Remember Who Advocates Barbed Wire & Gun Towers`

As a solution to your failures. Gerard Kennedy used this approach when he was the Ontario Minister Of Education and was unable to reduce the drop out rate of students. He is going to be a key figure in Dion's "dream team."

For once, the cynics were wrong
December 20, 2006
Carol Goar

If you are one of the hundred or so Ontarians who spoke out against the Liberal government's plan to withhold driver's licences from kids who quit school before 18, you can look back on 2006 knowing you made a difference.

If you are one of the millions of Ontarians who thinks public consultations are a sham, you are a trifle too cynical.

Thanks to the intervention of concerned parents, worried teachers and outspoken citizens, a punitive, ill-conceived bill was transformed into a good piece of legislation.

Ted McMeekin, parliamentary assistant to three consecutive education ministers, watched it happen.

"We listened and learned and made changes," the MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Aldershot said. "I think that's the way government should work."

Bill 52 was tabled in the Legislature last December by former education minister Gerard Kennedy. It was designed to fulfill Premier Dalton McGuinty's election promise to make school attendance mandatory until 18 years of age.

It had some commendable provisions: more co-op placements, more apprenticeship training and more remedial programs. But they were overshadowed by the proposed enforcement mechanism. Students who dropped out before their 18th birthday would lose their right to drive. If they tried to get a licence, they would be turned away. If they already had one, it would be suspended.

No jurisdiction in Canada had such a law (although nine American states did). The premier never mentioned the possibility on the campaign trail.

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