Quote:
Originally Posted by Flashpoint
I never liked him. But he was elected a lot, so I guess that's a minority opinion. I was a student, and I watched my tuition climb 30% every year, which made it tougher than it needed to be IMO.
In any case it seems like these are given out to pretty much everybody, so it probably shouldn't be taken as much more than a nice gesture to a guy who appears to be dying.
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There can be 64 Officer of the Order of Canada awards each year. As per wikipedia, there were 1,012 living members as of July 2009. I wouldn't say 0.003% of Canada's population is "pretty much everybody".
I appreciated Ralph for balancing the Alberta budget and making the province debt free. I didn't mind the tuition hikes, as I knew it was a short term sacrifice that I would benefit from once I graduated. 30% per year does seem excessive. What field were you in? When I started my first year cost around $3,000. My last (fourth) year was about $4,000. If they were equal percentage increases, this is only 10% per year. If it was 30% per year, my last year would have been $6,600, not $4,000.
I worked during my undergrad years, so I graduated without tuition. I often saw people who complained about student loans and tuition, but I also saw them in the bars I worked in several nights a week, since they didn't work during the semesters. I'm not saying you were one of them; I'm saying they form a part of the population.