TORONTO, June 6, 2011 /Canada NewsWire/ - Today, students launched Take it Over, a province-wide campaign to engage students and youth to vote in the Ontario Election. The campaign aims to increase youth voter turnout and to promote students' priorities in the Ontario Election on October 6.
"As a result of low voter turnout among youth, issues affecting students, such as high tuition fees and student debt, may be ignored by election candidates," said Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. "Students across the province will be taking over this election through aggressive registration drives, mobilizing students to vote, and calling for commitments from all political parties to make progressive change to post-secondary education policy."
Under the McGuinty government, Ontario has become the worst in the country in several key areas of post-secondary education. Ontario has the largest class sizes and the lowest per student funding in Canada. Ontario's tuition fees are the highest in the country and have increased at double the rate of inflation in recent years.
"Students are frustrated that years of underfunding have resulted in high tuition fees and have priced college and university education out of reach for many Ontarians," said Krisna Saravanamuttu, Ontario representative for the Canadian Federation of Students. "Students are calling for change in this election and will be holding all parties accountable to come up with concrete plans to address the crisis of underfunding and inaccessibility."
Students across the province will be organizing actions on the sixth day of each month leading up to the Election on October 6. As part of today's launch, a video has been released and can be viewed here.
The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario unites more than 300,000 students at the diploma, undergraduate and graduate levels at universities and colleges across Ontario.
