@ www.theotherpress.ca Mulcair wins NDP leadership Prominent Quebec MP now Official Opposition leader By Dylan Hackett, News Editor at the NDP Leadership Convention last weekend in Toronto, Thomas Mulcair defeated former party leader Brian Topp, granting the former lawyer— whose election in 2007 marked a prelude for NDP in Quebec—the title of Official Opposition leader. In his celebratory speech, Mulcair thanked his many supporters as well as those who ran against him for leadership and highlighted the importance of casting a ballot, especially for young Canadians. “Democracy can’t just mean the right to vote. Democracy must also mean the knowledge that your vote matters; the knowledge that when you vote you take part in steering the course of our country’s future,” said Mulcair. “Our future is limitless if we get our priorities right. “In order to win the next election and have our first NDP [: the fourth round of voting federal government, our party must reach beyond the limits of its traditional base and unite all progressive forces under the NDP banner.” Mulcair, once named the party’s Quebec lieutenant by the late Jack Layton, made clear of his goal to promote a party which recognizes all Canadians. “As we try to unite progressive forces in Canada, we won't do it by sacrificing the unity of our country. For far too long certain leaders did nothing more than divide Canadians, pitting francophones against anglophones, west to east,” said Muclair. “We will unite progressives, we will unite our country and together we will work towards a more just and better world.” This year’s NDP Leadership Convention marked the first year where the party’s supporting unions did not have greater sway in the vote. Each member of the NDP was granted one vote, a policy which is in toe with the direction Mulcair is slated to take the party. “When we started this campaign I was very clear on one point. As leader, and Prime Minister, the members of my government will never have to serve another interest,” said Mulcair in his celebratory speech. “No interest will be greater than the public interest and that’s a firm commitment.” The party’s loss of Jack Layton ~ was felt at the convention. On Friday, a tribute to Layton led by his widow, MP Olivia Chow, marked the evening as he was remembered with pictures, videos, and speeches in his honour by many notable figures including David Suzuki. Many critics from inside and outside of the party have come out against Mulcair. Shortly after the results were announced, the Young Liberals of Canada released a message warning Canadians to Mulcair’s stance against marijuana decriminalization. Former NDP News leader Ed Broadbent also has criticized Mulcair, seeing him as a candidate that will draw the party closer to the centre of the political spectrum, far from the party’s and current build of democratic socialism. Mulcair is soon to move into Stornoway, the official residence of the Official Leader of the Opposition. Chow, the house’s last resident, has recommended the estate needs an environmental upgrade. ® Thomas Post-secondary presidents claim B.C. budget will mean service cuts for students In a letter to the Minister of Advanced Education, university presidents oppose cuts By Arshy Mann, CUP Western Bureau Chief VANCOUVER (CUP)—B.C.’s university and college presidents believe that service cuts will come if the provincial government cuts funding to post-secondary education. A letter signed by the the presidents of the 25 publicly funded universities and colleges in B.C. argues that it is “unrealistic to assume that the [funding] reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels.” This contradicts the government's claim that the $70 million funding gap can be overcome through administrative savings and that neither student services nor research would be affected. “It is critical for Government to understand that the $70 million reduction to institutional grants over the last two years of the fiscal plan, combined with five years of unfunded inflationary pressures, creates a strain on the operations of post-secondary institutions,” reads the letter addressed to Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto. The letter also expressed worries that post-secondary was the only sector that received an overall funding reduction. “We are very concerned that the Provincial Government is not aware of the measures the post- secondary sector has undertaken in the last number of years in response to significant cost pressures and no increases in institutional operating grants.” The presidents did, however, praise the government for Feb. 28, seven days after the budget announcement, it indicated a lack of consolation between the ministry and the institutions. “Shouldn’t [Minister Yamamoto] have worked with the institutions on this very issue before the budget was developed rather than just telling them what’s going to happen and leaving them feeling like they’re out in the cold and not involved?” “The provincial government has instructed university and colleges that are undergoing collective bargaining with any of their employees that they can only raise wages or benefits if those increases are offset by savings found elsewhere in the institution.” providing more money for capital maintenance and that the overall funding would stay stable for the next year. - Michelle Mungall, the NDP’s critic for advanced education, stressed the importance of the letter. “This is unprecedented,” she said. “This has never happened before in B.C.’s history, where all of the presidents of public post-secondary institutions come together in a unified voice to express their dismay and what I interpret as their lack of confidence in the Liberal government and the minister.” She also argued that the because the letter was sent out on Mungall has has been calling for the minister’s resignation for the past week in the wake of a private email from a reporter to the ministry about an education consortium leaking to the head of that organization. She said that this letter will simply add fuel to that fire. “What both issues highlight is the inability for this minister to do her job. She has broken the relationship with public post- secondary [institutions].” In the letter, the post-secondary presidents also state that the government’s mandates around collective bargaining are going to place further pressures on university finances. The provincial government has instructed university and colleges that are undergoing collective bargaining with any of their employees that they can only raise wages or benefits if those increases are offset by savings found elsewhere in the institution. Robert Clift, the executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C. (CUFA) said that the expectation that universities and colleges will be able to find savings for both the provincial government and for unions is going to create strife during negotiations. “This is the flexibility you’ve given us, and then you remove ‘all the flexibility,” he said of the government's proposal. “Now I doubt we’re going to see faculty at the research university marching the picket line over this, but what happens is that thing that just keeps eating away at the desirability of B.C. a8 a place to [work].” The collective bargaining agreements for the faculty association at the five major B.C. research universities—the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, the University of Northern British Columbia and Royal Roads University—all expire this year.