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)

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…

I took a few minutes to watch all the candidate videos. Based on the contents, I came up with some “awards” for the 2009 Election Candidate Video Awards (ECVAs) in recognition of the good, the bad, and the baritone.

Best Shot Composition: Shannon Zimmerman & Vikram Rai

Though the backlight does take away a bit, I like the use of the clock tower. However, despite using the same location, Zimmerman and Rai must have shot their videos at very different times, because…

Worst Background Noise: Vikram Rai

I thought about giving this one to Blake with the running toilet in the echoey bathroom, but the voices in Rai’s video are so loud I was trying to eavesdrop on the conversation while watching.

Best Use of Media: Craig Jennex

Brilliant integration of the slide show allows Jennex to refer voters to his website, Twitter, Facebook group, and e-mail address without having to say all the awkward addresses.

Most Humorous: Shane Simms

While we all take student politics seriously, it’s no fun when we take it too seriously, so people get points for making me chuckle. All it takes is a pipe and a well-placed hand on the hip.

Worst Location: Glenn Blake

Really, Glenn Blake? You’re on the toilet? Really?! You didn’t even try to pull some sort of “Don’t let the University flush student voices down the crapper” line to explain why you’re there. Really?! File this under “Moments you wish the Elections Committee was allowed to offer advice to candidates.”

Best Use of Props: DSU Health Plan Referendum

I know from experience that it’s hard to make a referendum campaign video interesting. I like the integration of legitimate props related to the subject matter. Props are also a useful way to prevent too much hand-talking.

Simms gets honourary mention for his pipe and what I believe is a text entitled Political Development and the New Realism in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Most Baritone: Frederic Perron-Welch

Obviously.

I welcome further submissions for the ECVAs in the comments.

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.

I ventured into the SUB at around 1:00 this afternoon on my way to the DalOUT office. I was there until 3:00 and I didn’t even make it to the staircase. I sat down on one of the couches to have a gander at what the candidates came up with for their posters. Within mere moments, I was chatting with Matt Golding [current VP (Finance & Operations)] about the posters and the upcoming DSU Annual General Meeting, which, incidentally, should make this week an even bigger shit-show than it is normally. Following Matt’s visit, I had sightings of and, in a few cases, full-on conversations with Snow, Zimmerman, Debogorski, Jennex, LeForte, Burns, fellow pundits Coffin and shutter-bug Hillman, and CRO Amyotte.

My advice to pundits and others interested in talking to or overhearing candidates: Hang out in the SUB lobby. I swear, there is some sort of homing signal.

My advice to candidates: For your own health and well-being, stay out of the SUB! Unless you’re using the time to talk to people who don’t already know you, it will just wear on you. Also, don’t think that being overly nice to the pundits will get you into our good graces. What will get you into my good graces is permission to cut you to pieces with wit (thanks, Craig).

On that note…

This year’s posters, some of which require a more dedicated viewing than I alloted them today, are what I would call generally adequate. Snow has re-used his photo from last year’s Senate campaign (fine, I guess, since his physical appearance hasn’t changed drastically). Zimmerman’s is clean and simple. Debogorski’s manifesto is much more succinct than last year’s, and has far fewer grammatical errors, but a whopping three mentions of food service. Also, I was left with the distinct impression that I, as what others would deem a “DSU Insider”, apparently “rule” the DSU. To which I ask, “Where’s my coronation?!”

On the BoG front, Harris and Rai opted for the “too much information” approach. Both have posters littered with photos, words and graphs (of all things). Frankly, I couldn’t be bothered to get up from the couch in order to get close enough to read them. That will have to wait until tomorrow. Conrad, FPW, and Horne are relying more on their good looks, which is valid given that it’s BoG, so a higher percentage of people will likely vote on a “(s)he’s hot” basis, and all three are good-looking. Honestly, ever since FPW wore his job interview suit to a Council meeting, the girls have been crazy for him. The general response to his poster, however, is the question, “Is he Spanish?” (Answer: He is not) given the red-yellow-red horizontal stripes. Worldly as he is, Fred is aware of the resemblance and explained to me that, as I suspected, he was just going for two colours that attract the eye, and he has succeeded in that regard.

Hobbs’ and Simms’ posters use a similar distillation/contrast(?) (some photo editing technique for which I’m sure I don’t know the correct term). Jennex highlights, through pictures, his “in the field” involvement with the Union.

I think we’re in for an interesting and entertaining week, folks. I look forward to reading the comments of my fellow pundits and our gentle readers.