Friday, July 18, 2008

Michael Prue and Separate School Funding in Ontario

NDP leadership candidate Michael Prue made his campaign relevant for five seconds before promptly withdrawing his comments on separate school funding... sigh.

But he quickly ran into a bit of hot water by suggesting the NDP's policy supporting public funding of Catholic schools should be reviewed.

Prue says he thinks "it is time" that the party takes a look at the issue.

As handlers tried to stop the news conference, Prue insisted he wasn't trying to re-open the debate about religion and schools that caused so much trouble for Conservative Leader John Tory in last year's election.

And he insisted it would be up to someone else to bring forward the idea of changing the policy on school funding at the NDP's leadership convention next March.


Any candidate who is willing to champion this issue will carve out a pretty decent chunk of support. Do any of them have the political will?

2 comments:

susansmith said...

This isn't about religious funding for schools but should be about what should public education fund?
He needs to stick with it. There are a coalition of public school trustees who are NDP who will be supporting him.

Leonard Baak said...

Go Prue! It's about time a politician had the courage to give Ontarians what they want and deserve -- that being one school system and equality before and under the law. Let's stop wasting money on duplicate, overlapping school systems and bring kids of all faiths together in schools that reflect their community makeup. Let's stop the discrimination against non-Catholic Ontarians by insisting on equal treatment for all. If the NDP goes for this policy, they will make huge gains in the next election. Huge numbers of Ontarians are looking for a champion on this issue.