punditry.ca — uncovering DSU elections

SustainDal has released it’s endorsements for this year’s executive. I’ve quoted the meat of the document sent to their mailing list this afternoon, but the highlights are: 

President: Eric Snow

VP Internal: Mark Hobbs

VP Education: Rob LeForte

Board of Governors: Will Horne & Fred Perron-Welch

It is unfortunate that candidates were only ranked on written commitments in their platform, and not the commitments they made during conversations or debates. Actually, its more unfortunate that they haven’t included all of the information they’ve spoken on in their platforms, as I have a feeling the results for some positions would be different. 

While I used to be involved with SustainDal before joining the DSU exec team, I was not involved in the creation of this document. I  can also say that if environmental sustainability was my top voting issue in this election, I would make a few changes to this list. I’ll leave it at that. 

From SustainDal: 

Have you been wondering which candidates to vote for in the DSU election if you’re concerned about environmental sustainability on campus? Well never fear, SustainDal brings you the first ever DSU Electoral Candidate’s Sustainability Report Card! You’ll find the condensed info first, then out methods, then our reasoning, then the exact wording of each candidate’s sustainability platform from their websites.

In short, here’s who you should vote for if environmental sustainability is your key issue

President: Eric Snow

VP (Internal): Mark Hobbs

VP (Education): Rob Leforte

Board of Governors (2 positions): Will Horne and Fred Perron-Welch

Here’s what you need to know about our choices:

·         Ranking is based ONLY on information collected from each candidate’s platform on their website or Facebook group on Sunday March 15th.  This was the only way we could objectively collect information about candidates. We also feel that if sustainability is truly a priority for the candidate, they will mention it in their platform.

·         Comments about sustainability made in conversations, debates or on blog posts that were not part of the official platform were not included. Several candidates expressed their desire to address sustainability issues either in conversations or at the three debates. However we have chosen to compare platform content alone as it is the only way to impartially rank the candidates.

·         This report card is for environmental sustainability alone and does not rank any other topic that may be important to you when choosing a candidate.

·         For one of the VP (Student Life) portfolio there is only one candidate and for the Senate portfolio there are as many candidates as there are positions, and since these candidates will all win regardless of their sustainability platform, we have not ranked them.

·         The information from platforms were compiled, the names of the candidates were removed and an impartial but knowledgeable SustainDal executive ranked the platform points according the extent to which candidates addressed specific issues that are important to the campus sustainability movement or addressed sustainability in some way.

·         We encourage you to use the last day of campaigning (Monday March 16^th until 8pm) to educate yourself about each candidate’s entire platform. Go to www.dsuelections.ca for info on all candidates or go to their personal websites (listed in the Appendix) .

 

 

Here’s our Reasoning

President: This was a VERY close race between Eric Snow and Shannon Zimmerman, both have really great ideas and Eric only won by a small margin. We chose Eric because his sustainability platform includes specific actions he will take, whereas Shannon’s platform suggests more general improvements that need to be made at the administrative level. Both are great, you’ll have to look at non-sustainability-related platform points to make you decision on this one. Greg Debogorski has a single point about making food healthier and cheaper which is great but is only one item on the long list of eco issues plaguing the SUB and the DSU.

VP (Internal): We chose Mark Hobbs because he addresses several very relevant SUB-sustainability issues from food waste reductions, to more vegetarian and vegan options to improving the structure of the DSU sustainability office. We love Craig’s idea for a society sustainability handbook and his practical approach to his portfolio (aka: that he is limited in his ability to set the eco agenda), but we want the VPI to be a strong advocate for a more sustainable SUB and DSU.

VP (Education): We chose Rob Leforte because he wants to pass potential DSU policies through a sustainability review to asses their environmental impact. This could significantly reduce the foot print of the DSU. He also wants to get the late night bus going which will (hopefully) decrease the number of cab rides, or driving from the bar. We agree with Edgar Burns that students need access to better public transit options, but again, we need more than that!

Board of Governors: We chose Will Horne because he is passionate about representing student sustainability concerns at the highest level in the University.  Will is definitely leading the pack on sustainability issues. We chose Fred Perron-Welch because he was the only other candidate to mention sustainability in their platform.

 

The DKC has come out in support of Eric Snow for president. Presumably, this is because of yesterday’s posting of his opinions on NSPIRG.

In other news, after being pushed further for his thoughts on NSPIRG, Eric has gone even further to say that he will “revisit” the current situation surrounding NSPIRG’s office space in the SUB.