Ontario Elections: Your children expect you to Vote wisely

Premier Wynne on Lookout for caring adults to make the difference in Student’s lives
By William Doyle-Marshall
Publicly funded education and ensuring that all students in Ontario in that system have equitable access to success is one of the things that has been at the center of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s political career.  She made this very clear Saturday during an address to members of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada downtown Toronto. Wynne outlined her party’s plan which she hopes will return it to govern the province on June 12.
   While the Premier is very proud of the advances that the Liberals have made in this province in the area of education, Wynne is not proud that there are still groups of children who are performing and succeeding at much lower rates than current statistics would suggest. In 2003 68% of students were graduating from high school. Now the number is 83%. The Premier promised to continue to work to target programmes and support the groups of children who really need it.
She reported that Aboriginal children, are graduating at a 40% rate from high school. “It’s shameful,” Wynne pronounced. Admitting that she recognized there is still work to be done, the Premier appealed for more participation by everyone involved in the education system. “It takes those people in our schools for those kids to get connected. It starts very early. A kid not going to university isn’t because of something that happened in grade 12. It’s more likely something that happened in grade one or grade two that didn’t allow them to have that as an aspiration and actually get there,” Wynne emphasized. She promised, if elected, her government will increase apprenticeship so more children would go into skilled trades. We’ll continue to support accessibility to university but we’ll have the people in our schools catch those kids before they lose their way. We k now from all the research that a caring adult is what can make the difference in a young person’s life and we have to have caring adults in our education system,” Wynne informed the media gathering.
 First Nations are graduating at a 40% rate from high school and this the Premier describes as “shameful”. We have recognized that there is still work to be done but that takes people. It takes those people in our schools.”

Premier Wynne identified manufacturing in Ontario as one of many problems that could keep her awake at nights. She identified it as an industry where many families have worked in manufacturing for so many years. Facing this shift from North American to a really global change, Wynne said Ontario has to be competitive. Manufacturing has been one of the parts of the backbones of Ontario, she noted. And that transition from advance manufacturing and all of the jobs that go along with whether it is auto sector, whether it is the agriculture and food processing, Wynne stressed her commitment to promoting that transition and getting Ontarians to the other side of this challenge they are facing. The 2014 Liberal Plan will include a number of initiatives to attract skilled immigrants to Ontario, provide more culturally appropriate health care and help more Ontario companies win business outside Canada. A re-elected Liberal government will also continue to invest in the talent and skills of Ontarians through initiatives like full-day kindergarten and the 30% Off Tuition Grant. Liberals will also partner with business and build new roads, bridges, highways, transit, schools and hospitals to create good jobs throughout the province.

    As June 12 gets nearer all three major political parties are pumping up the volume so you would favour their proposals. The New Democratic Party plan under Andrea Horwath, wants to bring back physical education teachers to keep children healthy and active. The party promises to invest in health and physical education initiatives. This would include hiring up to 1,000 new health and physical education teachers by the end of the party’s mandate.

  Horwath promises. Creation of an “Open Schools” fund to prevent school closures and extend after-hour programs. Should the party form the next government in the province, it plans to let school boards apply for funding to help keep schools threatened with closure open. Making necessary renovations, to use under-utilized space for other community uses, is an integral part of the NDP plan. “Schools can also apply to the fund to increase free and low-fee access for non-profit groups to use school space during evenings and weekends,” Horwath promises.

The Progressive Conservative Party is campaigning hard on its plan to axe 100,000 public service jobs and replace it with 1 million new private sector jobs to be created by his corporate friends. But he has not provided real answers on how this will be done. His major plan is to reduce taxation for corporations which he boasts will result in jobs creation. But critics and labour leaders have said over the years reduced taxation never results in job creation. Ontario's trades-regulating body is seen by Hudak as a job-killing bureaucracy and the Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak would abolish immediately on becoming premier. Speaking at a campaign stop recently, in East Toronto, Hudak attacked the Ontario College of Trades as a self-serving creation of the Liberals to reward their union friends. "We don't need an expensive government bureaucracy to tell people where to get their hair cut," Hudak said.

Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress wants every voter to know that all politicians are not the same. When you exercise your franchise on June 12 be absolutely certain that you select a candidate who believes in fairness and has your interest in mind at all times. So vote wiisely. Your children's future depends on it.