Ignatieff kicks off campus tour
Liberal leader addresses student concerns, Parliament
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Ignatieff: "I have to respect the institutions that restrain my power." Photo: Adam Miller
After a long year of dismal poll results, Michael Ignatieff has decided to start 2010 by heading back to school. Well, sort of.
Today he completed the first leg of his cross-country university and college campus tour after visiting the Nova Scotia Community College in the morning and Dalhousie University this afternoon.
His tour, which stops at 11 campuses in just over one week, aims at engaging young Canadians in a "conversation about the future of this country."
Ignatieff was well received at Dalhousie where some 600 people turned out to the event. Those who couldn't crowd into the conference room spilled out into the hallways of the student union building where they were able to watch the Liberal party leader on TV monitors.
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Though the range of questions from the audience was broad -- from oil sands to the state of Israel -- Ignatieff focused much of the conversation on this future vision of Canada. Leading up to 2017, Canada's 150th birthday, Ignatieff says the federal government needs to invest more in post-secondary education and renewable energy.
"Schools are places where most of the research and development is done in our society, where large amounts of people are employed in our communities, and what bring people to our region and country, and help us to retain them," said Dalhousie vice-president of education, Rob LeForte.
"So I like hearing that politicians have given issues of post-secondary education more than just a passing glance."
An issue of particular pertinence to students is that of student debt and youth unemployment, both of which are at record levels, said Ignatieff.
"My job is to make sure that when you get out, the environment will be easier and that we help you with student debt loads. " he said. This could mean longer repayments, lower interest rates and incentives for employers hiring young people.
The Conservatives' prorogation of Parliament was another topic discussed in length at both conferences.
"If I become prime minister, and that's up to the Canadian people, I have to respect the institutions that restrain my power," says the leader of the opposition.
"The prime minister is accountable to Parliament and not the other way around."
Evan Price, founder of the Truro chapter of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament on Facebook and a third-year commerce student at Dal, said he's seen the group grow to more than 150,000 members over the past eight or nine days.
"There are a lot of people that weren't formally engaged or politically committed," says Price, "but they're fed up with being manipulated."
Ignatieff's campus tour is just one way the Liberal party is seeking to increase youth involvement in politics. The Liberal website features links to a variety of social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. While Ignatieff says the most important thing is "just showing up" he also acknowledges that these technologies are "the next thing."
Ignatieff has nine more campuses in five provinces to visit before he returns to Parliament next week. Speaking to students on a campus is not unfamiliar territory for the Liberal leader and not everyone was convinced about the value of such politicking.
"There weren't many tough questions," said SMU fifth-year political science and philosophy major Tyler Fraser. "He didn't make many definitive statements."
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