Students want debt on election agenda
Last Updated: Friday, December 16, 2005 | 11:29 AM ET
CBC News
University students in Fredericton are looking beyond Christmas exams to a bigger test – putting the problem of student debt at the top of the political agenda.
Krista Chatman, a PhD candidate in history, is looking to voting day with frustration.
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She says many students are away from home during elections and must jump through bureaucratic hoops to cast their ballots. Most students don't bother, which she says means student issues rarely make it onto the political radar screen.
Ellen Creighten
"If you want to vote by a special ballot, which is what you have to do if you're out of your district, you have to go to Elections Canada, you have to register with them, you have to get the special ballot sent to you, you need to get your ID photocopied, you need proof of address. It's a rigamarole of a process that students don't know anything about normally."
Chatman is part of a get-out-the-vote movement that includes student unions at the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University. They are working to educate approximately 12,000 students about how they can vote in the Jan. 23 election.
Ellen Creighton, a vice-president at UNB's student union, says it's a huge effort.
Matt Garnett
"We're going to go to all the residences, visit students in residence personally, door to door, asking them if they plan to vote, encouraging them to vote and telling them how," said Creighton.
"We have a polling station on campus. We have a day where people can vote at home, to vote in their home riding, if they're not from Fredericton, on campus as well, that we're partnering with Elections Canada to put on."
UNB's Joel Reed serves on the school election committee and says a pending all-candidates debate on campus will help motivate students to exercise their democratic right.
"Well, it gives students a chance to meet the candidates, learn their stands on the issues. Because a lot of the reason that students don't vote, in my experience, is that they aren't informed about the issues."
But where there are university students, there are partisans like David Dennis of the St. Thomas Young Liberals. They want student debt to be an election issue.
"I have colleagues that are working part time, even full time, just to make their way through part-time university. For us to be competitive on a world stage, education has to come first."
Matt Garnett of St. Thomas University says informing students about the issues, could be enough to change election results. "When you have 12,000 students on campus, especially in a riding like Fredericton, where the incumbent only won by just over 5,000 votes, I mean, you could really have a lot of sway."
