As the Oct. 19 deadline to cast your vote approaches, many voters are reminded of one of the most frustrating parts of a federal election: candidates vomiting vague statements with the hope of gaining votes.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get past the spoken rhetoric and into the party platforms. Luckily, your friends at the griff  have gathered the important things in four party platforms — relating to students, anyway — to help you make a decision about which party to vote for (if you haven’t already voted in advance polls).

To keep this as concise and fair as possible, we’ve narrowed down the bullet points to some of the main student-related pieces of their platforms. We’ve compiled this list entirely from party platforms, and we have left all wording intact.

Parties in alphabetical order:

The Conservatives

• “Will re-establish College Militaire Royal de St. Jean as a full degree-granting institution.”
• “Continue to support research and development at Canada’s universities, colleges, and polytechnics.”
• “Increase funding to the Agri-Innovation program by $100 million over three years, and make projects driven by universities and colleges eligible for financing.”
• “Double the enhanced grant for middle-income families from 10 cents to 20 cents per dollar on the first $500 contributed each year.”
• “Eliminating in-study income from the Canada Student Loans Program assessment.”
• “Expanding the number of low- and middle-income students eligible for the Canada Student Grant program.”
• “Ongoing support for Aboriginal post-secondary bursaries.”

The Green Party

• “Eliminate tuition fees by 2020.”
• “Ensure that a portion of earmarked provincial transfers [funding] is long-term and predictable, provided that provinces remain accountable to quality [post-secondary] metrics.”
• “Increase federal student grants by 25% (at a cost of $173 million).”
• “Increase access for First Nations education by removing the 2% funding cap and fully funding the program back log (at a cost of $424 million).”
• “Eliminate any existing or future student federal debt above $10,000.”
• “Work with the provinces to support lifelong learning programs aimed at enabling older Canadians to pursue post-secondary education to gain new knowledge and skills.”
• “Work to eliminate student debt as a national goal.”
• “Allow all students eligibility for guaranteed student loans up to their rate of tuition regardless of parental income.”
• “Extend the payment grace period to two years after graduation in which time loans are interest-free.”
• “Invest in undergraduate research fellowships through the federal research councils to support innovation and increase research capacity.”
• “Support expanding industry-based job training and apprenticeship programs to address shortages of trained workers in specific industries and workers in need of retraining.”

The Liberals

• “No graduate with student loans will be required to make any repayment until they are earning an income of at least $25,000 per year.”
• “Increase the level of non-repayable grant assistance to students by $750 million per year, rising to $850 million per year by 2019/20.” 
• “Will improve investment in skills training, through a $750 million annual increase in funding for training programs”
• “Will create 40,000 good youth jobs – including 5,000 youth green jobs – each year for the next three years, by investing $300 million more in the renewed Youth Employment Strategy.”
• “Will invest $40 million each year to help employers create more co-op placements for students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and business programs.”
• “Will support Elections Canada in proactively registering Canadians from groups that historically have lower voter turnout, such as students.”
• “Will restore the residency time credit for foreign students and other temporary residents applying to become Canadian citizens.” 
• “Will make changes to the Canadian Experience Class to reduce the barriers to immigration that have been imposed on international students.”
• “Will increase the maximum Canada Student Grant for low-income students to $3,000 per year for full-time students, and to $1,800 per year for part-time students.”
• “Will invest $50 million in additional annual support to the Post-Secondary Student Support Program, which supports Indigenous students attending post-secondary education, and will allow the program to grow in line with increasing demand.”

The NDP

• “Invest $250 million in additional federal student grants over four years, with an emphasis on helping students who need it most, creating as many as 50,000 new grants.”
• “Work with the provinces and territories to make post-secondary education more affordable, accessible, and inclusive.”
• “Will ensure that the abuse of unpaid internships in federal jurisdiction stops, making sure that young Canadians are fairly paid and receive important workplace protections.”
• “Working with private sector employers and non-profits, this program will ensure the creation of 40,000 jobs, co-op placements and internships for youth.”
• “The Canada Student Grants program will receive additional funding of $250 million, ramped up over four years, to make education more affordable with an emphasis on helping low-income and Indigenous students, as well as students living with disabilities.”
• “Over the next seven years, interest on federal student loans will be eliminated. The federal government will work with the Quebec and territorial governments to ensure equivalent benefits are made available to students under those systems.”
• “Will also bring in a requirement for youth apprenticeships in all major federally owned infrastructure and public works projects.” 
• “Deliver federal recruitment and training grants ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, helping to hire up to 7,000 doctors, nurse practitioners and other providers.”

All statements are taken from the following party platform websites: conservative.ca, greenparty.ca, liberal.ca, ndp.ca.

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Photo by carnagenyc, Flickr Creative Commons.