Colin Biggin first got involved in the Green party because of environmental concerns that he says other parties just don’t address. “You kind of have to step up,” he explains.

Biggin has one big reason why voting Green would benefit students: last Wednesday, the party released a platform vowing to eliminate tuition.

“There needs to be a little more detail,” Biggin said, “but students would receive debt forgiveness. Our position is that basically going to school, we want everybody to do it and you shouldn’t come out broke.”

The Green party also plans on investing in a job creation program, and would train people with new skills that are in high demand and short supply.

More than anything, though, the Green party is concerned about the environment. Other parties, Biggin says, speak endlessly about the economy on the campaign trail.

“If the environment is being ruined and we make the earth unliveable, what good is an economy?” Biggin asked. “A robust economy does not have to sacrifice the environment. We think that you can have both.

Conservative candidate Julian Di Battista is a senior analyst specializing in wholesale banking and is recognized as a chartered insurance professional by the Insurance Institute of Canada.

Attempts to speak with the candidate were made, but the candidate’s office did not respond by press time.

He is perhaps the only Conservative LGBTQ candidate. According to his campaign website, Di Battista is “a longtime active volunteer and member of the CIBC Pride Network and community fundraiser for LGBT and AIDS service charities.”

Party leader Stephen Harper has announced the Conservatives would pitch in $100 to $200 a year to education savings plans. This would not help students whose families have not started an education savings fund.

The Conservatives have also pledged to spend $60 million a year on tax credits for businesses hiring tradespeople. According to the party’s website, the Conservatives’ Economic Action Plan would include lowering taxes on families and Canadian businesses, providing support to Canadians completing apprenticeships and establishing the Canada Job Grant to ensure skills-training will lead to employment.

NDP candidate Linda McQuaig is a journalist, bestselling author and social critic. She was first nominated to the NDP in Toronto Centre in 2013. McQuaig says she is interested in issues of income inequality and how much power is concentrated in the corporate sector.

“After writing about those issues for years as a journalist and as an author, it was kind of a natural step to jump into politics, where I felt maybe I can actually do something about these issues that I care about deeply,” said the candidate.

Several of the NDP’s proposed reforms would affect students directly, such as reducing tuition fees, halting the privatization of universities and introducing stronger measures to relieve student debt.
Down the road, tuition elimination may be a possibility, “but we’re not there yet,” McQuaig said. Instead, the NDP would aim to “strengthen the programs that would help students cope with debt and lower the tuition that students face.”

On Sept. 10, NDP leader Tom Mulcair announced a plan to create over 40,000 youth jobs, paid internships and co-op placements over four years. One way the NDP would do this is to introduce a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour, which no other party has proposed. When it comes to the competition, McQuaig says she believes, “Whatever policies the Liberals put forward now, it’s important to look at their record.”

As for the Conservatives, McQuaig said that she feels they have little interest in any groups that “aren’t wealthy or directly considered their base.
“They show no interest in students,” she explained, adding, “I think the NDP has traditionally been, and certainly is continuing to be, the party that best represents the interests of students.”

As the former chair of St. Michael’s Hospital, the Liberal party’s Bill Morneau wants voters to ask themselves which Toronto Centre candidate has demonstrated the greatest commitment to helping the people of Toronto.

Morneau says he believes that growing the economy should be a primary focus of the federal government. If the Liberals win, he says, they will look at “how the rewards of growth are distributed” so that everyone will benefit.

The Liberals want to “focus on growth broadly and look at where we need targeted investments,” Morneau said. Part of this focus would involve spending $1.3 billion on youth jobs creation, including 35,000 more jobs in the Canada Summer Jobs Program and 5,000 “green” jobs for youth that involve working with environmental groups.

Asked about the prospect of tuition elimination, which the Green party has proposed, Morneau said the Liberals were “not going to go for simplistic, headline-grabbing solutions.”

Because education lies within the provincial realm, the Liberal party would “work together with the provinces to be of assistance.” This could include looking at tuition improvements for low-income students, increasing grants to researchers, and helping universities deal with pension plans.

Morneau says that neither the NDP nor the Conservatives can fully deliver on their promises because each has vowed to balance the federal budget.

“That means they’ll be forced to make cuts because we’re in a deficit,” said Morneau.

According to the candidate, the Liberals “want to recognize the situation and tell the truth” to Canadians, making sure to carefully consider how they use their resources.