[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Jacob]

That's pretty dire

[Grey Fox]

I looked at the comments (I know, I know) and it being the Post it was full of people going on about how this was all Trudeau's fault, how he'd mishandled China, how he's uniquely useless and so on and so forth. That's fine. People are entitled to dislike Trudeau, but it got me wondering. How different would our relationship with China have been if we'd had a Conservative government the last few years? My instinct says we'd be in much the same place, but I'm open to different arguments.

I disagree. The Harped government already sold us out once to China. A Scheer government would also still cuddle big business, especially ressource extracting big business and now a days that's China.

[HVC]

Meanwhile, Laurentian University, mismanaged for years by an administration following the bankrupt American model of turning higher education into investment schemes, is closing down 69 programs and gutting more. A majority of them in the French division of this now-formerly bilingual university. Among the programs targetted: Economics (English and French), History (French), Enviromnental Studies (French), Music (French and English), Modern Languages, Mathematics (English and French), Philosophy (English and French)...

It's especially a tragedy for the francophone population of Northern Ontario, who are losing one of their principle outlets for higher education. 

My Alma Mater. Yeah, they messed up bad.

[Oexmelin]

(And to keep things in scale, here is the list of autonomous French-language universities in Canada, outside Quebec):

Moncton (NB)
tiny Sainte-Anne (NE)

And here is the list of French-language affiliated colleges:

Saint-Boniface (UManitoba)
Saint-Jean (UAlberta)

The End.

[crazy canuck]

It is tragic and also I think part of a bigger story of why institutions, throughout the country, are in one way or another moving more and more to the US model - one simple answer, government funding has steadily decreased.  The province of Ontario appoints much of the Board at Laurentian and is the major funder.  A good question to ask is where was and is the government in all of this.  While I understand Oex's criticism of the decisions the administration made, focusing on that as the cause takes attention away from the wider problem.

[Oexmelin]

My Alma Mater. Yeah, they messed up bad.

Better use up those alumni benefits! They are meeting with retirees today, presumably to cut into their benefits.

[Barrister]

I once used a Laurentian student card to sneak into a bar when I was 17.  I was afraid they'd ask me where Laurentian was, cuz I had no idea.

[crazy canuck]

I once used a Laurentian student card to sneak into a bar when I was 17.  I was afraid they'd ask me where Laurentian was, cuz I had no idea.

And they could have asked you that question in French just to be sure...

[HVC]

For a while i didn't know either . did it online as part of my accounting designation. CGA (separate designation at the time) had a partnership with Laurentian and the university of Alberta.

[Oexmelin]

It is tragic and also I think part of a bigger story of why institutions, throughout the country, are in one way or another moving more and more to the US model - one simple answer, government funding has steadily decreased.  The province of Ontario appoints much of the Board at Laurentian and is the major funder.  A good question to ask is where was and is the government in all of this.  While I understand Oex's criticism of the decisions the administration made, focusing on that as the cause takes attention away from the wider problem.

Oh, yes. I think there was a unique level of mediocrity at Laurentian, but as I mentioned, it's part of a much larger trend, one that looks to the US for its ideological and administrative cues. Harris cut deeply into higher education funding, forcing Ontario institutions to follow the American patterns of gutting public institutions. One may also ask where the government is *now*.

[HVC]

Actually, i wonder how much money Laurentian lost when the CGA was merged with the other accounting designations? I know there were quite a few course available, and since it was online the overhead was minimal.

[Barrister]

Holy crap - Laurentian is going through a CCAA reorgaznization?  I've never heard of a university doing such a thing.

[crazy canuck]

Holy crap - Laurentian is going through a CCAA reorgaznization?  I've never heard of a university doing such a thing.

And at the end of that process it will likely just be a trade school and not a university.

[Oexmelin]

Actually, i wonder how much money Laurentian lost when the CGA was merged with the other accounting designations? I know there were quite a few course available, and since it was online the overhead was minimal.

Whatever the ammount, it was compounded by mismanagement. It was discovered that Laurentian used *a single account* for general and administrative expenses, where all revenues were poured, and all expenses drawn from. And because it was such a shit show, the board did what so many boards do: they treated it as a PR crisis, closed ranks, and held more and more meetings in secret. In addition, the university invested (poorly) in real estate.

It's now official that the University just wiped out philosophy and French lit, and halved Econ.

[crazy canuck]

I think that is the UBC effect.  UBC used its surrounding lands to generate an endowment fund.  Others tried to do something similar by "investing" in land but the thing they overlooked is UBC didn't have to purchase it...