punditry.ca — uncovering DSU elections

First thing’s first: Congratulations to Shannon, Mark, Rob, Kris, Janet, Adam, Meredith, Shane, and Glenn, and thanks to all of the candidates for putting so much time and effort into your campaigns and keeping me entertained.

This being my seventh and final DSU Election as a student, I thought I’d compile a personal highlight reel of the past eleven days. Two photos from last night’s results party festivities serve as bookends to this entry.

The Ghost of Executives Past makes an appearance at the 2009 DSU Election Results Party at the Grawood

- Hobbes sticking up for Jennex at the Studley debate: I didn’t really know Mark before this campaign, but he proved himself to be a stand-up guy when he could have taken advantage of his opponent being attacked. Both Mark and Craig ran strong campaigns, which was reflected in the 35-vote difference in the final results.

- I’m still not entirely comfortable with the way NSPIRG became a campaign issue, and, in particular, the way the debate was focused on the presidential race, but it deserves mention given the amount of attention it is getting. I’ll be writing more about this matter in the coming days as The AGM: Part II approaches.

- Janet Conrad’s candidate profile photo: I’ve watched enough America’s Next Top Model to identify when someone knows how to use their angles and find the light source.

- My buddy Eric Snow went from rule-maker to rule-breaker by racking up some post-campaigning fines.

- The Evolution of Debo: Is it just me, or is Greg getting a bit better with each election? Sure, he still has inappropriate outbursts and does silly things like drink five large teas during a debate, but every once in a while when you get past his demeanour, you find a reasonable idea. This seems to be happening more frequently these days. I must say, even though he would lump me in with the DSU “in crowd”, I appreciate what Greg is trying to do and that he has a genuine interest in getting people engaged with what goes on at the DSU. I might not agree with all of his ideas, but I’ve got to admit, campaigns would be a lot less interesting if he weren’t running.

- Shannon’s closing remarks at the Presidential debate are a perfect example of why I supported her campaign. Without any prepared notes, she spoke of the significance of this campaign for her, and of her love for the DSU and for Dalhousie. It was obviously genuine and indicative of why she’s well-suited to be President. Her passion for the DSU is contagious, which is something we need from our Executive if we have any hope of sparking interest in what we do. I anxiously await the DVD release of the debate so I can provide
a transcript of her remarks.

Some post-results dancing at Reflections with these fools (photo: John Hurley)

Obviously the big news today was Eric Snow calling for NSPIRG reform. Agree with him or not, you have to admit its ballsy. NSPIRG is one of the hot-button issues in the SUB these days, and I rarely see an elections candidate stand up and take a firm stand on a hot issue. Candidates “take stands” on issues all the time, but normally its something entirely uncontroversial: “We need better food on campus.” “Tuition should be lower”. I would imagine the vocal group of people who love NSPIRG will rush to campaign against Eric, and that those groups demanding change from NSPIRG will rush to campaign for him. The possibility exists this election will be determined by how effectively each side mobilizes support.  Debogorski has come out strongly in favor of NSPIRG, while Zimmerman is content to sit this one out.

Mark Coffin offered excellent coverage of this story.  If you aren’t sure what NSPIRG is, Ann Beringer offers an excellent, well-researched story as absent of bias as I think it is possible to be. (If you didn’t click the Read More link the first time you saw it, now is the time).  

The last time I remember a candidate taking a stand that a vocal group of individuals would disagree with was during the student spaces referendum a few years back. (Interestingly, Snow was one of the people who took a stand on that issue, too).

Vikram Rai has publicly stated his support for Eric’s position. At this time it is unknown if other candidates will agree.

Zimmerman issued a correction to her platform, promising to demand amendments to existing policy re: school cancellation.

Today was the residence hockey game, Howe won over Risley, 5-3.  Many candidates were in attendance, and it sounds like everyone had a great time.

Online debate is tomorrow, and I described how that’s going to work.  (actually, in 6 hours)

I discussed Student Appreciation Night last night, and as people woke up (around noonish) and took aspirin (around 30), news came in.  The consensus is that Kris Osmond did an awesome job.  He didn’t say a word about the election, but he also didn’t need to: successful events speak for themselves.  (Lisa weighed in on the night as well).

Every candidate was given a ticket to attend and the chance to volunteer.  Snow, Zimmerman, Burns, LeForte, Jennex, Evans, and of course Osmond volunteered (well done); Harris, Conrad, Simms, Rai, Horne attended (good plan);  Debo, Hobbs, Blake, and FPW were apparently not able to attend.  The latter candidates missed out on a great chance to get some face time with voters.  Hobbs in particular surprises me as typically Union commissioners attend, candidates or not.  Sources tell me Jennex in particular put in a long night spinning the roulette wheel and Burns gave up a work shift to volunteer.  Also of note, CRO Amyotte and some of her committee members put in a long day helping Osmond out.

Will Horne talked a little bit about his (and Meredith Evans’) experience with the music society.  The story is not an unfamiliar one: a somewhat sleepy society is shaken up and achieves a lot in a short period of time.  I’ve seen it happen a few times – Marine Bio, DalOUT come to mind – and I was part of it with the Computer Science Society (two Society of the Year awards in three years, bitches).  The success is typically due entirely to the hard work and long hours of a few people who Get Shit Done (heh, just noticed he used the same words, but I stand by them).  These people are often never happier than when working within their own society, but every now and then a few decide to join the DSU, and typically my advice is: let them.  I’m not saying it has to be THIS position, but find a way to let them contribute.

 Other candidates with updates include Rai,  Jennex, Hobbs, and Debogorski posted some more of his platform.

Slow day on punditry.ca – about 3,000 page views, though still a lot of comments.

Here we go. This is a long one, folks. You might want to get some popcorn and settle in. Rather than save the audience questions for the end of the post, I’ve just lumped them in under each position for ease of reading. I did have to leave a few minutes early, so I missed the last couple of audience questions. Also, I apologize in advance for any sentence fragments, and I have put some of my comments in italics to ensure they are not mixed up with candidate comments.

President

For openers, Snow thanked everyone for attending, mentioned his experience with Senate and HSA, 24-hour study space and food service, and his website. Zimmerman thanked the organizers of the debate, referred to the SUB as her first home rather than her second, and mentioned her experience on Council, BoG, and student societies.

For the first question, candidates were asked to describe their leadership qualifications. Zimmerman said that she has had lots of involvement on all campuses. She feels BoG is the most important role of the President outside the SUB and has experience as current BoG representative. She also feels it is important not to talk only to students, but also to societies, deans, etc. Snow told us he knows the rules and procedures (even wrote some). He knows President is not an all-powerful role and believes there should be consultation beyond Council (athletics, residences, etc.) He wants to get students involved as much as possible and believes the more students that are involved, the better. Zimmerman said she believes in talking to students more than in policies and procedures. She believes in talking to people in all outlets in campus. Snow agrees with consulting with students but said one must understand the procedures for doing this (i.e. know who to go to on various issues).

I must say I’m a little confused by Snow on this one. I understand that one might need to know how certain networks are structured to find the most efficient way of addressing and issue, but in terms of direct consultation with students, I don’t believe we need to refer to any policy.

Question two was about media attention. Is it good or bad? How will they present the image of the DSU? Snow said he’s no stranger to media and isn’t shy to speak to crowds. He sees media attention as a double-edged sword (Everyone wants a piece of you, eh Eric?) He is looking into getting official media training. Here, Zimmerman made her first of a couple references to the Executive Team. She would consult with other members of the Executive because they should be working together on representations to media. She believes media should be used to educate and give background on issues facing the Union, and that the Exec should resume weekly interviews with CKDU that started and stopped at some point this year. She would endeavour to have student consultation before speaking to media. While Snow agrees on consultation with Exec, he pointed out that the President takes responsibility, as official spokesperson, for what is said. Zimmerman also raised the fact that the DSU has a General Manager and Communications Coordinator whose strategic capabilities can help executive who are new to interacting with media.

Question three was about the strategic plan/Imagine DSU. Candidates were asked what was the most pressing issue students raised this year during Imagine. They were also asked about the future of Imagine. Zimmerman mentioned the campus master plan, 24-hour study space, and local food service. She feels it was a good idea to have a full-on campaign this year rather than a single event, but feels the process has lost momentum. She thinks the process should start at the beginning of the year, rather than waiting until the Winter term to have consultations. Snow agreed that students raised 24-hour study space and the master plan, but feels local food on campus was the biggest issue. He wants more comment cards near services in order to find out how to pursue student interests.

In closing, Zimmerman plugged her website and said her name twice in addition to her URL. Snow plugged his Website and five campaign points, saying his name once in addition to his URL. Someone’s taking my advice.

Check out the rest of the recap after the jump.

Read more…

Here’s what I found interesting today.

• The punditry.ca online debate is going ahead!  Stay tuned for more details, and keep this Sunday at 2pm free.  If you want to suggest questions, you know how to reach us.

• A few candidates have added online content.  Mark Hobbs got his shit together per our request and launched markhobbs.ca.  Janet Conrad has a blog & Facebook group, and I found a Shane Simms blog and Facebook group.  To my knowledge, the links in the sidebar are now up to date.

• With so many candidates blogging, it’s hard to keep track of it all.  The punditry.ca blog aggregator keeps an up-to-the-15-minute list of posts from candidates & pundits, and gives you a direct link to listen to the candidates speak to you.

• Today was the poorly-attended Carleton forum/debate, and Lisa’s coverage of it right here was top-notch.  Tomorrow’s debate is in Alumni Lounge on Sexton campus, be there. 

• Pundits Beringer and Tipping weighed in with their inaugural posts.  

• Mark Coffin went to great lengths to determine that LeForte’s classroom talks are not long and boring.

• Lisa took aim at Senate candidates for missing some relatively basic questions, and rightly so.  But I’d like to say I am impressed with Shane Simms.  According to  his own account, after missing the question about what the Academic and External committee does, he went and found out the answers.  

• The other two candidates made a similar promise to know the answer tomorrow, and from what I can tell of Evans she’ll do it without a problem.  I can’t tell anything about Blake beyond what Google tells me: he likes drugs and he drinks the NSPIRG kool-aid like a dromedary drinks water.  

• Simms’ point about the Senate portion of the debate being a lame trivia game probably isn’t far wrong.  It’s tough to ask interesting questions of candidates who don’t even know the basics.  You could ask questions that result in candidates spewing out platitudes, but where does that get you? The other option is job interview questions: what skills do you have that will enable you to stand up in front of a bunch of faculty members and advocate for students?  Or “What expectations do you have regarding  your duties as a Senator?”

Determination: deciding that you will be the last guy to fall down.

• Like Jennex, Leforte offers a set of LeForte clothing pictures, and ups the ante by adding kittens.  That’s right folks, kittens.  There were a few smart-assed remarks I considered, but then I saw this picture.    Now all I have to say is… vote LeForte!  (I kid, of course: I’m safe here in Edmonton, protected by a brave phalanx of -40 degree air and the thousand miles of nothingness called Saskatchewan & Manitoba.)

• Just over 2000 page views on punditry.ca today, to just under 500 unique visitors.  Not bad, we can do better…

• Counting this one, punditry.ca has 18 posts and 53 comments in basically 3 days of coverage.  Wow.  (21 of those comments are on the day 1 wrap-up).

Instead of studying the title subject any further, I’ve decided to dedicate my next few minutes to sharing my thoughts on day one of the DSU elections. I hope you realize I’m sacrificing my grades to provide you with invaluable commentary on the democratic process. 

On Web Presence

I spoke with many candidates before the election, and my advice to all of them was to have a top-notch website that is easily accessible and user friendly.  Yet, only five of the sixteen candidates have bothered to register a domain name, and many don’t even have blogs. Janet, Shane, Gregg and Glenn don’t have even facebook groups yet! I tried to get on to Hobbs’ website,  but it asked me for a password. I tried logging in with my dal netID… no dice. 

(Taking a page from my fellow panelist and fellow caper’s book) 

To Candidates: Make an informative website. Getting a domain name is relatively cheap, and the DSU reimburses your expenses if you make almost the tiniest effort. Also, it doesn’t hurt to run a spell check on your website. Call me a prude, but if you can’t stupid-proof your own campaign materials, I don’t want you signing letters to public officials on behalf of myself and the other 16499 students at Dal. 

To Voters: If the candidate you are considering voting for hasn’t taken the time to communicate their platform to you on the easiest information sharing medium there is, how well do you think they will communicate with you after you’ve given them a 1 – 2 year leash.  

—

On Senate 

Todays senate meeting was a short and quick one. I was impressed at the eagerness of senate and VP ED candidates that showed up. Robert, Edgar, Meredith, and Shane all showed up. Eric was the only presidential candidate present. There was a report from the Senate Governance committee, and although the committee chair was absent, Mr. Snow stepped up and essentially filled in for Dr. Butler in answering questions that senate had on the report.  I may be mistaken, but I think I may have seen some of the Senate ladies batting their eyelashes at Mr. Snow. 

On Wasting Tax Dollars 

On a side note, Industry Minister Tony Clement visited Dalhousie today for a “major government announcement”. Prior to his visit, it appeared that there was no indication to anyone below VP at Dalhousie as to what the announcement would entail. Immediately after his visit, it appeared there was no indication to anyone at all why the minister flew in from Ottawa. He simply dropped in to reannounce the fact that the government had allocated upwards of $2.0 Billion for infrastructure in the Federal Budget. As only Senate members were invited to this announcement, Eric was the only candidate present.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

I can’t tell you all how excited I am to be part of such a stellar team of DSU pundits. This really brings election geekery to a whole new level and I love it.

The official list of candidates has some familiar faces and some ones that this old hack doesn’t recognize. Mike gave a good overview, so I won’t rehash it all but just a few more thoughts.

Debo is back! Man, you have to admire that guy’s tenacity. He recently found my blog post from two elections ago where I inquired as to whether his youtube video was encouraging me to vote for him or let him out on a day pass. I also asked him to stop his ill planned act of shit disturbing. His response was thus:

I was just browsing the internet; after hearing rumours from a colleague of this post I cannot help but giggle on discovering it. I find your abrasive comment quite humorous in the context of current affairs within the DSU. I love it when personal aversion of the truth leads people to hatred of those whom promote it.
If I could procure “a day pass” for the entire Union to egress from the administrative insanity occurring within our Union I would.
Criticizing our Union for disenfranchising students and providing good times for the DSU “in crowd” never equates to an “annoying act of ill planned shit disturbing.”
I can only hope that the author of this post will revisit their opinions when considering future political activities and comments.
The Union should operate under the following principle:
Each according to their need; each according to their work!!!
I shall leave up to the reader to interpret its meaning.

I no longer think Debo is an ill planned shit disturber. I think he genuinely cares about students and the union. I do not, however, think he has a clue about the big picture or how to actually, realistically go about serving students. Regardless, his addition to the field should make for some fantastic entertainment.

The VP Education field (one that is close to my heart) only has one candidate I recognize, LeForte. From what I know of him, he seems genuinely interested in the issues and has kept very well abreast of the PSE goings on, even before the election started. He has on occasion asked me questions that have left me stumped and needing to do some research. This is a good thing. I hope to be able to form an opinion on Burns soon.

Internal is also one where my knowledge of candidates is lopsided. I have worked with Jennex on various projects and know him to be very dedicated, organized and good at what he does. He also has a very good grasp on union goings on, which comes from being an employee for the past couple of years. I don’t know anything about Hobbs except that he was the communications commissioner, which is a good start (for him, not me…well I suppose me too). We shall see how this one unfolds.

When did a BoG seat become the new hot item?! Whatever it was that sparked this little trend, I’m glad of it. The field is also amazingly solid. Conrad is a familiar face around the council table and has always impressed me with her maturity and her zealousness in advocating for the students on Sexton. Rai has been very committed to the Dal Debate Society, Sodales, and as a result became very involved during the society review overhaul. Harris is a med student who was the President of the St. FX Student Union in his previous life. He thus already has a lot experience in this type of role, especially coming from X where their union has a very close working relationship with the administration. Welch is the current law rep on the DSU and on the Law Student Society Board. Anyone who has had to work with the law school administration will find the university’s administration a cake walk. I sadly know nothing about Horne.

Senate is yes/no this year. Sad making. I have worked with Evans, she is solid. Like Mike says, though, unless someone unleashes the crazy this will be a bit of a yawn race.

I’ll update my bio soon, so you all know who the crazy ranting lady is.