cation. The Reform Party proposes to maintain a federal presence in funding post-secondary education, although this would not be done through transfer payments. The party’s reasoning, stated in a reform party caucus issue statement on education, is that there is insufficient account- ability to ensure that transfer payment money that reaches the provinces is used on education.

Instead, the Reform Party would distribute funding for higher education directly through students. This would be done in the form of vouchers that would be distributed to individual students. Students would use their vouchers when registering atuniversities, colleges, or institutes. Although it is not made entirely clear from the statement, it appears to be reasonable to assume that these vouchers would not replace tuition in any way, only the Federal Government’s financial support of post-secondary education. The Reform Party’s policies do not appear to address the fact that widely differing levels of federal financing are present in different provinces, or address the issue of student financial assistance.

The Christian Heritage Party:

The Christian Heritage Party, which has two candidates running in P.E.I., seeks “To provide true Christian Leadership and to defend, promote and

"Safeguards and incentives should be in place to discourage any publicly- funded institution from teaching neutral or positive attitudes toward abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, suicide, homosexuality, extra-marital sex, ‘creative visualization’..."

uphold Biblical Principles in federal legislation.” (as stated in the party’s constitution). It seeks to do this by making its view of conservative Christian ethics the most important factor in determining federal policy andlegislation. Neither Hillsborough candidate Baird Judson (an engineer- ing professor at U.P.E.I.) or its National Campaign Headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario had any specific policy statements on post-secondary education. Professor Judson did however indicate that the following statement from the party’s founding principles would apply to post- secondary education.

“Because of the significant role which education plays in cultivating the moral foundation on which the continued well-being of Canada depends... Safeguards and disincentives should be in place, at the federal level if necessary, to discourage any publicly-funded institution from openly teaching neutral or positive attitudes toward abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, suicide, homosexuality, extra-marital sex, ‘creative visualiza- tion’, or any political ideology which favours world government at the

expense of national sovereignty.”

A wide variety of education policies and proposals are being put forth by political parties this election. Perhaps the only certainty is that students and post-secondary education in Canada will continue to be ina state of change on October 26 regardless of what party or parties constitute the

next Federal Government. BRUCE DAVISON

The U.P.E.I. Student Union and the Canadian Federation of Students - P.E.| will be hostinga Forum on Education with Hillsborough candidates on Thursday, October 21 at 12:00 PM. Plan to attend if you have some questions about how any policies would affect students and education.

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October 7,

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