Quebec students can revel in the fact they proved democracy works. This week, the newly elected government of Quebec has abolished tuition hikes proposed by the former premier, Jean Charest. It took several months and hundreds of thousands of students to protest daily, vacate classrooms and disrupt social order to prove to the government they were not backing down.

 

Elsewhere in Canada, it’s hard to fathom such a revolution, considering that even after the proposed tuition hike, Quebec students would still be paying the lowest tuition in the country. Students in Ontario pay almost three times more than Quebec students, yet still, their classrooms stay full and their students aren’t flooding the streets in protest.

 

One would think, that after forcing the Liberal government into submission and managing to change government policy, that the students of Quebec would be satisfied with their results and return quietly to their classrooms.

 

But, it seems they are not going quietly. A few students have decided to take their protest on the road, in a cross-country speaking tour, to advocate a cause that seems only relevant in their own region.

 

In the West, I believe, we have the understanding that post-secondary education is a privilege and not a right. We don’t like inflation, but we understand that it is part of economics and is as inevitable as taxes and poor weather on a May-long weekend. Even though we bask in a resource rich-region, we still have to pay our way and earn our privileges.

 

Maybe it is time I take stand and march through the streets demanding lower tuition, higher wages and better highways. But the truth is, I am earning a high standard education, I am grateful for every dollar I earn and I still need to get to work in the morning. It seems the luxury of protest just isn’t in my budget or my schedule.

 

So I shall patiently and eternally wait for the Oilers to blow another seventh game in the Stanley Cup finals, so I can march down Whyte Ave kicking over garbage cans, vandalizing businesses and tipping over vehicles. I would tarnish my city’s reputation, just to show my disappointment over my team’s performance.

 

I would turn on the TV that same night, and watch as hundreds of thousands of people march to oust a dictatorship-style government who has been oppressing its citizens for decades. At this point, I would hang my head in shame and cry into my jersey, for I am the fool blindly living in ignorance. 

 

But for now, I shall carry on as if I was normal.