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With so many promises being made in the lead-up to the May 2 election, it can be easy to lose track of the issues that matter.

Here are the promises the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP are making to young people, straight from their party platforms.




Employment
- To encourage youth getting hired, a Youth Hiring Incentive will give small and medium-sized businesses a full rebate on Employment Insurance premiums for every Canadian youth — between the ages of 18 and 25 — hired.

Education
- Addressing the costs of post-secondary education, the Canadian Learning Passport will provide $1,000 a year (or $1,500 a year for low-income families) over four years for every high school student to use towards college or university.

Health Promotion in Schools
- Through the proposed Canadian Health Promotion Strategy, the Liberals will work with the Council of Ministers of Education to set targets for physical activity in schools and encourage education and promotion of healthy foods in primary and elementary schools.

Service
- Initiate a Canadian ������Ƶapp Corps to financially support Canadian youth wishing to do volunteer service abroad.  
- The Canada Service Corps will forgive $1,500 in student loan debt for young Canadians who donate at least 150 hours of service in a year, in a Canada Service Corps volunteer position, after graduating from post-secondary education.





Employment
- Extend support for the Canada Youth Business Foundation, which provides loans and mentoring to young entrepreneurs.

Education
- Enhance the Canada Student Loans Program for part-time students to respond to increased demand for assistance in career transition through post-secondary education.
- Double the work exemption for Canada Student Loans to allow students to benefit more from part-time employment.
- 30 industrial research chairs will be established at colleges and polytechnics so students can interact with innovative researchers.

Youth Crime
- Propose to make permanent its Youth Gang Prevention Fund to help at-risk youth avoid criminal activity.



Education
- The NDP proposes to increase the funding to the Canada Student Grants Program by $200 million a year, targeting accessibility for aboriginals, disabled and low-income students.  
- Make post-secondary education more affordable by directly attacking rising tuition costs with an $800-million transfer to the provinces and territories to lower tuition fees, as per the NDP������Ƶapp Post-Secondary Education Act.
- Raise the education tax credit from $4,800 per year to $5,760 to help with increasing education costs.

Employment
- Re-introduce the federal minimum wage law to set a national standard of earning for those who make the lowest wages in the work force.

To access the party platforms, see .

(Compiled by Sarah Gagliano and Vanessa Santilli.)

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TORONTO - Brad Burt������Ƶapp Lenten promise was to give up hot showers, which he stuck to for the 40 days. Now, he plans on continuing to sacrifice for the rest of the year.

“I gave up hot showers for Lent as an offering for my relationship with my girlfriend so that we can grow stronger in our faith on our own and as a couple, (and) also as an offering for helping us to discern marriage,” said Burt, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at the University of British Columbia.

Now that the 40 days of Lent are over, many students have Lenten promise success stories to share, along with some areas for improvement.

Marcio Alves, a fourth-year Portuguese major at the University of Toronto, aimed to give up some of his favourite foods for Lent: soft drinks, pizza, chocolate and popcorn.

ROME - Young Catholics sip beer and kick back in the crypt beneath the Basilica of St. Charles, home to the GP2 bar and youth club in downtown Rome.

The pub, sponsored by the Rome diocesan office of youth ministry and Catholic Action������Ƶapp youth section, is dedicated to the late Pope John Paul II — Giovanni Paolo II in Italian.

Aside from panini, coffee, beer and wine, the club dished out some special events to celebrate Pope John Paul������Ƶapp life and beatification, scheduled for May 1.

A special Czech beer, blessed by Plzen Bishop Frantisek Radkovsky, was to arrive at the pub April 20. Blessing beer is rare today, but the bishop will use a prayer written centuries ago when monasteries produced beer and would pray for those who would consume it.

TORONTO - The WeStand human rights and social justice program, an initiative started by staff at Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School in Toronto, offers senior students an opportunity to learn about social justice issues and to be agents of change in the world.

“The philosophy of our program is to give a sense of history so that students understand what has happened in the past, but also to connect it to situations that are happening today so that they can be students who are part of change,” said Michael Xuereb, the director of WeStand and head of the religion department at Marshall McLuhan.

Currently in its first year, the 36 student members are participating in 15 hours of a series of after-school and weekend sessions, which began in February. In the sessions, the students are introduced to social justice issues from around the world, both from the past and the present. 

Life is a challenge and each day there is a possibility that new problems may arise, from tensions in relationships to the hardships of child-rearing and earning money for survival. However, in the end, what really matters is whether the final decisions and outcomes of these struggles are morally acceptable.

In her novel Sheilagh������Ƶapp Brush, Maura Hanrahan highlights the hardships that people may face in life — primarily from a female perspective. Sheilagh������Ƶapp Brush is an insightful read in which Hanrahan depicts the story in a non-judgmental way, allowing readers to decide whether or not the characters’ actions are moral.

The story unfolds in the pre-Depression era in Rennie������Ƶapp Bay, a small fishing village in Newfoundland with Catholic roots that is disconnected from the rest of the world and its faith.

THORNHILL, ONT. - The youth ministry at St. Joseph the Worker parish wants to know what awaits society when the new generation rises up to ignite a revolution of love. And they’re hoping people under the age of 30 will show them at the first annual St. Joseph������Ƶapp Short Film Festival.

Youth are asked to make a film, about five to seven minutes long, with the theme A Revolution of Love.

The film festival is aimed at encouraging youth to employ their creativity, experience and knowledge with a media they’re familiar with into a concrete expression of what it means to follow Christ, said Vladimir Mamaradlo, lay pastoral assistant at St. Joseph the Worker parish in Thornhill, Ont.

Catholic Students Week took place across the country from March 12-20 to celebrate the Catholic community on campus.

Organized by the Canadian Catholic Students Association, 250 events were hosted on 35 campuses from coast to coast, with some schools partnering with groups such as the Knights of Columbus, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, Catholic Christian Outreach and L’Arche, along with local parishes.

Lori Neale, CCSA national co-ordinator, said the success of Catholic Students Week is a reflection of passionate Catholic students across the country.

OTTAWA - On March 11, the importance of water, one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit, flowed in the hearts of Carleton University Roman Catholic Community (CURCC) members.

With empty bellies, but overflowing compassion for social justice, members of CURCC participated in THINKfast, a 24-hour fast where 12 participants collected pledges to raise money for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, as part of the Share Lent campaign.

During the fast, they connected as a community by learning about the issues affecting people in the global south and praying together.

The nine patron saints named for this summer������Ƶapp World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, serve well as patrons for young Catholics, said Fr. Edwin Galea.

“Their lives tell us that all things are possible to God,” said Galea, who will be a part of the World Youth Day pilgrimage run by the archdiocese of Toronto������Ƶapp Office of Catholic Youth.

“The worst sinner could become the greatest saint so they inspire us. They provide us with a depth of spirituality that is not normally attained in the ordinary world but can inspire a person not to give up.”