I don't know how it is in BC, but in Qc approximately 30% of our youth gets to university, which is below average if you want to take "comparisons" into play.
I agree our province is in some serious debt, but the education was not the place to make the cut, not at all. The last Quebec budget included $62.6 billion in program spending.  Hey, were all normal citizens just like yourself, keeping up with the inflation, while up there people pretend to make the best decisions for us, sadly they don't. Older people have already went through this and made their lives out of it, its not a suprise they don't support the strikers since "they made it", but making your way through it does not mean you did the right thing.
Qc rioters were fighting for a change in societal values. The  Quebec has the means to work without the raise, but they wouldn't take the students seriously. Charest laughed at them, he laughed at the future of the province, how does a guy like him can take care of our province?