The biggest question puzzling Concordia students on the threshold of the CSU elections is whether to bother to vote at all; second in order of importance was who they will vote for.
“It’s not really going to affect me, so I don’t really see the point of having a voice,” said Simon Gadke, 19.
Only four of fifteen students questioned on Thursday said there is a chance they will vote in the CSU elections which began yesterday.
Gadke, who studies English/creative writing, said he liked having a controversial student union. “I think the outside opinion of the school is too heavily influenced by politics. It doesn’t have to affect you if you don’t let it,” he said.
Saira Peesker, 21, who is in her last year of journalism, said she might vote if she was around and it was convenient. “I don’t think my vote counts,” she said. “I’m just voting for the party that sounded best at the debate.”
Peesker attended one out of two slate debates organized over the last two weeks. She said that if she decided to vote she would vote for the ASPER slate. “I find that their rhyming skills are bang on, and they’re very eloquent speakers. I enjoy that they pointed out that they are in fact hiding the third floor from us,” Peesker said. Her favourite ideas of the ASPER slate’s were the monorail between the Loyola and downtown campus and making pot-smoking legal on campus.
As to the feasibility of their campaign promises, Peesker said the ASPER candidates “seem like pretty trustworthy fellows.” She said she was least likely to vote for the Clean Slate because she feared they were the same as this year’s CSU.
Declan O’Driscoll, 28, said he had not made up his mind yet. A student of playwriting and president of FASA, O’Driscoll said he was more inclined towards candidates who are already involved in extra-curricular activities at the school.
“I’m leaning towards the Clean Slate,” O’Driscoll said. “It’s part of their policy to support the arts, and as the president of FASA, they’ve got my vote.” He said he disliked the ASPER slate because, he alleged, they were present in the debates to criticize the Clean Slate and bolster Evolution’s campaign. “I know that ASPER is going to drop out at the last minute,” O’Driscoll said. However, Evolution have denied any links between themselves and ASPER.
O’Driscoll said he believed the Clean Slate would carry out the better imperatives of this year’s CSU without ruffling too many feathers: “I have confidence in them and I hope they will continue to be provocative and take into account all students at the university a little more.”
English literature student Patrick Gardiner, 23, thought he would probably not vote. “I’m going to vote for Evolution because they scored higher on the quiz,” he joked, as he flipped through the results of the Link’s quiz administered to slates last week. He said if he did vote, it would be a “toss up” between New Vision and Renaissance because both seem like “people [he] would trust as the CSU.”
Film Studies student Orlando Lopez, 20, said he would definitely vote, but doesn’t know who for as he is still doing research. Lopez said he wanted to see more slate members actively fighting discrimination. “All the slates are saying they will fight discrimination,” said Lopez, but he said he had not seen any of the candidates at the Queer Union, a gay rights and support organization Lopez belongs to.
Lopez also said he found the Clean Slate seemed untrustworthy. “The idea that they are “clean” is totally flawed,” he said. “Presenting themselves as perfect is worrisome, because no one is.”
He said he disapproved of joke parties ASPER and the Free Thinkers Parliament. “They’re really harming the electoral process. There are people out there who really want to make a difference,” said Lopez. “To bring the CSU back to its good reputation, we have to get rid of the jokers.”
