My life is actually affected by things like elections. Most people don't vote around here. they get up and go to work and go home, eat, poop, watch tv, go to bed and then start the same cycle all over again the next day and feel that it makes no difference who runs their country. All my life I have felt different.
As a high school student I freaked out when a conservative was elected and destroyed our Public school system. I was 16 and couldn't vote. I had expectations that I would go to university and continue to grad school. I loved the education that I had. I felt well educated - I benefited from a gifted program for children with high IQs and then later an alternative high school where I could shape my own learning environment.
However when I heard that they were planning to remove and de-stream programs, and change the entire curriculum, I knew that kids were going to loose out on special benefits that Ontario had been giving. Not only that, the same conservative allowed the de-regulation of tuition. That meant that for the first time in decades the cost of tuition began to rise sharply.
Every year I have been in university I have had to pay increased tuition. Unless I had a full scholarship (which wasn't each year) I needed to get a government loan to go to school. I now owe many dollars. Additionally as I have been in graduate school and had the opportunity to teach students that were taught under the new curriculum I am strongly aware of how badly the "new" curriculum with it's de-streaming and restructuring has failed students. These students come to us unable to do what I was taught as "grade 10 math" and they cannot read out loud, compose sentences, or spell. It is frustrating for them and for us because we expect them to know these things and they don't understand why they got so far being told they were adequate and now we tell them they are not. There is a disconnect between society's expectations and what is being taught in Ontario's High Schools.
That is okay, because nowadays you will make more money if you don't waste your time in university, but become a trades person or work as a cashier at Costco. Why does the government in Canada take money away from "highly skilled personnel" as if we were trying to cap everyone's salaries except for the capitalists? This seems unfair? Doctors and Lawyers here are poor compared to in America. Same with professors. I know two professors that married to each other. They have only payed off there Canadian student loans 15 years after they got their tenure - they still have a mortgage on a modest house in a small town and car payments on a used car. Does this make anybody question why Canadians would bother getting an education?
Why yes. It makes me question why I have bothered. I love to cook - I would have been happier as a chef and I would have spent less money on my education. By now I would be working full time and I am certain I would be building home equity and have a family. If my government and the conservatives and liberals that have been elected over the past two decades cared more about education I would have less debt. I would feel optimistic that I might get a job when I finish my PhD that may pay me enough to give me a good start and allow me to catch up to my peers that never went to school, and I will be able to pay down my debt and buy a home.
In this economic climate I doubt it. If a politician ever thought long term enough to realize how an entire life cycle could be effected by their policy then perhaps they would understand. I vote because these people with their whims always touch my life. This time I hope I can at least get rid of the conservative because they always cause recessions and always fuck with the education system. It like they want us all dumb and poor.
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