Letter to The Guardian
Jan. 29th, 2004 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThansk to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
london_calling for the idea! Now, let's see if they publish it.
***
To whom it may concern:
Prince Edward Island is my home, and it has been the home of four generations of my ancestors. On the whole, I'm rather fond of PEI, not least because it was a nice place to grow up.
I graduated, in May of 2003, with a B.A. Honours. Right now, though, I'm pursuing my education on the mainland, in Ontario, where I intend to get a MA degree this coming June. Based on my academic record and my work experience to date, I believe that I'd be a good worker. However, I do not intend to return to my native province in the search of work, simply because almost all of my university-educated friends have found it impossible to find rewarding careers here. Despite making significant investments of time, effort, and money in their education, the only jobs that they can find are either economically unrewarding or personally deadening, or both.
Over the 1990s, Prince Edward Island was the only province in Atlantic Canada with a growing population. The 1990s as a whole was an era of highly positive change for Prince Edward Island, and for Islanders. Even so, not enough has changed, particularly in the realm of employment. Call centres--where most of my (employed) friends work--might provide useful short-term employment, but you simply can't build a life based on that, while the situations for jobs in retail and manufacturing are much the same. It still isn't very easy for an Islander with post-secondary education to find a career here, not unless they want to take positions for which they're overqualified.
And so, I won't be coming back here to live. I'd like to be able to seriously consider returning, but the Island's persistent failure since Confederation to develop a high-wage, high-skills economy--an economy that appropriately rewards people with education--makes this impossible. It's my loss, I fear; I'd also like to think it's the Island's loss.
When will Islanders take the need to upgrade our province's economy seriously?
Randy McDonald
Kingston, Ontario
london_calling for the idea! Now, let's see if they publish it.***
To whom it may concern:
Prince Edward Island is my home, and it has been the home of four generations of my ancestors. On the whole, I'm rather fond of PEI, not least because it was a nice place to grow up.
I graduated, in May of 2003, with a B.A. Honours. Right now, though, I'm pursuing my education on the mainland, in Ontario, where I intend to get a MA degree this coming June. Based on my academic record and my work experience to date, I believe that I'd be a good worker. However, I do not intend to return to my native province in the search of work, simply because almost all of my university-educated friends have found it impossible to find rewarding careers here. Despite making significant investments of time, effort, and money in their education, the only jobs that they can find are either economically unrewarding or personally deadening, or both.
Over the 1990s, Prince Edward Island was the only province in Atlantic Canada with a growing population. The 1990s as a whole was an era of highly positive change for Prince Edward Island, and for Islanders. Even so, not enough has changed, particularly in the realm of employment. Call centres--where most of my (employed) friends work--might provide useful short-term employment, but you simply can't build a life based on that, while the situations for jobs in retail and manufacturing are much the same. It still isn't very easy for an Islander with post-secondary education to find a career here, not unless they want to take positions for which they're overqualified.
And so, I won't be coming back here to live. I'd like to be able to seriously consider returning, but the Island's persistent failure since Confederation to develop a high-wage, high-skills economy--an economy that appropriately rewards people with education--makes this impossible. It's my loss, I fear; I'd also like to think it's the Island's loss.
When will Islanders take the need to upgrade our province's economy seriously?
Randy McDonald
Kingston, Ontario
