to change their minds.

Biases are an increasingly evident issue in media as far as I see. As mentioned earlier, the media tends to overblow their titles. Specific outlets even have evident political biases. Fox News, for example, is inherently Republican, which though many us know this, some do not. These sources tend to focus on the personalities of politicians instead of important matters like platforms and policies. Media sources should be showing voters the things they’re voting for and not the personality presenting it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is to go out and vote. Do your research, understand what you want and vote for that. Don’t find yourself voting for a personality or because you don’t like the opposition. Democracy is fair when everyone votes for who they believe will be the right person to lead them.

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Sarah O'Connor
Staff Reporter

University classes encourage students to think critically and advocate for what they believe in. But for one Mac student, this advocacy continues outside the classroom.

Olivia Fasullo, a first-year student, noticed while working at part-time at Fresh Co. that GST was being placed on diapers, formula and feminine hygiene products while ice cream, coffee and other dessert items were tax free. This inspired Fasullo into starting a petition to eliminate the GST from all formula, diapers, and feminine hygiene products, because they are a necessity and right to all women and babies in Canada.

Having originally pursued the subject as an independent project in her Women’s Studies class, Fasullo has been hard at work to move her petition beyond the classroom.

Her activist group is called Tax Free Timbits, inspired by the fact that Timbits are tax-free while feminine hygiene products, formula and diapers aren’t. She has contacted numerous MPs and MPPs seeking support, and got Hamilton mayor Bob Bratina to sign her petition.

By Oct. 25, Fasullo had around 150-200 signatures and hopes to expand that to 5,000-10,000 signatures. While she has had luck in McMaster community some surprising obstacles have attempted to block her way.

“One person tried to make it a class issue saying that ‘maybe for poor women this is an issue but for rich women I don’t feel bad that they have to pay tax because they can afford it,’” Fasullo explained of one person who refused cheapest viagra prices to sign her petition.

“I said that rich men can pay for tax on their coffee, but don’t, so it’s not really a class issue, [but] an issue of dignity and necessity.”

Fiona Gordon, another first-year student helping with the petition, speculated as to why there was low student support.

“Perhaps they don’t understand the further implications of our goals,” she said.  “Perhaps they think that our goal is narrow and has negative implications of other aspects of the economy.”

On Oct. 19, Fasullo attended the leadership conference hosted by the Hamilton Young Liberals at McMaster and was able to speak with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

Fasullo explained the petition to Wynne, who stated that she didn’t think it was appropriate to sign.

“The idea to have politicians sign the petition is more difficult than I assumed,” Fasullo said.

“I naïvely thought that perhaps this issue was simply overlooked which may not be the case. But some politicians simply don’t want to sign it simply for putting their name on it.”

If Fasullo can get up to 5,000-10,000 signatures for her petition, it may be read at the House of Commons.

Women perform 66 per cent of the world’s work, receive 11 per cent of the world’s income, and own 1 per cent of the world’s land.

It was with that sobering statistic put forth by Kim Crosby, feminist advocate and keynote speaker that the 2013 Leadership Summit for generic viagra with echeck Women kicked off in MDCL on McMaster’s campus on the rainy morning of Saturday, Oct. 19.

This was the third year of the conference, which has grown tremendously in size since its modest 2011 inauguration in a simple classroom setting. This year, the conference featured two keynote speakers, a panel discussion, two rounds of workshops, a luncheon and a pledge-sharing period.

As the first speaker, Kim Crosby set a thoughtful and empowering tone for the rest of the day’s proceedings. She was particularly interested in recognizing the many forms of leadership that women are involved in, and lamented our lack of vocabulary and respect for the quiet, nurturing forms of female leadership.

“Our language is so inherently biased against women that there aren’t a lot of words to talk about the nuances about the ways that we build communities [as leaders],” she said.

“When I think about what women’s leadership looks like, recognizing [and looking past oppressive barriers shows that women] are being leaders all over the place,” she continued. “In every landmass, women are actually doing an enormous amount of work to take care of themselves, their communities, and their families. The fact that they’re not being affirmed or valued or recognized is part what I’m asking us to think about today.”

Most importantly, Crosby implored the audience to think about how “some of the work we need to do isn’t just about creating more space for women’s leadership, but actually acknowledging it where it’s already happening.”

Crosby talked for nearly an hour about colonization, being an ally, her practice of feminism, and the importance of women working together in their communities to create change.

The workshops in the second half of the day addressed a wide variety of topics, from gender-based violence in the workplace, to women and political activism, to “dudes and feminism” and beyond. Eleven unique workshops were offered, of which participants were invited to attend two.

All of the workshops were lead by notable women – and men – in their field. Steph Guthrie, founder of Women in Toronto Politics and recent TEDxToronto speaker, lead a session on thoughtfully curating and being aware of one’s online presence. Hamilton Spectator columnists Evelyn Myrie and Susan Clairmont talked to their workshop group about women’s voices in the media. Sandy Shaw, Director of Corporate Responsibility for First Ontario Credit Union spoke about female mentorship and networking.

Such themes of self-assertion and working together were reiterated by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s concluding keynote address. Wynne spoke primarily about empowering women, as well as about Ontario’s skilled trades issues and problems sustaining the Canadian Pension Plan.

“We need to start to shift our notion of who are our leaders,” she said. “That’s why this discussion is important. So I’m going to keep doing my part to challenge the perceptions that undermine women and [promote] ideals of fairness and equality because I don’t want young women to shy away from leadership roles. I want them to embrace them.”

Wynne talked for approximately 20 minutes and then entertained a series of critical questions. Wynne received an especially enthusiastic round of applause for her comments on the old women’s issue of prioritizing children versus careers.

“My resume’s got a big gap in it. But it wasn’t a gap, it was when I was learning the most important lessons of my life because I was raising my three kids,” she said to cheers from the crowd. “I wouldn’t be who I am without that experience and so I think it’s really important that … we value childrearing and family involvement – whether it’s men or women – as we evaluate people’s capacity to do politics.”

Despite a talk heavy on politics and low on personality, it was with statements such as this that Wynne resonated with the crowd.

While it’s hard to know what tangible actions and personal inspiration will stem from such an event, the Summit certainly addressed its mandate of redefining, redistributing and revolutionizing female leadership.

Sponsorship and Logistics Coordinator, and MSU Vice-President (Administration) Anna D'Angela is confident about the positive impact the day had on the present women's lives.

"I hope that this conference allowed women to reflect on how they are leaders now (because I believe in some way, shape or form we are all leaders) while providing them an opportunity to learn and grow," she said. "I hope it gives them the confidence to reach their full potential and make a positive change for themselves and their community."

 

On Oct. 19, the Hamilton Young Liberals hosted a leadership conference at McMaster. The aim of the day, said HYL president Waleed Aslam, was “to leave here inspired, to get involved, [and] to make a difference.”

The event, which took place in Convocation Hall, welcomed a collection of guests, opening with a series of Liberal candidates for MPP based in the Hamilton area.

Ivan Luksic, one such candidate for the riding of Hamilton East/Stoney Creek, and a Mac alumnus, suggested that students consider leadership from a different perspective.

“When I look at leaders, I don’t look at those who inspired humanity in history,” he explained. “I look at the more personal ones—my parents.”

One of the featured invitees of the afternoon was Hamilton mayor Bob Bratina. He spoke of the importance of getting involved in the political process, citing his own change of career as an example.

“What I found of 45 years in broadcasting was that I had so many things I was interested in, so many ideals…and for the most part, nothing really happened until you get into the political sphere,” he explained.

“So no matter the ideals, the concrete projects we might have in mind…nothing gets done without the political process.”

Before becoming mayor of the city in 2010, Bratina had a career as a radio broadcaster, hosting talk shows and acting as a commentator in sports. He initially became involved in politics as a city councillor representing Ward 2 in 2004.

Premier Kathleen Wynne served as the keynote speaker for the event, arriving late to Convocation Hall after having presented at the Leadership Summit for Women, also on campus on Saturday afternoon.

While the two-hour event was themed around leadership, Wynne took a more partisan angle, offering justification for the Liberal government’s economic strategies.

“[I want to talk] about how we’re going to be building Ontario up, because I think that’s a distinguishing characteristic between us and what’s happening on the other side of the floor,” she told the audience. “[Their strategy] is to some extent tearing Ontario down, talking about what can’t happen as opposed to what can.”

Wynne also echoed the appreciation of the previous speakers for the already-committed Hamilton Young Liberals in the room, in a move that was likely welcomed by the group but may have felt alienating to other audience members, who included a variety of students and community members.

“You’re also critical to the way we think about our policies,” she said.

“I want you to understand that the ideas you put forward are things we want to act on, we need to act on,” she explained, citing the province’s 30 per cent tuition rebate as an example.

“I know the Young Liberals have been hugely important in all our campaigns and will continue to be,” she said, later joking, “We don’t want you just because your joints are good.”

Left: Sandra Pupatello (campaign photo), Right: Kathleen Wynne (Silhouette file photo)

Post-secondary education has flown under the radar in the Ontario Liberal leadership race, to be decided next weekend.

While all of the candidates have identified paying down the deficit and creating jobs as economic priorities for Ontario, it’s not as clear how each plans to tackle the education sector, especially at the post-secondary level.

Of the six candidates who entered the race, only two released a separate statement on post-secondary education, and one of them has dropped out of the race.

After last weekend’s polling, Sandra Pupatello leads Kathleen Wynne among delegates, 504 to 463. The race is expected to end in a push to the end between the two.

Pupatello, a former Windsor MPP and education minister who chose not to run for re-election last year, is focusing on four issues: Northern Ontario, jobs and the economy, rural Ontario and social policy.

Like many other candidates, Pupatello has not directly addressed post-secondary education, but expressed that she wants to return to collective bargaining with teachers at the primary and secondary level.

Wynne, a Toronto MPP and former education minister, released her platform on post-secondary education last week.

Wynne wants to set up a youth advisory council similar to the one she established when she was the Minister of Education. The council would comprise representatives from student associations, Aboriginal youth, as well as those who have not pursued a post-secondary education.

On her promise to create more work and internship opportunities for students, Wynne said, “the labour force and the labour market don’t match.”

Gerard Kennedy, Harinder Takhar and Eric Hoskins have also responded to rising levels of youth unemployment, promising to create incentives for businesses to hire youth. However, they did not address quality of education in their platforms.

Regarding tuition, which has become particularly contentious in Ontario following the student protests in Quebec, Wynne said a sustained funding model with no cuts would be more realistic than tuition freezes or reductions.

“We have sustained funding set aside for education. What we won’t necessarily be able to do is increase funding,” said Wynne.

“I worry about loss of access if the government has to subsidize certain groups and not others,” said Wynne.

Glen Murray, former Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities who was first to enter the race, withdrew his bid last Thursday to endorse Wynne.

Before leaving the race, Murray proposed a radical ‘no money down tuition’ plan that would require payment based on income levels after graduation.

CFS-Ontario has repeatedly lobbied for province-wide tuition cuts, and expressed dissent for Murray’s plan. OUSA, an undergraduate student alliance representing McMaster, does not intend to take a stance on the candidates.

Given the heated debates that have arisen over youth unemployment and tuition hikes, why aren’t more candidates talking about post-secondary education?

Alex Sevigny, a McMaster communications professor who has worked as an advisor in three Liberal campaigns in Hamilton, says post-secondary education hasn’t been a salient issue in the provincial race because “it hasn’t been made a big issue.”

Teachers at the primary and secondary level, on the other hand, have elicited more of a response. They are also a big force in the delegates who will be voting, noted Sevigny.

“College and university professors have a less cohesive presence in the voting body within delegates,” he added.

Sevigny, who has worked with Liberal MPPs Judy Marsales, Ted McMeekin and Gerard Kennedy, now endorses Kennedy for Ontario Premier.

“Party renewal is a major concern of this leadership race, and so is the economy,” said Sevigny. “So far it’s been a very collaborative race. Whoever wins will be using portions of other candidates’ ideas.”

“We’re all Liberals but we have different priorities,” said Wynne, who has been vocal about her willingness to collaborate. “Investment in education has to be part of our policy.”

The question is how much investment will be made, how funds will be used, and to what extent post-secondary education will become a priority in the shadow of economic concerns.