Canada's Nation-Building List Has Jets and Submarines. The Essay's Missing Sector Is Post-Secondary Education.
A Conversation Canada essay points to the major nation-building projects being championed in Canada: fighter jets, nuclear submarines, high-speed rail, ice-breakers, ports, mines, roads and pipelines. It argues that one critical sector is conspicuously under-represented: post-secondary education.
The essay cites Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives figures: funding for post-secondary education was more than 3.5 per cent of all federal government spending in the early 1970s, and by 2024 it had fallen to 1.9 per cent.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The list is a cabinet minister's dream: jets, submarines, rail, ice-breakers, ports, mines, roads, pipelines. The essay's complaint is that post-secondary education is the conspicuous omission.
A pipeline is a project with a ribbon-cutting; post-secondary education is an institution. The comparison is rhetorically effective but not quite apples to apples.