Hey CFS: Stop Misrepresenting McGuinty's Promises

I hope this will be my last post on the Canadian Federation of Students, at least for a while.

When I first published a column attacking the CFS for taking a regressive, Herman Cain-style approach against 30% off tuition, they demanded the chance to write a response.

To its credit, CFS staffer Nora Loreto published a sober, informative post outlining the difference between a grant and a cut. I always love a good semantics debate.

But there's one crucial problem with Loreto's piece. It's predicated on a fabulous inaccuracy, from the title on down. She claims, McGuinty "promised to use $430 million to reduce tuition fees." Well, in fact, the link to that article she cites makes clear he promised a grant for low- and middle-income students. So does the Liberal platform.

The platform reads: "We're going to support all middle-class Ontario families with a 30% across-the-board postsecondary undergraduate tuition grant. That means -- every year -- the families of five out of six students will save $1,600 per student in university and $730 per student in college."

This was meant to support those who need it. It does. There's more to do for part-time and late-entry students, to be sure.

But to claim the Liberal government has broken its election promise is to not tell the truth.

And we should tell the truth--some 90,000 students are still eligible to apply for the grant, and the CFS misinforming them that this is some small, targeted grant isn't helping.

At least the CFS is done with intimidating, profane protests, though; now they're just spreading misinformation, and once again students--the ones they're meant to represent--are losing.

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