Monday, March 3, 2008

By-election campaign: Some statistics

Dean Haldenby is the only candidate to have put posters up.
Joseph Wesley Richards II is set to put his up tomorrow.
Renaud-Philippe Garner will not run posters.

In other news, Dean Haldenby dominates on the Facebook group count.

Dean has well over 150 members on his FB group.
JWR2 has roughly 30 members.
RPG will not have a FB group.

Sources tell me one of the posters JWR2 will be running will read: "Less time on posters. More time on ideas."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow.

The only question remains: how much will Haldenby win by?

One candidate wants to close the Agora bookstore (that students once fought so hard to create); the other is completely relying on "word of mouth" which completely goes against the logic of any effective campaign.

If Garner and Richards REALLY want to avoid waste and excess spending - they should be reminded that they have until Tuesday, March 4 (tomorrow) at 5:00 PM to drop out of this race.

Nothing bad on them, but they should probably try to get involved with the SFUO a bit next year before taking a shot at the top job.

Anonymous said...

I think that is an unfair characterization... And, it is equally ignorant to assume that Richards wants to close the Agora. If you were read his actual platform, he is seeking to find the most cost effective way for students to buy books.

If it involves reducing duplicated services, then sure. If it isn't in the students interest he was quite clear about not doing it... So, lets not essentialize this and assume that Dean's platform is actually good (which is what will be quite debatable).

Anonymous said...

"The elimination of duplicative services, in particular the Agora Bookstore. Before doing this, I would use the power of negotiation to get textbooks at a lower price. I would keep all options open, including closure or merging."

The power of negotiation. He sounds like Captain Planet. Someone is putting way too much faith in the ability to talk - negotiate the bookstore into making less money, OC Transpo into a half-assed U-Pass.
And yeah. They'll be up for merging - just as soon as they stop making insane amounts of money from a captive student market that only the Agora helps to evade.

Anonymous said...

Hey there Anonymous #2

I actually think Dean has a very strong platform with regards to our businesses: he wants to improve their services for students. As he’s the current VP Finance (who is responsible for the SFUO businesses), I think he's the best candidate to do that.

The language in Joseph's platform suggests a plan of cut-cut-cut. I think a lot of students would agree the Agora is the last thing that needs to be cut. It needs to be improved so we can continue using economic power to keeping textbook prices cheaper.

Keep in mind that the elected candidate needs to work with the recently elected VP Finance, who has promised to "explore different avenues allowing the Agora to be more competitive". This seems to jive a bit better with what Dean is offering rather (strengthening what we have) than Joseph (negotiating and explore merging with the bookstore).

Anonymous said...

I think it might just provide more open discourse with different options. I think its also a little naive to think that anyone would work against the best interest of the students.

It is quite obvious where both you ryan kennery, and you mike fancie, stand in terms of the elections... So how about we let the candidates do some talking? I'm just trying to keep it from getting out of hand with partisan comments so that there is actually a race and some debate!

Anonymous said...

I understand that Anonymous #4 - definitely.

An open discourse is fantastic. You'll quickly find that many students will find it hard not to speak up about some of these issues, but I respect where you're coming from.

Word on the street is that there WILL be a Presidential debate at some point. I look forward to the candidates going over issues like these.

Maxime said...

Anyone else finding it hilarious that these anonymous posters keep throwing blows to Mike Fancie, while he actually hasn't posted anywhere (to my knowledge)? I keep seeing his name pop up, but only being mentioned by others, in the randomest of contexts.
Mike, did you do something bad no one told me about?? haha.

Philippe said...

Point of information about the Agora...

You probably know the only reason the Agora is kept off campus is because the U of O bookstore has a monopoly on textbook sales on campus.

But that is not a contract like the now-defunct Coca-Cola monopoly. The U of O owns 51% of the U of O bookstore.

In a recent public meeting with U of O Vice-President Resources, Victor Simon, I asked him if, with its 51% of shares in the U of O bookstore, the U of O admin could put an end to the monopoly tomorrow, thus allowing the Agora to exist on campus and thus saving students the huge sum necessary to keep alive a bookstore off-campus.

His answer was essentially: "We could, but do we want to?"

I think it's up to the students to show U of O they don't have the choice. We pay enough in tuition fees, the U of O should not be using unfair tactics to increase our textbook expenses as well.