Green Party promises to abolish college tuition in platform

The Green Party released their official platform, and they promise to abolish tuition fees for post-secondary institutions nation-wide, as well as to repeal Bill C-51 and to take “bold action” on climate change.

Party leader Elizabeth May listed four key issues as the central focus of her party’s platform: economy, communities, government and climate.

The document containing the party’s platform – which is 44 pages long – cites Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden and Finland as prime examples of countries who abolished tuition fees for post-secondary education and yet have strong economies.

The document states that the party would have tuition abolished for all Canadians by 2020, but would start with the neediest first and Aboriginal communities. For current students, they would implement a debt-forgiveness program.

The controversial Bill C-51 introduced by the Harper government would be a thing of the past, with the platform document stating that the bill “infringes on the political and civil rights granted to all of us under the Canadian Charter.”

Bill C-51 allows government agencies such as CSIS to more freely collect information on people without having to share it with the RCMP. Online activities are monitored more heavily as well. The Green Party calls this “a recipe for disaster.”

Climate change is one of the major aspects of the Green Party’s platform, with a plan to eliminate the use of fossil fuels completely in Canada by 2050. They would also stop bitumen pipelines and “risky” oil tankers.

They would also implement refineries in Alberta rather than shipping out the raw oil to other countries for refinement.

“We need to respect the oil sands workers whose livelihoods still depend on the industry, and to support the tens of thousands of oil sands workers who have recently been laid off,” states the document.

To read the full 44 page Green Party Platform, click here.