Many St. Thomas students will be familiar with at least one candidate running in the Fredericton riding during this federal election.
Mary Lou Babineau, who teaches Spanish at STU, is running for the Green Party. She says she’s in constant contact with students, and this gives her insight into what matters to students.
“I’ve been teaching now for 18 years,” says Babineau. “I’ve been teaching for 11 years in Canada, and the constant contact with youth is a part of the job that keeps me connected with that generation. In my role as president of the faculty association I’ve also been involved in helping students advocate for affordable and accessible post-secondary education, and that is not the only piece of the concerns that young people have, but it certainly is one important piece. Beyond high school how are they going to get the education or the training if it’s not university education, the kind of training they need in order to find employment. This is a big concern that young people have, whether or not they’re at the university where I happen to teach.”
She points to her Spanish classes as a reason she is well informed about what students think. She says it’s important when learning Spanish to speak about your life, and this has allowed her to tap into student views.
“Accessibility of post-secondary education is a big issue for them. Employment is a big issue for them. Student debt is another big issue that young people have”
Babineau is in a riding that has two universities, a community college, and numerous other post-secondary institutions. This has helped other Green Party candidates find electoral success in the past. David Coon, Fredericton MLA, won the Green Party’s first New Brunswick seat in last year’s provincial election. Coon did so in large part because of the high student population. Babineau hopes that students will consider the Greens in this election.
“I’m hoping that the Green party speaks to young people in general, and I think that it does. We know from polls that have been done that young people are expressing an opinion that the Green party platform speaks to them.”
Green Party leader Elizabeth May has visited the riding no less than three times in the last six months, a possible sign that the leader thinks the seat is winnable.
That is not to say Babineau will have the same experience as Coon. Babineau’s riding is larger and includes area generally older and more conservative than Coon’s.
Babineau says that promoting the party is necessary.
“I think the Green Party has had to sort of blaze a path for itself in terms of connecting with people, educating people about what the Green Party positions are, and overcoming a lot of the myths and sort of biases or preconceived ideas people have about the Green party.”
The Green Party platform calls for an end to university tuition by 2020. The party says it will do so gradually. Starting with making tuition free for students who are unable to afford it. But when the party plans to end tuition, it will do so for everyone, even for the children of millionaires.
Babineau says that education has to stop being viewed as a privilege.
“If you look at tuition as a social good, and as an individual right, and that is the position that the party and I personally take very strongly as a university professor. Post-secondary education is a means to social mobility. I know that doesn’t impact the wealthy class, but I also believe that it is an individual right, and that it is a social good, and that education therefore has to be accessible to everyone, and someone from a very high income class is perhaps more in need of a liberal arts education, or just as in need for different reasons.”
The issue of vote splitting has been in the minds of many voters. Many feel they should vote strategically to insure one party doesn’t win, even if that means voting for their second or third choice. Babineau says this shouldn’t cause voters to avoid the Green Party.
“It’s actually a false fear they have that somehow their vote taken away from another party is going to lead to a Conservative coming up the middle,” said Babineau. “Green MLA’s and Green MP’s have never been elected because votes have been taken from other parties. In every case they’ve been elected because the voter turnout was so drastically higher than in previous elections.”
When asked why students should consider voting for the Green Party, she says it is a matter of representation.
“I would encourage [students] to vote Green, because Green MP’s and Green MLA’s are committed to representing and speaking up for their constituents. We are committed to working across party lines, so that we’re always representing the interests of the people that we work for.”
