the early bird gets worms
DSU Elections season is upon us – a month or two early. Yes, Virginia, nominations open on January 23rd, voting takes place February 14-16th, and the period in the middle will be occupied by a) punditry and b) fodder for punditry. dsuelections.ca is live and has all the details. The motivating factors for the move include the hope that moving the elections timeline further from the end of the semester will be easier on candidates, improve voter turnout, and give those who don’t win a position more time to make backup plans.
Since we know that punditry.ca receives almost no traffic outside of the DSU Elections, the only people who will see this notice will be those who already know the elections are upon us. Fortunately I don’t consider “being ineffectual” a good enough reason to not post something.
If you are interested in joining the punditocracy, use the submit news link to reach us, or reach out to a 2011 pundit. As always, if you have news, rumours, press releases, or announcements, we’d like to hear about it. We are particularly interested in knowing potential candidates and about anyone intending to create a SuperPAC.
Wow. I guess some people cling to their spot light as much as they can. It’s been, what, 8 years since Mike Smit graduated from Dalhousie? 5 years since he left Halifax? And he’s somehow still relevant? I guess he can keep making his predictions based on someone who is completely out of touch and getting his info fed from unreliable 3rd parties.
I hope this is the year this site dies.
Something tells me you’re not going to like the upcoming 32-part retrospective “Smit Happens: The man, the myth, the legend” that we plan on running in lieu of actual campaign coverage this year.
As someone who is constantly reliving and returning to University to attempt to relive his happiest days, I applaud the return of punditry.ca. Simply put without punditry.ca or its completely disconnected predecessor Dal-Lousy, no one would pay any attention to the DSU elections. As someone who has trodden from class to class begging for 60 seconds from annoyed professors to stare into bored faces I welcome the notion of discussing ideas and making sure those who would represent the interests of students get the attention they are due. Good on ya Mike and Ann and anyone else who keeps this worthy endeavor alive.
HOHN JILLMAN IS BACK!!! Oh happy days.
Woo, Here we go again eh?
Oh dear lord, it’s like Christmas all over again.
Grab your peanuts! To the gallery!
Interesting that they’re running it earlier this year. Hopefully we’ll see a big spike on the voter turnout graphs.
With respect to Dan, and barely suppressed amusement at the first commenter, it is my sincere hope that this site is not about me. I merit neither your scorn nor your praise for its continued existence. It has been my wish since its first day that it serve as a platform for others to speak, not me. The pundits, commenters, and readers sustain it, not me. The model is built on a group of pundits that have past ties and/or current connections to Dalhousie. I assure you, if the continued existence of punditry was best served by expunging my name from the site entirely, I would do so tomorrow. I seek no spotlight. The closest I come to the spotlight is when anonymous people yell at me in the comment section. And though I admit their hatred sustains me, I could probably find it in me to manage to live without it.
@Grow Up I think it’s admiral that an alumnus still cares enough about his alma mater and the students that currently go there to give up his spare time at the end of a working day to work on a project like this. Yes, often the info comes from 3rd party sources. Yes, sometimes the articles are one sided, speculation and a little harsh. The point of it all isn’t the site, it’s not even what the pundits say, it’s getting people talking about something in an open forum. Sometimes pundits put something out there to get a reaction, I spend more time reading the comments than the actual posts. In a way everyone, anonymous or not, pundit or commenter is part of punditry. Although some of us have never met Mike Smit a lot of us owe him a thanks for getting us interested in student politics and getting us all involved in making the university a better place in our own way.
@Mike Smit
I always enjoy someone else’s respect… or disrespect… I am never sure which “with respect” implies LOL. I know this was never about Mike’s ego, but it is a service and a valuable one and he does deserve some credit.