Category: Politics

The Childcare Debate and PSE (part 2)

Yesterday, we looked at the state of childcare policy in Canada, at least in the event of a continued Liberal government.  Today I want to walk through what the precedent set by the new childcare accords might mean for higher education. Many, including myself, have long maintained that the idea of the federal government coming in creating a national policy on tuition – whether it be “lower than at present” or zero – was essentially impossible because it involves paying provinces

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State of Postsecondary Education in Canada, 2021

Morning all.  Big day at HESA Towers, as we release the State of Postsecondary Education in Canada 2021 (just click on the link, folks).  As usual, it has all the good stuff about students, staff, institutional finances, government spending, student financial aid graduate outcomes, but this year it comes in a much prettier package, highlighting the many architectural gems found at universities and colleges across the country.  This is phase I of our visual identity/brand refresh that we’ll be rolling out over the next

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2021 PSE Platforms – The Conservative Party

Alright, fam.  You know the drill.  It’s a federal election, so between now and September 20th, I’ll be looking at various party manifestos to see what they portend for our sector, and then finishing up with some comparative analysis.  I am not entirely sure how many parties I will do: I never do the Bloc for obvious reasons, so that leaves three and *maybe* a fourth if the Greens get their act together to release any policies and stop behaving

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Back With a Jab

Morning all.  Ready to go?  No, me neither.  But the show must go on. It’s going to be a busy few weeks.  Our annual State of Post-Secondary Education in Canada comes out on Thursday.  We’ve got an election on September 20th, which may have some pretty significant consequences for post-secondary education (the childcare accords of the last few months are hugely consequential for higher education in a way that has not properly been appreciated, and I’ll be writing on that subject later

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Nova Scotia Manifesto Analysis (Summer Edition)

Morning all.  Hope you are having a good summer.  Just returning briefly to the blog because Nova Scotia goes to the polls today, and in the ancient, decade-long tradition of this blog (ten years ago last week, the blog debuted with this piece to a beta audience of about 100) I gotta do a manifesto analysis.  So, here goes. The NDP manifesto commitments on PSE are disappointingly thin.  The entirety of their platform is i) “(work) towards eliminating tuition fees, beginning with tuition fees

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