As a life long Liberal and someone who will work the boots off for a Dion victory, I cannot bring myself to vote for McGuinty. The debate and his attack on Tory's plans for funding faith-based schools have soured me to him.
I have said repeatedly that I do not agree with faith-based schools at all, yet the way McGuinty has attacked faith-based schools is completely wrong. He pointed to Toronto not having cultural divides, racial riots, civil unrest etc. because kids of many cultures go to school together. His argument - faith based schools divide people and promote segregation is completely hypocritical. McGuinty himself is the product of a faith-based school - the Catholic system.
So, in effect what McGuinty is saying to us is, faith based schools are wrong and promote racial discord - unless it happens to be a Catholic education - then it's all good. If that's not discrimination and if that's not elitist and if that doesn't feel racist then I don't know what else will.
As Tory said, it's a question of fairness. Either fund all faith based schools or fund none.
Where I would differ from him is that I would choose the "fund none" option.
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8 comments:
Unfortunately, the "fund none" option is not realistic right now, as one in three Ontarians is Catholic, and for any party to suggest taking away their funding would be political suicide. (Except the Greens, of course, who have nothing to lose)
They are wrong - but McGuinty can't do much about the Catholic school situation because of the "Constitution". He has no control over that.
Being brought up in a Catholic school isn't his fault - since when did a kid tell his parents where he should be educated.
Canada would have to change the Constitution.
Anon 2, it's true McGuinty did not choose for his parents. But McGuinty did choose to send his own children to Catholic school, all of them. Also, his wife has taught in the Catholic system. So his ties to that system are deep. As Crescent Canuck says, his position is very hypocritical and turns off many voters.
Fund all or none is what I also say.
Louise M.
I agree with the fund none or fund all opinion as well, except my take is to fund all, or allow perhaps tax deductable tuition.
Anon 1: other provinces (New Brunswick, NF) have taken the brave step of cutting off funding to the Catholic system or partially funding all faith based schools.
Anon 2: McGuinty can choose not to attack other faith based schools, saying they promote segregation etc.
Louise M.: exactly.
Anon 3: anything to make it fair.
The "fund none" option is realistic. But it would have to be done as a constitutional change. The legislature cannot simply say, "oh we're not going to fund this anymore" and pass a bill.
Nor would a referendum likely succeed, as there is no way the court would consider a referendum result a valid means of taking away a minority's right by a majority vote.
Still, I find it hard to believe that neither McGuinty nor Hampton has even raised the idea of at least trying to amend the constitution to end such funding.
Note also that in NL it was achieved a little more easily, because it was not about removing funding for catholic boards, it was about removing funding for all. People forget that there were no "public" schools in NL until nearly a decade ago. All schools were by definition run by religious boards, even though many denominations had combined their administrative bodies many years ago.
The right to a denominational education was a right of all Newfoundlanders, not just a particular minority group (i.e. Catholic).
Making a constitutional change in Ontario would very much be an uphill battle, but if the other two leaders genuinely believed in the priority for public schools over religious ones, they could at least pretend to make the effort...
Greens have an interesting platform. They get my vote. I am conservative (and was looking forward to booting out Dalton) but can't support funding for faith-based schools. Wish more people would more seriously consider the Greens.
anon (12:08): as I said, other provinces like NB and NS have already dealt with the constitution issue. My beef here is with McGuinty, the way he automatically insults other faith based education, yet defends Catholic education.
Anon (2:45): I still see no reason to vote for Greens though - at the moment I see them nothing but as a one-note party.
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