Politix.

I watched part of the Ontario debate tonight. I had to get up and move away from the television. Admittedly, I do not know enough about politics to really participate in a discussion about them.

I do know that McGuinty has been running the place since 2003, and that it's time for him to get out of there. There have been far too many promises that he hasn't taken seriously. I know he's a politician, and that's his job - but come on. I especially had to laugh when he was talking about how he identified with the Ontarian public regarding tuition costs, because he's had to put four kids through university. Oh, Dalton. You just got one hell of a raise. Most of us aren't the premier's kids, and therefore, we're a bit SOL, aren't we? It's okay. We don't need to be educated. It isn't like we're the future of this country or anything. And minimum wage is enough to raise a family on, is it? You must be kidding me. Yes, you've raised it. Congratulations. Still, more needs to be done.

Dalton, I wish you could watch a fast forward of the past five years of my life, and the lives of those around me. We're not bad kids, you know. We've made some mistakes. We've spent more money than we've made. We're in over our heads. We don't know how to fix it. I'm sure it had nothing to do with trying to put ourselves through college. The first year I filed for OSAP, I was told I would get $800 funding. For $3200 tuition plus approximately $500 in books? Plus rent and food and incidentals? Please. I was working 16 hours a week at Zellers, and doing 40 hours of classes, and tutoring for extra credit. I could have worked more, but I was getting up at 4:30 am to make it to school on time. I dropped out three months in. I loved school. I was getting 90s in all my classes. I adored my teachers and my course work and my new friends. The financial strain was too taxing, unfortunately.

I am not a stupid kid. All through high school I had decent marks. But I had a fairly rocky path set up for me. I know you tried to help me by implementing your guidance counselor fancy vocabulary - sending us to TAP class or whatever the hell your little acronym was. Dalton, I was seventeen. I didn't know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. The fact that tuition has gone up 35% is appalling. It's almost like the government doesn't care if it's citizens are educated at all. You'll take care of us until we're done grade 12, and then BOOM! - we even have to pay $110 to apply to university online. Tell me that is not something intended exclusively for the rich. Even after you raise minimum to $10/hr, that means I would have to work 11 hours to APPLY to university. More than eleven hours if you factored in the tax so you can get from Hamilton to the T-dot on time. I wonder how many hours you have to work for $110, Dalton. Oh wait, that doesn't even cover the cost of your plane ride from Hamilton to Toronto. How silly of me. Why don't I just ask my mom for the $110, you ask? We're not all rich kids, Dalton. I love how you assume every parent has an education fund set up. Like most normal folk, I was too "rich" to get much OSAP and too poor to go to school. Awesome.

I do agree with your stance on public schools, very much so. Publicly funded religious schools are archaic. It is not the taxpayer's responsibility to teach a child anything to do with religious beliefs, save for elective religion classes in high school. If you have one religion, you're going to have to have them all. Good luck with that. Why not embrace different religions and work together? You know, put up Christmas decorations and Kwanzaa decorations and Hannukah decorations. Show the kids that religions can co-exist and that none of them are necessarily better than the others. Let the kids talk about their beliefs, but don't sit them down with a textbook Bible telling them that God made Adam and Eve and that's just the way it is, and don't ask questions. That isn't learning. That is imposing. If Johnny wants to say grace before eating his peanut free lunch, then let Johnny say grace before eating his peanut free lunch. If Janie doesn't want to say a prayer, that's okay, because nobody's telling her she has to pray. I do not understand why this is such a difficult concept.

Politics frighten me. Dalton frightens me. Debates frighten me. And that Dalton is certainly not a master debator (heh). Then again, neither are the rest of them.

Oh Canada.