“We don’t want to cut, we want to put money into the economy so it betters our people,” said Kevin Baker, a Community Justice Service Worker Program [1] student. He said it would be better if the Liberal Party got back in. If a Conservative government gets in, he says, “everybody loses and cuts keep happening.” Photo by Brock Butler QNet News
By Brock Butler [2]
BELLEVILLE – Loyalist students got a chance to ask Bay of Quinte Liberal candidate questions about post-secondary funding, affordable housing and other issues, at an event in the college’s dining hall on Wednesday.
It was the last Pizza and Politics event organized by the college’s Journalism and Communications program. It’s part of an initiative organized by the journalism program called “So You Think I Should Vote?” The initiative is intended to get students and young people interested in next week’s federal election.
In a short speech before the question and answer session, Ellis talked about funding for post-secondary students. After his speech a student followed up with another question on the subject. Ellis identified planks in the Liberal party platform including a grace period for paying back a student loan.
He also said increasing student grants is part of the Liberal platform.
Another issue that got attention at the event was housing in the region. Ellis said his party plans on building half a million houses over 10 years.
“The federal government got out of housing in the last 20 years and we’re the first government to get back in.” he said.
Ellis was also quizzed about poverty. He said he had an interest in poverty reduction and had a target of reducing poverty by fifty per cent by 2025.
Previous Pizza and Politics events have featured appearances by Conservative candidate Tim Durkin [3], Danny Celovsky [4] of the Green party, Stephanie Bell [5] of the New Democratic Party and Paul Bordonaro [6] of the People’s Party.
The federal election takes place Monday.