Do you like handcuffs?

Stephen Harper decided to make a pit stop in Halifax this morning. Just days after Halifax Conservatives lost their candidate because of a criminal record check gone bad, the big cheese rolled into town. It's no surprise that that this particular campaign stop was made at Chamber of Commerce at a special breakfast. His announcements, however, took an interesting twist.

This is still the exciting portion of the election campaign, when platforms aren't yet released and we're hearing about new proposals every day. Harper picked this campaign stop to reify some ideas that we should expect from the conservative party. His speech was heavy on the principles of free trade, competitiveness in the global market, and encouraging foreign investment in the Canadian economy. He emphasized the conservative government's eagerness to become competitive in the global uranium trade, and their opposition to the Liberal Green Shift. Nothing new here, really.

While Harper was quick to critique the Green shift, saying it was bad for Canadians, bad for business, and will ultimately have a negligible effect on the rate of greenhouse gas emissions, he was short on alternatives. While the Harper Conservatives claim to have a better tax plan, PMSH didn't even attempt to suggest he had a better plan for GHG mitigation. Environmental groups have said this all along; is this a sign the conservatives finally giving up on the eco-vote?

After the breakfast we stuck around to try and get some face time with PMSH, and unfortunately didn't get as much face time as some people, but I did get a handshake and told the prime minister we were looking forward to hearing platform announcement about post secondary education. "We're crunching new things up everyday," he replied, "and can't make all our announcements in one day." A few minutes later we met Peter Mackay, and he hinted to us that in we should look to expect some new announcements on Debt Relief programs for those of us with student loans. Debt relief, as the conservatives have promoted, is great for the students who are here now, but is a reactive measure and doesn't show any commitment to increasing access or affordability in our PSE systems. I'll blog more about this once the official announcement is out.

Speaking of announcements, only one party has made an official announcement about PSE, this one. The Greens are looking to offer a type of university completion award, that will forgives 50% of your student loan once you complete university. So, debt relief. I have a feeling this isn't the same kind of debt relief the Cons are talking about. Wait and see.

The Green Party PSE plan has got to be taken at face value as well. Remember two things: not everyone leaving university with debt, has student loans. Lines of credit are very popular, as are coupling university expenses with parent's loans for better interest rates, or convenience. Secondly, this plan seems to be the result of half-think, something that is still in the incubation stage. I'm not saying its a terrible idea, I think it might even bring students into the PSE system. I think it needs more work, and it bears striking resemblance to the plan released by the Green Party last election .

For those of you who clicked on this post for the racy title, it's actually a quote from Stephen Harper (remember tough on crime) during his tour around Halifax today...