punditry.ca — uncovering DSU elections

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.

(Candidates, campaigning starts tomorrow – don’t be shy, send us your news, pictures, URLs, whatnot. )

(By the way, did anybody else notice the new appearance on the Gazette website? I sure did.  Sadly, it broke the search feature, so you can’t search by author anymore…)

The official list of candidates is out, and matches the unofficial list below.  Now that the names are official, as is my tradition I offer  my initial thoughts on the races, using notes from last Wednesday:

One three-way race, one yes/no vote, and two pair-wise competitions for the executive slots (kind of makes preferential balloting seem like a waste…). A lot of strong-on-paper candidates should be enough to make the races interesting, and if that weren’t enough perennial candidate Debogorski is here to guarantee it.

Snow and Zimmerman are both DSU stalwarts with long resumes. Snow knows the constitution better than I do, and Zimmerman has so much DSU experience her time on Council almost overlaps with mine. Debogorski has picked up a lot during his two campaigns and continues to question … everything.   Say what you want about his rants, the guy went back for seconds when they were passing out “determination” (or stubbornness, whatever).  If you’ve been watching, you’ve seen him attend Council and write for the Gazette.  

If you’ve seen Debogorski campaign, you know he doesn’t want to win so much as he wants his issues discussed, a goal he has thus far achieved to some degree.  The race IS winnable to a third candidate, despite the iron-clad credentials of Snow and Zimmerman.  However, given the campaigns he’s run thus far, it won’t be him.  (What would a winning third candidate need to do?  1. Jack up voter turnout, 2) sweep the non-DSU-types vote, 3) polarize the DSU, forcing them to not just choose between Zimmerman and Snow, but to actively dislike whomever they are not choosing.  This last part is the hardest, but is needed because with a preferential ballot, in order to split a three-way vote you need the demographic you are splitting to rank one first and the other last, with you in the middle.  Prayer / animal sacrifice / sale of ones soul would also be useful tactics).

But I digress.

Kris Osmond is the incumbent for VP SL, and the only candidate this year. Normally candidates spring up from the woodwork for this position, but apparently not this year. (Historical note: the last VP SL to run again was Mark Szepes, who ended up a distant third in his three-way race in 2005). I’ve heard rumours from one group who wants a No vote, but unless they run a campaign this race is basically already over.

VP Internal… the current communications commissioner Mark Hobbs faces the “friendly & familiar” Craig Jennex. (DSU lifers will recall Craig as a long-time member of the Elections committee and a Infodesker who has been given tenure.) I don’t have a clear read on this one.

VP Education, Edgar Burns and Rob LeForte. I think and feel nothing. I know nothing about these guys other than what I’ve learned since I heard they were candidates.

Senate is three yes/no votes, so that’ll be like watching dull gray paint dry on the side of a barge (unless one of the candidates lets the Crazy out, which is never out of the question.  Remember LoRusso?  He lost his shit to a point where he was fined for it, and it was wildly entertaining.  You’re welcome.)

But Board of Governors! 5 candidates (down from 6) are jousting for 2 seats. I’ll look forward to that. With a law student, med student, and engineering student on the roster, we’re seeing candidates from demographics that don’t frequently run, which pleases me.  

It’s going to be a good time, and we’ll follow it all right here as it happens.