Education should be free. If you want to make money you charge foreign students way more. Which is exactly what we do -
Oh yeah, f*cking brilliant idea. Our universities are already for-profit enterprises with many Canadians being forced to study abroad because the universities will take a foreign student before a Canadian student simply because the foreign student has to pay more.
Free university education for Canadians won't mean squat. If they're already being denied spots even though they're paying to go, what chance will they have when they don't have to pay at all if there isn't a fundamental change in the way our universities operate?
As I write this, there are more Canadians studying medicine abroad than in Canada because our medical schools are filled with foreigners who pay more to attend. I fail to see how free education would even begin to improve that situation.
Having said that, our universities should only be accepting the best and brightest anyway. Your grades should be the prime determining factor for entry, not your financial situation.