I want to answer two simple questions by way of introduction to this meeting: why are we having this meeting? and what group is running this meeting?

UofT has some unique concerns about this discussion paper we want to raise to you, Minister. Our provost has said this paper has some interesting ideas but ...]]> Here’s how Jonathan Scott, president of the UofT Liberals, began the meeting of the St George Roundtable and other campus organisations with Minister Glen Murray at our discussion today on the post-secondary-education paper:

I want to answer two simple questions by way of introduction to this meeting: why are we having this meeting? and what group is running this meeting?

UofT has some unique concerns about this discussion paper we want to raise to you, Minister. Our provost has said this paper has some interesting ideas but also some bad ones for UofT.

Now, why is a Liberal campus president hosting a meeting to raise these concerns? Well, first of all, I have a long history of advocating for UofT personally, both as a head of Trinity College and president of the English Students’ Union. And more generally, part of being a Young Liberal is playing a substantive role in policy discussions, advancing an agenda to our own party and government.

And there is a substantive discussion to have — but such discussion most be a dialogue that is equal and fair. As you well know, Minister, previous attempts to have a dialogue have not been equal and have been less effective than they need to be. We want to not only speak to you, we want to speak with you. Hopefully, this meeting will correct the cynicism that saw your opportunity to participate equally at the town hall last month revoked at the last minute.

In arranging this meeting, I reached out to the most representative group on campus, the St George Roundtable. Now, it’s a newer group but one that has a long legacy under different iterations.

The SGRT is by far the most democratically representative group at UofT. The student leaders it brings together are chosen in elections with the highest voter turnout on campus. These student leaders run colleges, faculties and often residences, so unlike other groups on campus, they have a constant sense of the pulse of student concerns, rather than blind ideology. I hope you find this group useful and can consult with it in future, Minister, because no group at UofT better speaks for UofT students.

So, let’s talk about the discussion paper in a substantive, constructive way.

NB: the paper is online here.

• We provided the Liberal Party of Canada with over 1000 potential supporters, signing up 500 directly during frosh week! • We hosted an excellent discussion panel with Canadian journalists, Liberal strategist Amanda Alvaro and LPC president Mike Crawley called “The Upright Centre: Third Party Problems”. Video will be up soon. • We had our first general meeting, electing two great first-year reps and a back-to-school pub night with the Trinity-Spadina Liberals. • We had a great discussion event with the Queer Young Liberals and ...]]> What we’ve done lately:

• We provided the Liberal Party of Canada with over 1000 potential supporters, signing up 500 directly during frosh week!
• We hosted an excellent discussion panel with Canadian journalists, Liberal strategist Amanda Alvaro and LPC president Mike Crawley called “The Upright Centre: Third Party Problems”. Video will be up soon.
• We had our first general meeting, electing two great first-year reps and a back-to-school pub night with the Trinity-Spadina Liberals.
• We had a great discussion event with the Queer Young Liberals and Dr Rob Oliphant on LGBTQ rights during the queer orientation at UofT.
• We were on the ground in the election campaigns in September, volunteering in Montreal’s Laurier-Dorion for the Parti liberal du Quebec, in Kitchener-Waterloo and Vaughan for the Ontario Liberal Party, and in Virginia and North Carolina for Obama for America!
• Our executive members – including Jonathan Scott, Taylor Scollon, Alex Byrne, Devyn Noonan, Tanya Kuzman and Kaleem Hawa – have been defending Liberal values in print, on tv and online, including in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, iPolitics, The Vaughan Citizen, The Bradford West Gwillimbury Times, The Varsity, The Prince Arthur Herald, The UTM Medium, on CTV and Sun News, and on our Change2Win blog.
• We brought a full bus of UofT Liberals to hear Justin Trudeau launch his leadership campaign in Mississauga.
• We helped host an excellent discussion with Senator Romeo Dallaire, Senator Art Eggleton and Martha Hall Findlay on R2P with Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights.

What we’re planning:

• We’re looking forward to our inaugural UofT Liberals’ lecture with a distinguished Liberal MP from an academic background in November.
• We’re planning a monthly speaker series with policymakers, pundits and politicians – including leadership candidates – called Monday Musings, which will also launch in the November, led by the Trinity College Liberals.
• We’re working with UofT Liberal alumni to organise a major club fundraiser. Details are coming soon with the fundraiser to be held in the New Year.

It was bad enough that the Harper Government refused to fund abortion services in poor nations. It was worse when Stephen Woodworth brought forward the now-infamous Motion 312. But yesterday’s news that Rona Ambrose, the Minister for the Status of Women, voted in favour of Woodworth’s motion is nothing short of appalling.

We live in a nation that supposedly values gender equality. ...]]> The Conservative Party of Canada has subtly declared war on women. This may seem like a hyperbolic statement, but I assure you that it’s not.

It was bad enough that the Harper Government refused to fund abortion services in poor nations. It was worse when Stephen Woodworth brought forward the now-infamous Motion 312. But yesterday’s news that Rona Ambrose, the Minister for the Status of Women, voted in favour of Woodworth’s motion is nothing short of appalling.

We live in a nation that supposedly values gender equality. It is important, however, to remember that women and men are not inherently the same: women become pregnant and men don’t. Eighteen-year-old boys will never become pregnant before they’re emotionally and financially ready to raise a child. Men in the workplace will never risk having their careers delayed or hindered by pregnancy. Anyone who thinks we’ve achieved gender equality carte blanche is deluded, because sameness is, at a certain point, physically impossible.

Because gender equality isn’t natural, it is the duty of the state to nurture it. The only way to ensure that women have equality of opportunity with men is to ensure legal access to birth control. Without reproductive rights, women are systematically disadvantaged, both in the work place, and in general. Any Conservative – or Liberal, for that matter – who claims to believe both in foetal rights and gender equality clearly hasn’t thought their position through very carefully: sorry, but you can only pick one to place first.

So, then, when the Minister for the Status of Women votes in favour of a motion that, whatever its supporters might say, is rooted in criminalizing abortion, we should all be very worried. The Minister for women’s rights has voted, essentially, against the very gender equality she is supposed to protect. I doubt I’m alone when I say that I feel Ms. Ambrose should resign from her position immediately; I also feel, however, that she was not yesterday’s most disappointing MP.

Part of responsible partisanship is admitting when your party makes a mistake. Our party’s stance on gender equality is clear: we believe in and will fight for women’s rights. Delegates to our Biennial Convention overwhelming affirmed a woman’s right to choose. As a party, we should have used Motion 312 as an opportunity to take a firm, unequivocal and univeral stance on abortion. I admit I am disappointed in that the Liberal Party of Canada, the very party that introduced gender equality into the Charter, refused to make its pro-choice position universal within our caucus.

Nonetheless, Motion 312 is behind us, but the fight for women’s rights continues. As the Conservative Party of Canada continues to subtly diminish gender equality, Liberals must be prepared to fight back. Let’s hope that next time another misogynistic Tory motion comes forth, we fight it strongly as a unified party.

—
By Devyn Noonan
Devyn is Women’s Issues Director for the UofT Liberals.

Tomorrow, the UTSU is hosting an “emergency” town hall on the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ discussion paper on post-secondary education.

A discussion paper is simply that: a chance to discuss ideas. It is not an official government policy but a tool to solicit feedback from stakeholders.

Minister Glen Murray was invited to speak at the forum and to engage in a discussion.

However, the day before the event, the UTSU informed the ...]]> The University of Toronto Students’ Union isn’t interested in dialogue. This should worry you.

Tomorrow, the UTSU is hosting an “emergency” town hall on the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ discussion paper on post-secondary education.

A discussion paper is simply that: a chance to discuss ideas. It is not an official government policy but a tool to solicit feedback from stakeholders.

Minister Glen Murray was invited to speak at the forum and to engage in a discussion.

However, the day before the event, the UTSU informed the Minister he was no longer invited to speak but could only attend the meeting as an observer.

There cannot be discussion if there is not a chance to both listen and respond. Furthermore, this tactic of changing an agreement at the last minute is a outrageous ploy by the Union to avoid dialogue – much like scheduling an all-candidates’ debate at the last minute, as they did in the controversial and conflict-ridden elections last spring.

The UTSU is not interested in discussion. They are simply interested in a sham forum to advance their “free-lunch” ideology that any tuition is bad tuition. Their childish policy positions should worry you, as should their duplicitous tactics.

Tomorrow is also Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. That an organisation purporting to be about access would be so disrespectful to Jewish students as to exclude them from a town-hall meeting is insulting and appalling. This too should worry you.

On Yom Kippur, it looks like the UTSU has a lot to atone for.

Premier McGuinty is the most electorally successful Liberal in Canada.

But our Liberal government is more than just successful at the ballot box. It’s the most progressive government in Canada today.

That’s worth fighting for.

I worked as a high-school student with Minister Kathleen Wynne – a truly inspirational leader – to develop an equity framework for our schools. Under the Conservatives, our schools were ...]]> From L-R: UofT Liberals EVP Jonathan Crombie, Premier Dalton McGuinity & UofT Liberals President Jonathan Scott in Niagara Falls last fall.

Premier McGuinty is the most electorally successful Liberal in Canada.

But our Liberal government is more than just successful at the ballot box. It’s the most progressive government in Canada today.

That’s worth fighting for.

I worked as a high-school student with Minister Kathleen Wynne – a truly inspirational leader – to develop an equity framework for our schools. Under the Conservatives, our schools were underfunded, our teachers underappreciated and our students underperforming.

That’s all changed. Schools are being renovated and built. New equipment, new teachers and new learning strategies are making a difference. Now, our schools are the envy of the English-speaking world.

Under Minister Broten’s leadership, our government is making it better for queer youth through gay-straight alliances. These support groups ensure every student feels welcome in their schools and has the opportunity to become strong and successful, to realise their unique potential.

Party president Yasir Naqvi worked in the Legislature – across party lines – to enshrine the rights of trans people into law. Minister Glen Murray has offered a grant for 30% off tuition to help middle- and modest-income students afford university.

Under the Conservatives, our healthcare system was on life support. Hospitals were closing. Nurses were being fired. Doctors were leaving. Now, the system is healthy once again.

The strong action continues: whether it’s green energy, reducing the deficit, rebuilding infrastructure or preparing to host the Pan-Am Games, this government has a plan to move Ontario forward, together.

These achievements are more than just talking points. I’m not just reciting political spin.

My generation was in elementary school under the Conservatives. We know what went wrong first hand: closed schools, unsafe water, blackouts and a sneaky regressive streak on fundamental issues — and let’s not forget, a huge deficit to boot!

Premier McGuinty’s government began as we reached high school – and we noticed a difference in our schools, and now in our universities.

Anyone who says government can’t make a difference in our lives hasn’t paused to consider the difference that has been made in the life of my generation: from a Conservative government when we were kids to a Liberal government in our teens and young adulthood, we know the difference better than anyone.

That’s why we know young Liberals will be at the forefront to ensure the strong action continues by winning in Kitchener-Waterloo and in Vaughan.

When we were children, we had a government that thought like children, reasoned like children and acted like children. As we grew up, we’ve had a government that’s put childish games behind us.

We can’t go back. We must move forward, together.

The reality of the situation is very different. Since coming to power, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have turned a $13-billion Liberal surplus into the biggest deficit in Canadian history. And this was ...]]> Why do Canadians look to Conservatives over Liberals to fix the economy? In the past two elections, Canadians chose not to reach for the red toolbox when the economy is the problem. Why? because Canadians mistakenly believe job creation, balanced budgets and an economically sustainable country are built by blue hammers rather than red ones.

The reality of the situation is very different. Since coming to power, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have turned a $13-billion Liberal surplus into the biggest deficit in Canadian history. And this was before the global economic crunch. From 2006 to 2008, the Harper government increased spending at three times the rate of inflation, eliminated the contingency reserves included in previous budgets and went from surplus to deficit before the recession hit.

Oh, and what are the Conservatives’ big spending priorities? They want $30 billion for stealth fighter planes,  $13 billion for US-style mega-prisons and $6 billion for tax breaks for the largest corporations, which already enjoy rates 25% lower than in the United States.

Simply put, these are bad fiscal choices. And the Conservatives are bad for our economy.

While most other countries used their stimulus spending to make their economies stronger and more competitive, the Harper stimulus spending was notable mostly for its partisan slant toward Conservative-held ridings, and its big ad campaign.

The Tories continue to ignore crucial opportunities to invest in the future. In the past five years, the personal debt Canadian families carry relative to their disposable income has risen 20%, and is now the highest among the twenty most developed countries.

In 2005-06, the federal budget surplus was $13.2 billion. In 2009-10, the deficit was $56 billion, the largest in Canada’s history. Mr Harper is the biggest spending Prime Minister in Canada’s history.

The reality is only Liberals stand for true fiscal responsibility.

Under the last Liberal government, Canada had a healthy budget surplus. We were paying down debt and reducing taxes. Liberals also made major investments in research and development, and committed to long-term federal funding for health care – all of which helped make Canada competitive. Thanks to a prudent business culture, a tough regulatory system and good policy decisions made in the 1990s, including a refusal to permit bank mega-mergers, the Canadian financial sector remained solid while other countries spend billions on bank bailouts. Those balanced policies, gave our economy the resiliency to cope with the global downturn, turning deficits into surplus.

During difficult economic times, only the Liberal Party of Canada has a proven track record of competent, accountable and successful economic management. Those red hammers work!

If there is one objective I believe the LPC should be truly focussed on, it is to dismantle the prevailing and inaccurate perception that red toolbox is somehow lacking the equipment to bang this country’s fiscal situation into working order. The federal Conservatives have told a convincing story. They have told a story that wrongly characterises maintaining the welfare state, investments in health care, education and the environment as somehow bad for the economy.

It’s up to Liberals to combat this false narrative. My colleague Taylor Scollon talks about how in iPolitics this month.

The little soliloquies that the Tories have rhymed off concerning our fiscal sense are simply fiction. We need to make this point clear to the public and share new ideas for future economic leadership based on what we have already accomplished. We must continue to share the non-fictional, fiscal history of this country.

But how do we do this? We should focus on humanising the subject of fiscal responsibility: the Tories tell stories about you and your family. It’s time we did too.

—
Tanya Kuzman is VP Provincial of the UofT Liberals

But while the Pride Parade is the big event topping off the celebration, it ’s not the only way to celebrate. Pride is more than a slew of parties. Pride is political.

It’s the time of year members of LGBTQ community and our allies come together to celebrate being queer and the things in our history that allow us the freedoms we have today. It’s ...]]> June is Pride Month, a time of year often associated with giant rainbow parades filled with half-naked dancers. It’s great, I know.

But while the Pride Parade is the big event topping off the celebration, it ’s not the only way to celebrate. Pride is more than a slew of parties. Pride is political.

It’s the time of year members of LGBTQ community and our allies come together to celebrate being queer and the things in our history that allow us the freedoms we have today. It’s also a chance to fight for the rights still to come.

In Canada, and especially in Ontario, we are fortunate enough to have a level of equality that can only be dreamt about in too many places around the world. We don’t have full equality yet, but it’s safe to saying we’re making it better.

Thanks to Liberals and the NDP, the fight for full equality has been in full force at Queen’s Park this year.

So, this Pride Month, both the queer and Liberal communities have reason to celebrate.

Toby’s Law, named for the late trans-activist and musician Toby Dancer, amends the Ontario Human Rights Code to include gender expression and gender identity as protected grounds against discrimination.

The Accepting Schools Act mandates school support of students wishing to create organizations that “promote the awareness and understanding of, and respect for, people of all sexual orientations and gender identities” and protects the students’ right to choose the name of their organizations. The bill also extends protections against bullying based on gender identity and expression. (You can read UofT Liberals’ president Jonathan Scott’s op-ed on GSAs too.)

Our government is making it better for LGBTQ youth.

But there is still much more to do, especially on the national level. With the Conservative government doing little to nothing for LGBTQ rights, it is time for Liberals to pick up the slack.

Queer youth are the best place for us to start. These young Liberals are bright and enthusiastic and want to fight for their rights. Let’s show the country that the Liberals are the Party that will fight for queer Canadians. And let’s do that by finding a way to engage and support our queer youth.

Queer youth are far from the complicit caricatures held up by the media or adults. While we’ve grown up as the first generation with same-sex marriage and human-rights protections, we’ve also grown up with the same bullying and stigma—homophobia is only now being fought strategically in our schools. There’s still so much more to do to make it better.

The Liberal Party—federally and provincially—can be the Party that stands with young queer Canadians, that offers support, a mentoring community, a voice. Michael Ignatieff used to say the Liberal Party needs to “become the party of hope in the land of hope”. We need to do that directly and actively for queer youth by giving them a political movement of their own.

In his campaign earlier this year, Grant Gordon ran on the platform of “People. Planet. Profits.” We need to focus on people. Let’s focus on the people who are too often silenced because of their age and marginalised because of their gender or sexual identities. And let’s focus on uniting queer youth and straight youth, celebrating our differences while working on full community.

Let’s support our queer youth by giving them a home in the Liberal Party.

It’s about time that we offered them a voice in the Party.

–
Tom Gleason is LGBT Issues Director for the UofT Liberals.
Follow him on Twitter @TNGleason.

The simple answer is that the alternatives – the Conservatives and the NDP – are close enough, and they look closer than they are. When the writ drops, everyone masquerades as a Liberal, with tin-pot nationalism or pink-hued populism added ...]]> To be a Liberal in 2012 is to be tortured by self-doubt and confusion, a pervasive angst that revolves around a single, plaintive question: if Canada is a centrist country (something every Liberal feels in his bones is true), why doesn’t it want a centrist government?

The simple answer is that the alternatives – the Conservatives and the NDP – are close enough, and they look closer than they are. When the writ drops, everyone masquerades as a Liberal, with tin-pot nationalism or pink-hued populism added to taste.

Every now and then, the wolf hikes up the skirt of his sheep’s clothing: the rabid right is frightened of abortion, contemptuous of the UN and campaigns like Canada is Cook County. The left has never seen a strike it doesn’t like or an oil well it does. But most of the time, the Tories and the NDP are mugging for the centre.

So what is a Liberal to do? We can’t pretend to be centrist, because we really are, and waiting for the Conservatives and the NDP to cop to their reactionary and radical designs respectively isn’t a strategy.

Lately we’ve taken to consoling ourselves with the post-traumatic language of rebirth, renewal and rebuilding: too often exercises in magical thinking and the regurgitation of pre-digested policy. Instead of engaging in the political equivalent of regression therapy, the Liberal Party should embrace the irresponsibility that comes with dwelling in the political wilderness.

Not irresponsibility to the people of Canada– the definition of Liberal centrism is threading the needle of the national interest without erring to right or left – rather indifference to the partisan thumb-war between the government and the official opposition.

We lost once playing partisan games with cowboy crusaders promising an end to sponsorship scandals and patronage as usual. We lost again to Jack Layton, a good man who persuaded the electorate he and his party were one and the same.

Idealism is the luxury of third parties – it’s time to abandon partisanship and embrace idealism. We know it doesn’t suffice to occupy the political centre. Liberals must reinvent themselves as the moral centre of Canadian politics: its upright centre.

That means choosing candidates because we believe they should win, not be because we calculate they can win. If they are elected, we’ll know they won’t charge taxpayers for limos and luxury hotels – or commandeer military helicopters to shorten their commutes.

It means cooperating – enthusiastically – with any other party when it has the best interests of Canadians at heart. Because no party is all bad, and no policy is bad just because it’s announced by another party.

It means, above all, humility, acknowledging that we aren’t the natural governing party, because there is no such thing; acknowledging that we don’t deserve to win, because no party does; acknowledging that we have to earn it.

Every successful political movement begins in messianism and too many end in cynicism. The Conservatives just skipped good government, which usually comes somewhere in between. If the Liberals want a chance to do better, it’s time to preach from the upright centre.

—
Evan Hutchison is graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in philosophy.
Follow Evan on Twitter: @HutchPAC