I see Brad Lavigne has a new book out about his years as Jack Layton’s campaign strategist.  Time perhaps to mention his other big accomplishment: namely, being the best Chairperson the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) ever had.

The mid-1990s were an ugly time in Canadian PSE.  Federal and provincial governments were broke, and cutting back everywhere.  Partly as a result of this, the student movement polarized – a more left-wing leadership took over the organization and purged the moderates, who returned the favour by leaving CFS, and joining up with a previously-unaligned group of schools to create the more moderate Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) (full disclosure – I was CASA’s first National Director).  In 1996, Lavigne became CFS chair.  He was seen as one of the hardliners, but when Lavigne got to Ottawa, it was clear that he didn’t want to just rant and rage at the government.  He wanted some wins for students, and he was prepared to compromise to get them.

And so with this intention Lavigne took CFS into a seven-member coalition to improve student aid, which included not only their nemeses at CASA, but also the University Presidents represented by AUCC.  The coalition kept clear of the divisive issues like tuition, and focused solely on issues of student debt, which everyone agreed was bad.  It held together on a common platform for over a year, which reassured the federal government that it would get approval, not opprobrium, for agreeing to invest in this file (less than 3 years on from an infamous macaroni-throwing event, involving then-HRDC Minister Lloyd Axworthy, this kind of re-assurance was still necessary).

The result was the 1998 budget, the single biggest investment in student aid ever made in Canada.  It expanded interest relief considerably, making life easier for hundreds of thousands of borrowers.  It created a set of grants for students with dependents (a key CFS aim at the time), the Canada Education Savings Grants.  And it injected – what would become – $3.6 Billion worth of grants into the student aid system through the creation of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. Had Lavigne not brought CFS to the table, it’s quite possible none of it would have happened.

Unfortunately, his own members turned on him, thinking he’d gone too far in terms of co-operation.  In the end, he was made to criticize the deal he’d done so much to facilitate – on the lunatic grounds that it was all unacceptable if the 1995 transfer cuts weren’t restored.  As a result, CFS never took ownership of what was clearly its greatest-ever success, and Lavigne’s work was never recognized for what it was: a real act of statesmanship.

CFS – heck, the whole country – could use more student leaders like him.