The SFUO Blog™

Official Results - Numbers and Percentages

2008-03-13T22:11:00.003-04:00

PRESIDENT

Dean Haldenby
59% - 651 votes

Renaud Philippe Garner
25% - 273 votes

Joseph Wesley Richards II
16% - 177 votes

François Picard
0.1% (1 write-in vote)

Jimmy Wales
0.1% (1 write-in vote)

BOA CANDIDATES

Engineering
Jonathan Weber
48 Yes - 6 No

Common Law
Michael Brown
41 Yes - 3 No

Health Sciences
Mélissa Borduas
127 Yes - 10 No

OFFICIAL VOTER TURNOUT : 3.75% - Total votes 1110

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

Results from wPhone

2008-03-13T21:33:00.001-04:00

Haldenby 59%
Garner 25%
Richards 16%
Wales and Picard 0.1%

All BOA candidates elected.

Announced officially in 5 minutes.

INSIDE THE SENATE: Moving right now

2008-03-13T21:14:00.003-04:00

We are going to the 1848 right now. Results will be announced in 10 minutes.

INSIDE THE SENATE: I just realised...

2008-03-13T21:12:00.002-04:00

That the unofficial SFUO Blog poll has 25%+ the amount of votes the official SFUO by-elections have.

How accurate is this poll? Is the credibility of this blog at stake? More details to come.

INSIDE THE SENATE: People getting restless

2008-03-13T21:10:00.003-04:00

Scrutineers and representatives are getting rowdy. Seriously. People want to leave the room but this Campus Idol is really slowing down the process.

INSIDE THE 1848: Dean Haldenby

2008-03-13T21:08:00.002-04:00

Actually, we are still in the Senate, but sources tell us Dean Haldenby is the only candidate at 1848 tonight.

Results coming soon.

INSIDE THE SENATE: I'm trying to leak the results

2008-03-13T21:03:00.002-04:00

But Sylvia is watching me like a hawk. More info in the next minutes.

INSIDE THE SENATE: Debating the drink tickets

2008-03-13T20:57:00.003-04:00

Sylvia Lewis-Havard has contacted 1848 and asked about drink tickets. All people in this room get beer tickets. There will be drink tickets. That is official.

According to a source wearing a Pink shirt next to me, it is Karaoke night at 1848.

INSIDE THE SENATE: Official results (Kinda)

2008-03-13T20:55:00.003-04:00

This just in. OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS.

The fourth place is a tie between Jimmy Wales and François Picard. Both got one write-in.

INSIDE THE SENATE: Moving to 1848

2008-03-13T20:49:00.003-04:00

We are calling Jason Collard to figure out how far they are in Campus Idol.

INSIDE THE SENATE: Done counting

2008-03-13T20:46:00.002-04:00

We are done counting the ballots. Wow. That was fast.

INSIDE THE SENATE: Weird procedure

2008-03-13T20:40:00.002-04:00

There is a lot of merit in having volunteers. One advantage is the ability to review ballots. When a ballot is contested, official representatives of the candidates must decide what the person meant. Only Mélissa Borduas and Dean Haldenby have representatives here. Ryan Kennery is representing Borduas and Ramy Sonbl is representing Haldenby.

There is a tight race between François Picard and Jimmy Whales for the fourth place. (Both have one write-in)

SFUO BLOG Exclusive: A scrutineer has confessed that she did not vote in these elections.

INSIDE THE SENATE: RGN Correction

2008-03-13T20:38:00.002-04:00

In a complete turn-around of events, there has been a 12% increase in the voter turn-out at Roger-Guindon. I incorrectly reported that 8 people had voted at RGN. In fact, 9 people took the time to vote. RGN neglected? No?

INSIDE THE SENATE: Second day being counted

2008-03-13T20:35:00.003-04:00

Wow. These elections are going fast. We are already done counting the first day. We are at the second day of the Presidential vote as we speak.

I have no access to my wPhone but will keep trying to update this blog.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog exclusive.

THE VOTE: INSIDE THE SENATE

2008-03-13T20:22:00.003-04:00

THE SFUO BLOG™ EXCLUSIVE!

The SFUO Blog™ exclusive is in the Senate room where the votes are being tallied. We are embedded journalists for the entire night.

The BOA races are already counted. The Presidential races are being counted as we speak.

Interesting facts: 8 people total voted at Roger-Guindon.

Jimmy Whales is currently running fourth. (He got one write-in vote)

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog Exclusive.

By-election campaign: RPG will declare election invalid

2008-03-13T18:21:00.005-04:00

If Renaud-Philippe Garner were to win the election, he would declare the election to be illegitimate and work on electoral reform through the summer. He would resign from his seat in August and call a by-election for September.

I wonder what the two other candidates think of this idea.

Photo courtesy Jason Chiu, The SFUO2 Blog™ Exclusive

By-election campaign: The polls are closed and...

2008-03-13T17:29:00.002-04:00

The official voter turnout is:

3.7485212100727% (1109 / 29585)

That means the magic number is 555. If you were able to get 555 votes, you will become the next President of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa. Congratulations.

By-election campaign: The SFUO is pathetic.

2008-03-13T00:38:00.014-04:00

As many of you already know, the voter turn-out was situated between 1.8 and 2.4% today. Everything indicates that roughly 4% (or less) of students will end up electing the next President of the SFUO. Correction, 2-3% of students will crown the next President, as the other 1% or so will be divided among the other candidates.

Depressing.

How about this. 1000 students will end up voting, if that many. That means if every unique visitor of this blog were to vote for one candidate, that candidate would win. Even stranger, if all of Dean Haldenby's "friends" on Facebook were to go out and vote, it would probably suffice to give him a majority. To put it another way, Ryan Kennery has more friends on Facebook than the SFUO will have students voting for the next President of the SFUO. There are Engineering classes that have more students than the number of votes the next President of the SFUO will receive. The analogies are endless.

The responsibility for this perversion of democracy can be attributed to one party--the SFUO.

It is a lazy, outdated, stuck in the 90s, status quo organization. There was no revolution this year. There is still a "clique", even though that "clique" has changed, there remains no vision. The posters the SFUO prints are Microsoft Paint™ black boxes with "VOTE" written in white. It's 2008, not 1985 (the year Microsoft Paint™ came out).

There are no Facebook ads encouraging students to vote nor is there a cohesive website accessible to all students. There was a shortened campaign, limiting the number of classroom presentations candidates would be able to to. The election rules are outdated. Students (other than the candidates) should be paid to do classroom presentations. There should be students (other than candidates' volunteers) that are paid to stop people and encourage them to vote. There should be emails sent through the listserv of the University (and the SFUO) with the platforms of all candidates with details regarding where/when students can vote.

We did a fucking Rock the Vote for the Ontario Elections. Am I the only one to see a contradiction here? What the fuck am I missing? Let's bring Nas to encourage students to vote for Electoral reform, but oh heaven forbid we bring someone in to encourage students to vote in their own student elections.

We accept low voter turn out. We do not challenge it. We will send a bus to Louisiana to protest against Stephen Harper and George W. Bush. We will spend roughly $20,000 to bring in David Suzuki for a Green Week, but we will only spend $30,000 for an entire election.

How about bringing Suzuki during the elections? And here is an idea; Put a ballot box outside of the auditorium where he is set to speak. Here is a better idea; Reduce the cost of the ticket if students vote, and vote in any way they choose. Even if they choose to spoil their ballot. Even if they choose to show up to explain why they do not want to vote. It does not matter.

Why not do events during Elections week? Real events. Keynote speakers. Why not bring in Ministers? Former SFUO Presidents like Hugh Segal or Allan Rock? Why not take these elections seriously?

Is it really the candidates' responsibility to promote these elections? How does that make sense?

Yes, it is a by-election, and yes, there was a 12% voter turn-out for the general election. That was 12%, with a U-Pass referendum, a Women's Resource Centre referendum and an Ombudsman referendum. And maybe students are satisfied. Maybe, just maybe, there is no real debate and nothing ever changes, so why vote?

I would argue that even that 12% is an inflated number. It is inflated because of those referendum questions. Had we taken out the U-Pass, the voter turn-out would have been even lower. And explain to any student that JWR2 plans on removing levies on OPIRG or shutting down a student bar that loses $80,000 annually, and you will receive reactions like "What is OPIRG? There is a student bar?"

We are light-years away from having a respectable voter turnout, because we are light years away from having informed voters.

Here is another revolutionary idea. Having candidates do the same classes at the same time. Have 10-15 minute debates at the beginning of each class presentation. Is that too much to spare? Really? Why? Don't we take 15 minutes to "evaluate" the Professors at least once per semester? How would this be different? Heck, do it during that same week.

Oh, but that would be unfair for those students who prepared a list of class presentations. Fuck it. The Elections Office should give a list of all classrooms to all candidates.

The reality is that the current system benefits the incumbents, the front-runners, the establishment. Put a discrete ad the size of a button in the bottom corner page of the Fulcrum explaining to students that they have until next week to run a "No" campaign, and then act surprised that no one chose to run a "No" campaign. Get a low voter turn-out, thus allowing 1500 involved students the ability to decide for 30 000, and complain that the turn-out was so low.

How about that Campaigns' committee? Remember that Campaigns' committee that felt it was important to promote the referendum on electoral reform? Or the Campaigns' committee that feels it is important to support the Aboriginal day of action? Or that Campaigns' committee that is against a North American SPP? Where the fuck is this Campaigns' committee during these elections? And remember that Promo Team?

Members of the executive happily do classroom presentations (during their paid hours) to encourage students to vote YES for a referendum question. Where the fuck are these very SFUO executive members encouraging students to vote? Pam Hrick, President of the SFUO, was doing it gladly for the U-Pass. I guess that was more important than getting students to vote. François Picard, VP Communications, was doing it for Maher Arar and David Suzuki, I guess they were more important than the SFUO Elections. Seamus Wolfe, VP University Affairs, will grab a microphone any chance he gets. His job is to get students involved and aware of the campaigns the SFUO runs. How about using your portfolio to promote... oh I don't know... The SFUO elections? And where the fuck is Julie Séguin's, VP Communications-elect "Orange Machine"? Séguin said, on-air, that she wanted turn-out to be at least 20%. I do not want to single out any one person. But I want to show how everyone is hypocritical on this issue.

There are over 150 student funded clubs at the SFUO, or roughly 5000 students. These groups are a "branch" of the SFUO. Where is the outreach to get clubs involved? Why not organise contests to groups that get the most original campaign for students to vote?

Oh and wait. *DRAMA*. Electronic voting? Oh yes. That winter of 2004 when 150 students voted electronically and their votes were not counted, thus forcing the Elections Office to call another election. Seriously? Can we not get over this issue already?

This executive, this BOA, these Federated bodies, this Elections Office are all either incompetent, lazy or satisfied with the status quo.

The SFUO will invalidate a referendum result if it receives less than 5%. But there is no rule stating what we should do if there is less than 5% turn-out for an actual election. Basic logic would dictate we invalidate these elections and call a new round. But everyone is tired of elections. They are expensive, they are exhausting and why does it matter anyways? Dean Haldenby will win.

This will become another SFUO folk-legend. Just like that year we did another election because of the electronic votes, or that year Pam Hrick won by three votes, or that year only 3% of students voted. Good laughs all around.

It really does not matter anyways. Seamus Wolfe, Danika Brisson and Roxanne Dubois, all elected to next year's executive felt that we should not raise the minimum voter turnout rule.Wolfe thought that the 5% rule applied to candidates as well as referendums. I mean, why should they want to raise the minimum voter turnout? They got elected, they're satisfied with the status quo.

By this time tomorrow, the few hundred students at the 1848 will complain about the low-voter turn-out, drink a beer to Dean's name, and blame the Elections Office for everything that went wrong. Then, we will see the exact same thing happen next year.

Graphic courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

P.S. I am already saturated by the immature, unintelligent and partisan comments I am getting on this blog. Especially from "anonymous". For this reason, I have changed the settings to the comments section. My apologies to those wishing to remain as anonymous as possible. If you do wish to comment but are unwilling to create a Google account, you can email me at sfuo@wassim.ca and I will add your comment to the post.

UPDATE, 17h18: I just got spammed by the SFUO. When I saw the email was from the SFUO/FÉUO, I figured, wow. They're encouraging students to vote! Well done SFUO, well done. (Spam below)

PANDAMONIUM Returns!

The SFUO and The Carleton University Students’ Association team up to bring you the show of the year.

Featuring The Roots, illScarlett and guests. Tickets go on sale Friday for $10 at the SFUO offices (UCU 07 and SITE 0101).

Civic Centre, March 31, 2008.

By-election campaign: Bollinger reacts to Haldenby Rally

2008-03-12T16:05:00.004-04:00

Ben Bollinger who helped run the "YES" side for the Women's Resource Centre had something interesting to say following the rally.

UPDATE: Ben Bolliger. Sorry Ben.

By-election campaign: Haldenby est bilingue

2008-03-12T15:40:00.002-04:00

I just saw this video, and I must say, hats off to Haldenby for making the effort of making a French video. He is the only candidate to do so.

Ironically, sources tell me Haldenby was worried about a few grammar mistakes he made towards the end of the video, so he added the "I'm sorry" to the video. Well done.

By-election campaign: The Dean Machine™

2008-03-12T15:32:00.005-04:00

Pardon the poor quality. Good idea by Haldenby, but I would have to say, failed execution. He had an interesting coalition of volunteers, with many people with very different political backgrounds cheering him on. But clearly short of his objectives.

He could have used a microphone and much more volunteers. His speech (cut short here), only focused on a UniCentre.

One more video coming up shortly.

By-election campaign: The Dean Machine™ kicks into high gear

2008-03-12T10:10:00.002-04:00

It was a matter of time before The Dean Machine™ was going to shift gears, and it seems to have done just that this morning with the release of this video and the planned rally at the Lounge area in the UCU.

The rally is set for 12:50 in the Lounge area at the UCU. The Dean Machine™ is expecting about 100 people. Should be interesting.

Polls are now open. More information to come later on today.

By-election campaign: What RPG missed

2008-03-12T01:48:00.003-04:00

As Eliz mentioned in the comments section, tonight was the "Presidential Pie in the Face" event to raise funds for the Cure. As reported earlier, Renaud-Philippe Garner was the only candidate not in attendance. This is what he missed. Thank you Mélissa Borduas for the video. See this video, and others, right here.

By-election campaign: JWR2 goes multimedia

2008-03-12T00:31:00.003-04:00

Joseph Wesley Richards II goes video. And sings!

By-election campaign: And the Blogger award goes to...

2008-03-11T22:54:00.008-04:00

This is 2008. Students have laptops in class. When you do a class presentation, odds are, they are on Gmail, Hotmail, NYT, whatever. Why not use that to your advantage?

Here are the First (and last) Annual Blogger Awards™.

Running in the category of best website... *Drum roll*

Winner: Dean Haldenby.
Runnerup: Joseph Wesley Richards II.
No-show: Renaud-Philippe Garner.

Dean Haldenby had the only thing resembling a cohesive website in this election campaign. It does not compete with this website, but it works. The blog portion of the blog was disappointing, and very rarely updated. That being said, he had pictures, but could have used some video. The pictures were not great, and I am not sure why he used some of them that were there. Luckily, he redeemed himself by putting these up today. Note to Dean: Scrap the bar photos. The Q&A was a good concept, but did not use it enough. All in all, good website, but could have easily been better.

JWRII had a good blog. In fact...

Running in the category of best Blog *Drum Roll*

Winner: Joseph Wesley Richards II
Runner-up: Dean Haldenby
No-show: Renaud-Philippe Garner

Strong blog by JWR2. He posted one steady entry a day and tackled on big issues. The website lacked a bit of cohesion and/or multimedia. But all in all, if you read through his posts, you get someone that is following the campaign trail and is resAponding to events as they happen. If JWRII had a better team, he could have built himself a better website to accompany his blog. Nonetheless, JWR2 "got it". He understood that people will only go to a website if it is updated regularly.

Haldenby had a blog in name only. He could have easily posted more and it is unfortunate that he did not, as it would have allowed him to reach out directly to visitors of his website.

As for Renaud-Philippe Garner, I must say, he missed out the most. His presentations were by far the "loudest" and he was able to captivate the most attention. Had he plugged a website, he would have been able to control the message, through blog entries and videos. I must say, he is the only candidate to date to have released a video (he has two) and he could have easily stuck them on a blog. His blog entries would have probably been the most eccentric and could have easily sparked debates elsewhere.

Photos courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: RPG releases final video

2008-03-11T22:38:00.003-04:00

This video might interest some readers. For those wondering, I will put up all videos that the candidates make. Dean is set to release his tonight. No confirmation from Joseph Wesley Richards II yet.

La Rotonde endorses...

2008-03-11T16:10:00.007-04:00

... Read the issue to find out who La Rotonde endorsed for the by-elections. The issue has arrived at 109 Osgoode (Corner of Osgoode/King Edward) and will appear everywhere on the main campus in the next two hours. Feel free to come and pick up your copy.

La Rotonde's website will be updated tonight at around midnight, if you are unable to come pick up your paper copy.

UPDATE 16h15: VP University Affairs, Seamus Wolfe, sent a courrier to pick up 15 issues of La Rotonde for the SFUO office. The SFUO Blog™ sent the members of the executive a gift back with their courrier. Enjoy!

UPDATE 00h25: Click on cover to see entire issue.

By-election campaign: Future Chief electoral officer?

2008-03-11T13:32:00.008-04:00

Austin Menyasz was all smiles today, and all praise for the other interviewee, Dean Haldenby. Menyasz officially launched his bid to succeed to Sylvia Lewis-Havard next year, and got a surprising, though maybe reluctant(?) support from the outgoing CEO.

Interesting interview because Menyasz was also in favour of a referendum on the Canadian Federation of Students, and asked Haldenby what he would do to ensure a "fair" referendum.

On another note, both guests exchanged their ideas on how to get a higher voter turn-out, with Menyasz coming out with the most ambitious idea of having "slates", though he does not call them slates. Rather, he refers to them as "voting blocks."

We got a few interesting questions from the field, discussed the role of Community Life Services (CLS), low voter turnout, the Dean Machine™, potential training to all candidates before elections, fiscal responsibility (surpluses).

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Simon Lalande one on one

2008-03-11T12:54:00.005-04:00

Some Anglophones might not know who Simon Lalande is, but in the Francophone community, Lalande is a legend. He has been President of La LIEU, the French Improv league, President of l'Association de la francophonie de l'Ontario, and is usually quoted by anyone remotely interested to the question of bilingualism at the U of O.

Oddly enough, Lalande never got involved within the SFUO and I asked him why. A large part of the interview revolved around the question of bilingualism and just how bilingual the University/SFUO should be. We also discussed the frustrations of being an "involved Francophone", or as Lalande says it: "The Token Francophone" of a Federated body. More often than not, that Francophone has to translate/correct documents and is unable to actually be involved.

Lalande also gave his opinions on whether or not there should be a separate French student union, like the model at Laurentienne.

It was certainly an interview for the ages. French podcast below.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: The SFUO Blog™ teams up with CHUO-FM

2008-03-11T03:29:00.006-04:00

Tuesday morning at 10AM, The SFUO Blog™ will team up with CHUO-FM and broadcast a special edition of the Ivory Antenna. Why will it be so special? Because we want your opinion.

There are three ways every single reader of this blog can participate:

1 - In person.
CHUO-FM is located in the sub-basement of Morisset. The easiest way to access it is by taking the elevator or the staircase next to the Reprocentre in Morisset. We will be in studios and the more the merrier.

2 - Over the phone.
It is possible to call-in and you will have the option to a) be live on-air or b) to leave your question/comment and the panel will discuss it. 613.562.5967

3 - Gtalk/Email.
Send your email (or add) sfuoblog@gmail.com to your Gtalk, and we will be connected for the entire hour.

You can also post comments on this entry.

We want more opinions, point of views and questions. The entire hour will be dedicated to the elections, but seen from different people with different backgrounds.

Everyone is invited.
WHAT: Discussions, debates, questions and point of views on the SFUO.
WHERE: Studios of CHUO-FM/Email/Phone
WHEN: Tuesday March 11, 10 to 11AM.

Be sure to tune in (89.1FM), switch to channel 943 on your Rogers Digital Cable or simply click here.

P.S. All podcasts are now working (aka no more chipmunks!), on all browsers (except they might now show up with Internet Explorer). Here are the links. The elected executive for next year. Joey Coleman. Sylvia Lewis-Havard. Joseph Wesley Richards II. Dean Haldenby. Renaud-Philippe Garner.

By-election campaign: Enter CFS

2008-03-11T02:32:00.007-04:00

I have criticized others for beating the Canadian Federation of Students drum unnecessarily. In certain university papers, half the news coverage is dedicated to CFS or CFS-related content. At the University of Ottawa, it is almost the opposite. Once a year, the motion is brought to the BOA, and once a year, the board shuts it down. People cry foul, and the week after, no one talks about the national union. Elections come and go, and candidates repeat the same line: I am not sure where I stand on CFS, but I think there should be a referendum on the issue. That is, for instance, Dean Haldenby's line right now, and is also the one that was shared by most candidates running in the general election. There is too much risk and too little reward to taking a clear-cut stand.

In a way, "moderate" (or no-position) candidates have it right. Most students at the U of O, just like most students everywhere in Canada, have no idea what the letters CFS mean. Except, some students do care, one way or the other. And generally speaking, those students tend to vote in much larger proportions than their indifferent counterparts.

Now if I am a candidate running in this by-election, my objective is to get students out to vote. People who are already endorsing one candidate or the other are not likely to change their position and besides, there is much more to gain by exploiting the 90%+ percent that does not vote and hope to chop away a few percentage points your way.

So let us look at this a different way. Dean Haldenby is running as the candidate who does not have a position on the matter. He has two extremely prominent volunteers: Mike Cheevers and Ryan Kennery, respectfully in favour and opposed to joining the union. How did Kennery feel when Joseph Wesley Richards stood up and said he was against joining CFS? How did Cheevers feel when Renaud-Philippe Garner stood up and yelled his admiration and passion for the Federation? Was there not a conflict?

Perhaps less so in the case of Kennery, where he shares many more values with Haldenby than he does with Richards, but in the case of Cheevers and others in the audience who heard a passionate plea from Garner, was that not a conflicting moment?

It is difficult to beat out a frontrunner. Aside from outcampaigning the person, which is clearly not happening in this by-election, one way of at least getting noticed is by taking stands that go against the status quo. Joseph Wesley Richard II's recent blog entry where he clearly takes a stand on the issue shows that he might still find his base.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Low voter turnout

2008-03-10T20:01:00.006-04:00

After Nick Taylor-Vaisey sabotaged my second-last post with his contest, the conversation took an interesting turn and Serge Miville came out with this comment (I'm paraphrasing):

If 6% of students vote and 55% of them vote for Candidate A, that would mean Candidate A would be elected with less than 4% of the popular vote.

Some might wonder why the predictions are so bleek. Well, in the last General election, where five positions were contested and there was a referendum on the U-Pass, only 8% of students had voted after the second day and roughly 12% had voted after the third one.

This by-election will only have two voting days, no referendums and no other races. You do the math. Some, like the Editor in chief of the Fulcrum, are predicting less than 5%. This is interesting because...

Following the general election, all five elected executive members came on L'Antenne d'Ivoire (CHUO-FM). I asked whether there should be a "minimum" turn-out before the SFUO declares the elections invalid. Seamus Wolfe answered there was a minimum turn-out clause, which is 5%. On the executive, only Julie Séguin and Joël Larose expressed concerns over that low number and both said they would not be against raising it. The other three, Wolfe, Roxanne Dubois and Danika Brisson did not show as much enthousiasm for the idea.

After a quick search of the SFUO Constitution, I found the "minimum clause":

4.17.4.1.1:
In order for the result of a referendum to be valid, 5% of all members of the Federation must have exercised their right to vote.

I just got off the phone with Sylvia Lewis-Havard, Chief electoral officer, and she confirmed that there is no "minimum-clause" for candidates. Which raises the question: Why not?

By-election campaign: Menyasz v. Garner

2008-03-10T18:52:00.007-04:00

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."

Sources tell me Austin Menyasz' complaint to the SFUO Elections Office will not be followed-up with any concrete measures from the office. Apparently Menyasz is seeking a retraction and an apology from Garner and is prepared to go to the Student Arbitration Committee. The Elections Office did not pursue the matter and it is still unclear if they will be asked to testify if/when Menyasz goes to the SAC.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Endorsements

2008-03-10T15:04:00.003-04:00

Should newspapers endorse candidates? La Rotonde did it in the General elections. The Fulcrum did not. The French paper plans on doing it for the By-elections. Should it? Why? Why not?

What about Blogs?

By-election campaign: Who should remove posters?

2008-03-10T12:53:00.007-04:00

Renaud-Philippe Garner has refused to put posters up. The SFUO has a tradition where it asks all candidates (and their volunteers) to remove all posters the final day of the elections. Should RPG have to remove Dean Haldenby's and Joseph Wesley Richard's? According to someone at the Elections office, the answer is no.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: The Battleground shifts to Residence

2008-03-09T19:04:00.006-04:00

Sources tell me both Dean Haldenby and Joseph Wesley Richards II have shifted their focus to students in residence.

Haldenby has already sent out an email to all CAs (~~Campus~~ Community Advisers?), a move that destabilised JWR2, who has considered Res Students as his "base" since the beginning of the race. One of the CAs has complained about the spam and she informed the JWR2 camp about the email.

In the email in question, Haldenby requests a meeting with them. JWR2 is scrambling to meet them as well, and is trying to beat out Haldenby by meeting with them first.

More information to come. (If necessary)

By-election campaign: Sharp little guy...

2008-03-09T03:54:00.002-04:00

Rushmore is probably my second favourite Wes Anderson film and someone in this Presidential by-election keeps reminding me of Max Fisher.

More highschool/college/university election movie links to come.

By-election campaign: Weekend Notes (Aaron Wherry shout out)

2008-03-09T01:36:00.003-05:00

ELECTIONS.SFUO.CA WEBSITE IS PATHETIC: As demonstrated here, here and here, The SFUO Blog™ was able to do something in 30 minutes that the Elections Office was unable to do in a week: Put up the candidates' platforms online. We were told the platforms were up and running the next day. It turns out, Francophones of this campus still have no idea who is running in the by-elections. At least they'll know when to vote.

SFUO EXECUTIVES DO NOT KNOW HOW TO BLOG: "In order to better let students know what their SFUO executive is up to, regular updates will be posted on the SFUO website." Remember that promise? I do. This is the result. To Dean Haldenby's credit, he is the last member of this current executive to have posted an update.

AUSTIN MENYASZ WILL BE HEARD: The PIDSSA President will have his complaint heard by the Elections Committee on Monday night. More details to come. (Refrain from comments. There's a post right here for that.)

VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS!: Expect to see at least one candidate release a video on Monday. My sources tell me it will be a 2 minute video and it will be put up on YouTube. The SFUO Blog™ will keep you covered.-

EMAILS! EMAILS! EMAILS!: The vote is in two days. Expect spam in your inbox. At least two candidates will be sending out mass-emails to students in the next days. (Arts and Law students beware)

BOA CANDIDATES COUNT TOO: Along with the Presidential by-elections, students from three faculties will have the opportunity to vote "Yes/No" to their BOA candidates. Last week, all three candidates were invited and only one took up the invitation. Mélissa Borduas, running for Health Science, gave an excellent speech in front of the 100+ present last Friday. Michael T. Brown, running for the Faculty of Common Law, was not able to attend, but was gracious enough to submit his platform to The SFUO Blog™. No word from Jonathan Weber, running for the vacant Engineering seat.

LA ROTONDE, ENDORSING?: Rumour has it the University of Ottawa's French Language newspaper, La Rotonde, will be endorsing a candidate for the SFUO By-election. To add to the hype, the issue will only be released on Tuesday instead of the traditional Monday. The Fulcrum, the U of O's other newspaper, has not endorsed any candidates this year.

By-election campaign: Austin Menyasz furious

2008-03-07T18:04:00.012-05:00

According to my sources, Austin Menyasz was not amused by a comment made by Renaud-Philippe Garner during the debate. During phase two of the debate, where candidates were allowed to ask each other questions, Garner asked Haldenby what he thought about "Ethics" committees that would overlook situations like the one PIDSSA encountered this year.

Earlier this year, the Political students association (PIDSSA) encountered many problems at the executive level. Its President, Austin Menyasz, was facing an impeachment process. PIDSSA constitution dictated a 2/3 majority to impeach a member of the executive. 180 people voted, thus making 120 the magic number. It turned out that 112 students voted to impeach him, 8 short.

In today's debate, Garner used this example to justify an ethics committee, following it with a comparison on ethnic cleansing/genocide. I am paraphrasing, but he said something like "It's like if we say a world leader killed 10 000, not 15 000." There were many laughs and it was drowned out, but it was something along those lines.

Menyasz will be launching an official complaint.

Zoom Productions has put up the video of the debates, but they split it up in two parts, and the incident in question happened during the second part. Turns out Zoom was only able to put the first part on its website. It should be up in the next day.

Please do not post comments regarding your personal views on Austin Menyasz. They will most likely be deleted. You can comment on the situation at hand.

UPDATE 18h20: I have been told that a request for an official complaint form has been submitted.

UPDATE 19h42: VIDEO IS UP! The people at Zoom Productions were kind enough to let me in their office tonight. Great staff over at Zoom. Through rain and snow we trekked on and we got this clip just a few minutes ago. Special thanks to Tito and Simon Préfontaine for getting me this excerpt from the debate. Check our Zoom Productions for more great videos. (Zoom has its own YouTube page where this clip can also be found. Unfortunately, right now, it is still uploading on the YouTube servers)

UPDATE 19h47: I have just been told that Austin Menyasz has sent an official complaint and it has been received by the Elections Office. More to come.

UPDATE SATURDAY 16h22: I have just realised that many of our visitors are still using Internet Explorer. To you, I apologise. Many of the features of this blog, such as Podcasts and Video, might not be available to you. In this post, for instance, there is a great video from the Vimeo website. It does not appear if you are using Internet Explorer. Here's a great solution.

By-election campaign: Missed the debate? Ask your question here!

2008-03-07T15:52:00.008-05:00

Many students like to ask question during a debate so that the candidates are held accountable the following year to their promises. Another good reason to ask a question during a debate is to directly compare what all three have to say.

Due to the limited amount of time we had during the debate, many questions were left... un-asked.

All candidates have agreed to publicly answer any questions students might have. Eliz has asked a question on students with disabilities that I will copy in the comments section of this post. Please feel free to post your questions/comments and in theory, candidates should respond throughout the day/night.

UPDATE 19h59: Part I of the debate. Part II of the debate. (Thank you Zoom)

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Debate summary

2008-03-07T13:36:00.007-05:00

It is always difficult to stand out when there are more than two participants in a debate. Dean Haldenby, front-runner and current VP Finance, was probably the biggest winner in today's debate, if only because of his ability to showcase his political machine.

The room had roughly 100-120 students in the audience and they were mostly, if not all, Haldenby volunteers/supporters. He often had the best answer, or at least gave the impression of having the best answer, and when he didn't, he was never completely outmatched. He made every possible effort to please everyone, always positioning himself in the middle. Big assist to the audience. The effect of clapping and screaming after every response definitely gives Haldenby credibility and intimidated, to a certain extent, his opponents.

Joseph Wesley Richards II tried to come out strong, but the fact that the audience was practically silent after every single one his responses definitely killed his momentum. His speech was adapted to students who do note vote/do not care, and unfortunately, at events like this one, those students are not in the audience. He was constantly on the defensive and had to defend his position on the Agora which was constantly taken out of context. Considering his baritone voice and charismatic presence, he could have gotten much more out of this debate than he actually did. Also, it did not help when his two opponents seemed to be be getting cozier and cozier as the debate went on. Not a great showing by JWR2, but certainly not as bad as it seemed to be with a Dean-friendly audience. Just goes to show you the power of a political machine.

Renaud-Philippe Garner had absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain from this debate. It gave him exposure, an audience and a stage for him to scream out his ideas. He was more subdued than he usually is during his class presentations, but his style definitely deserved an A. He gained supporters in the crowd, even though they will still most likely vote for Dean. His passionate plea in favour of CFS made him stand-out from Dean's "I don't know yet" response. The "common good" gained a lot of traction as well. Unfortunately for Garner, he basically said it during his closing remarks: "I am not in this to win." He also made a Freudian slip during the debate when he said "Once you're President..." to Haldenby. All in all though, it was a good showing, and it was probably accentuated by his eccentricity and the crowd's reaction.

---

Interesting points:

CFS - Joseph Wesley Richards is opposed to it, but would not block a Referendum to join, Dean Haldenby does not know yet, but think there needs to be a referendum on the issue next year, and Renaud-Philippe Garner was completely in favour of joining CFS, and was obviously in favour of holding a referendum on the issue next year.

Agora bookstore: Renaud-Philippe Garner and Dean Haldenby had essentially the same position: Don't touch the Agora Bookstore. JWR2 distinguished himself on this issue by saying he is willing to look at all options to continue to make the Agora more advantageous to students, including a potential merger/joint ownership of the Follet owned bookstore in the Unicentre.

U-Pass: JWR2 came out saying there needs to be a 50% opt-out for students in financial difficulty. This seemed lost though, as many felt he meant a 50% opt-out to all students. Also, someone asked a question as to why pay 125$ for nothing when you can pay 250$ for a pass. Dean Haldenby said there would be a 100% opt-out for students in financial difficulty. Renaud-Philippe Garner came out on top on this one when he said "Who are we to judge who is rich and who is poor. What crtierias would we use?" Though his position is closer to JWR2's, of allowing an opt-out to all students, he still gained momentum with the crowed through his introduction.

On Fiscal responsibility: Joseph Wesley Richards probably had the clearest position on the matter. We should reduce spending and we should plan differently. The example on the student-run bar is the best one he gave. Last year the bar ran 80 000$ deficit. This year, the executive planned another 80 000$ deficit. "This is bad management." Dean Haldenby was in a difficult situation as he is the current VP Finance, but basically advocated for the status quo. Garner stood out once again with this response: "Surplus is not a bad thing. It shows we are doing something right." He also said that bureaucracy is not a bad thing. His answers appealed to many in the audience.

On Services: JWR2 stood out, once again, through a distinct position. "Let's review all of the SFUO services." His message got lost when his opponents grilled him on the fact that these services are funded through levies which were passed during referendums. He did raise a good point when he said the referendums and elections are not legitimate, but he was on the defensive for most of this question. His opponents seemed united on this point. JWR2 could have adopted a less controversial position by advocating a review of all levies every 5-10 years. It would have probably avoided confusion.

On bilingualism: All candidates had very similar positions on bilingualism. Strong points for JWR2's experience that he outlined. Strong points for Haldenby's concrete measure/promise to have simultaneous translation during SFUO meetings, and strong points to Garner for saying that when you give the same rights to the majority as you do to the minority, the minority ends up with less. All in all though, they all came out with similar positions on this question.

Good, respectful debate, except for one minor incident. The crowd was generally respectful to all candidates, even though it was a visibly pro-Dean audience. Students are probably the biggest winners, as for the first time in these SFUO elections (General elections included), students were given a clear option, in substance, style and personality.

Video to come later in the afternoon.

UPDATE 19h59: Part I of the debate. Part II of the debate. (Thank you Zoom)

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Debate photos

2008-03-07T13:12:00.007-05:00

Photos courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Waiting for the debate...

2008-03-07T10:02:00.009-05:00

Sitting in the Lounge of the UniCentre, I can't help but notice certain posters and wonder whether or not a short campaign benefits the "front-runner" or the outsiders. Needless to say, the question does merit certain consideration.

Most SFUO elections last three weeks, whereas this one - from the moment candidates were allowed to start campaigning 'till the last vote is counted - will only have run for 10 or 11 days.

It is hard to fathom this race generating anything near the dismal 12.1% the General election was able to gather, if only for the fact that there is only one race. Under normal circumstances, referendums get students out and it safe to say that some people go vote only to get a say on the referendum questions. I remember my first year, I went to vote for one particular candidate and for one particular referendum question. As I was at the ballot box, I felt like I had to vote for the other candidates. For the other questions/candidates, I checked off the names that seemed the most "familiar", or people I might have seen, posters, etc.

This election will be different. Every single student that goes to vote, will be doing so to choose between the three presidential candidates. No one will be voting for something else and simply check off a recognizable name at the ballot box.

Given these circumstances, was a 10 day campaign really the best strategy for the SFUO? It seems as though they did not expect a race.

DEBATE! DEBATE! DEBATE! UNICENTRE! 11:30AM!

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: RPG straight talks on the Ivory Antenna

2008-03-06T18:48:00.009-05:00

RPG arrived at the station at exactly 5:15PM and listened in to the last minutes of the Coleman interview. He was confident throughout the interview, never stumbled, never hesitated and rarely went around a question. The 30 minute interview touches mainly on his platform.

He did express a lot of interest in having a referendum put to students on an adhesion to CFS, expressed a strong desire to allow students to opt-out of the eventual U-Pass, felt that salaries did little to ensure qualified individuals (gave the example of Enron) and that if anything, we should have people who do it for the common good. RPG also went on at length about having more checks and balances at the SFUO to allow interested students to have a say throughout the year, not just during the elections.

As the interview went on, many people from the station kept stopping by to see who was talking. Tune in and you will know why.

Also, many have expressed a desire to contact Renaud directly. I asked him permission to publish his email, and it was granted: renaudgarner@hotmail.com
He told me he would respond to every email he receives.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO2 Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Blogger to Blogger

2008-03-06T18:21:00.008-05:00

Joey Coleman, blogger extraordinaire at Maclean's, was the first guest on tonight's edition of the Ivory Antenna on CHUO-FM. Coleman spoke at length about blogging v. print media, student run newspapers v. mainstream publications (Maclean's/L'actualité), the SFUO low turnouts and of course... the Canadian Federation of Students.

The very last questions asks Coleman whether or not he thinks CFS referendums are/can be "fair". Tune in to find out the answer.

The podcast lasts about 20 minutes and is exclusively in English.

By-election campaign: RPG explains why he does not have posters

2008-03-06T16:37:00.002-05:00

It's bilingual.

By-election campaign: Renaud Garner owns the room

2008-03-06T16:25:00.003-05:00

I decided to see Renaud-Philippe Garner first hand and followed him into his 4PM classroom presentation.

Before his speech he spoke with everyone in the first row and started a five minute conversation with the Professor. Good move because she gave him much more time than I've seen a Prof give any student. He started by shouting his student number out and saying he is not a number. By then the class froze and started listening. The few that kept talking were practically shushed by others. He kept pointing and pumping his fist. Explained why he does not have posters (see YouTube video above), advocated for no copyright on textbooks and other academic materials. The whole time, he had a picture of cattle behind him (projected from the projector), and kept saying student are not cattle. People around me kept saying "Wow, this guy is passionate." We wanted to film the presentation, but we do not have that medium (yet, give us time.)

After his speech, Renaud interrupted the clapping (literally) and thanked Dean Haldenby for not attacking him on the Ivory Antenna the night before. He encouraged students to vote.

Renaud-Philippe Garner will be on the Ivory Antenna tonight at 5:15PM. Tune in to CHUO 89.1FM, listen here, or 943 on Rogers Digital Cable.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

This was predictable

2008-03-06T15:07:00.006-05:00

A petition is going around the UniCentre asking students to sign if they are in favour of a "Men's resource centre."

Apparently he (they?) is only asking men to sign the petition. My source asked to see the petition and he told her: "I would get you to sign, but I was told only to get men, since they would be the ones affected by this."

According to my source, Pam Hrick, President of the SFUO, would have totally dismissed him.

UPDATE 15h30: I just had an opportunity to speak with Shawn Gordon, author of the petition, and asked him a few questions. This is not a criticism of the WRC, in fact, he is really serious about this centre. Here are the points he wants to bring forward: Gendered pricing, paternity leave rights, violence against men, support for battered men, support and education in relation to sexual assaults against men. He hopes to collect 1000 signatures, and exclusively from men.

By-election campaign: INTERVIEWS TONIGHT!

2008-03-06T12:24:00.002-05:00

I am pleased to announce that CHUO-FM will be broadcasting a special edition of the Ivory Antenna from 5PM to 6PM tonight. Be sure to tune in, listen online, or switch to channel 943 on your Rogers Digital Cable.

Guests tonight? Joey Coleman and Renaud-Philippe Garner.

By-election campaign: Memo to candidates, repeat your name

2008-03-06T12:00:00.004-05:00

Interesting speech by Joseph Wesley Richards II today. Talked about being the underdog and mentioned the U-Pass and his plan to allow an opt-out. JWR2 is a good speaker and his classroom presentations are usually well-received, but election campaigns are draining and he seemed drained today.

Following his speech he went straight for the door, only to be stopped by a student who asked him what the "U-Pass" is. After answering that question, JWR2 fielded a few more and as he was leaving, someone yelled out: "What's your name?"

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Renaud all class

2008-03-06T10:38:00.005-05:00

Both Dean Haldenby and Renaud-Philippe Garner were doing the same class presentation this morning. RPG definitely won based on the very unofficial "applause meter". RPG went first and completely threw Haldenby off by thanking and acknowledging him at the end of his presentation for not resorting to personal attacks.

We will have some Renaud photos and sound bites later on in the day, but Renaud's class presentations are ranking first in originality, tone and energy.

Someone just told me: "Imagine if he had posters."

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Executive decision

2008-03-05T21:44:00.005-05:00

Following Sylvia Lewis-Havard's interview, JWR2 felt a need to reiterate his position on the fines he received earlier in the campaign. Sources tell me the two exchanged words at the station and scheduled a meeting later on in the evening.

During this meeting, Lewis-Havard and JWR2 spoke about the fines, and decided to reduce the "70$" to "50$" (20$ reduction). According to my sources, Dean Haldenby expressed reserves over the hefty fine and felt that it should be dropped.

Interestingly enough, I had asked Lewis-Havard during our interview whether the fines were too steep, to which she used the argument of precedent to justify the fine. Looks like we have a new precedent.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: JWR2 is in his element

2008-03-05T20:15:00.014-05:00

As the interview ended, a volunteer at CHUO-FM said to me: "What a speaker." And what a speaker indeed. JWR2 has focused on interviews like this one and Friday's debate. The logic being JWR2 can win any debate in this election, one on one.

Interesting points:
- He is against CFS personally. Not necessarely against a referendum, but he is clearly against any adhesion to CFS.
- Feels OPIRG should be opt-in, not opt-out. Refused to go into details on other services.
- Disagrees completely with Sylvia's reasoning on why he was fined.
- Talks about green issues at the end of the interview, without going into specifics.
- Described Renaud as a "radical" and Dean as the "status quo" candidate.
- Commented on Mel Wood's question of why "II" instead of "Jr."
(Bilingual interview)

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Sylvia Lewis-Havard in Studio

2008-03-05T20:03:00.014-05:00

Chief electoral officer, Sylvia Lewis-Havard, joined the gang at the Ivory Antenna (CHUO-FM) today, and raised many, many interesting points. She explained the reasons JWR2 was fined, reflected upon the new reality of the SFUO elections (less posters), and admitted to loving the SFUO Blog.

Interesting points:
- She loves the SFUO Blog
- The new reality of the SFUO elections (where candidates have less posters) means that the SFUO Elections Office needs to be more present during campaigns
- Upset with the SFUO web-maintenance
- Need to tweak some rules regarding online campaigning

Interesting fact: SLH stuck around the station and listened to the Richards II interview.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Haldenby live on CHUO

2008-03-05T17:01:00.022-05:00

Nick Taylor-Vaisey and I just finished a very special edition of the Ivory Antenna/L'antenne d'Ivoire and I must say, wow. That was quite the experiment. We went from English to French and back, and we even got some callers/emailers. What a show.

Among the highlights:

- Dean thinks the BOA made a mistake when they overturned the decision to have a referendum on CFS last summer. He feels that the SFUO has not been a prospective member and he does not know how he feels about CFS because he has not had a chance to measure it yet. He feels students should be allowed to vote on the issue and thinks that if the SFUO Elections Office is running it, it will be a fair referendum.

- Dean wants to have live translation during SFUO meetings to allow everyone to speak the language in which they are most comfortable with. He feels this would be an expensive investment at first, but it would allow the meetings to be bilingual and that is something he would seriously consider.

- On General Assemblies, Dean said he likes the idea a lot, and said it was probably his favourite point from Renaud's platform. He did not say which part of JWR2's platform he preferred, but promised to email/comment us with a response.

- On a student-run University centre, Dean spoke about the levy each student pays for the UniCentre and the fact that it is ridiculous that the University is the one managing it. He is prepared to take back the levy and invest it in... the construction of a new UniCentre!

A lot more + comment + Joey Coleman cameo + analysis from the hosts.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog exclusive.

By-election campaign: Poster update

2008-03-05T14:39:00.002-05:00

Joseph Wesley Richards II is (finally) putting up posters in the University as we speak. Haldenby has had his everywhere since Sunday at 4:30PM.

And Renaud? Still standing by his promise to not put posters up. One of his opponents had this to say: "It's not a bad strategy. If he loses, he can say he lost because he didn't put posters up."

By-election campaign: Interviews tonight

2008-03-05T14:30:00.004-05:00

What a line-up for CHUO-FM today!

At 4PM there will be an interview with Presidential hopeful, Dean Haldenby. (Bilingual interview) and Chief Electoral Officer, Sylvia Lewis-Havard.

At 6PM the two other Presidential hopefuls, Renaud-Philippe Garner and Joseph Wesley Richards II.

I will try to put up all four (bilingual) podcasts.

If you want to listen to the shows live, click here, tune in to 89.1FM or channel 943 on Rogers Digital Cable.

By-election campaign: Stump speeches

2008-03-05T14:23:00.003-05:00

I just spoke with a volunteer from the Haldenby camp and this is what he told me:

"All three candidates were doing a classroom presentation together this morning and as much as I hate to say it, Dean came in third. Renaud goes up like an Drill Sergeant and completely silents the room. He surprisingly gets the biggest ovation. JWR2 is JWR2. He sounds like Barak Obama. And Dean needs to loosen up, he is going against two opponents that have nothing to lose."

From a JWR2 volunteer:

"All I can say is Renaud is getting the best reactions right now."

I am trying to get Zoom to film the stump speeches. (As well the class reaction)

By-election campaign: Snow storm

2008-03-05T13:10:00.002-05:00

Sources tell me the snow is slowing down certain candidates. At least one candidate has missed a class presentation because he got there late.

By-election campaign: Debates Friday 11:30AM

2008-03-05T10:52:00.003-05:00

This just in!

Presidential Debates will be held at the Lounge in the UniCentre from 11:30AM to 1PM.

BOA candidates will have an opportunity to give a brief presentation and respond to questions from the audience. Their presentations will be followed by the Presidential candidates' debate.

All of the debates will be filmed and recorded and podcasts and video will be made available by Friday afternoon.

Pizza/Refreshments will be offered.

See you Friday!

By-election campaign: Debates! We need help!

2008-03-04T23:24:00.007-05:00

Are you tired of these SFUO elections? Where is the Elections website? What is the SFUO doing to promote its own elections? Is the University of Ottawa partnering up with the SFUO to promote these by-elections?

Here is my radical idea.

Ask the University, politely, to post the debate information on its main website. (OMG.)

Email every single Federated body and ask them to promote the debate. (Revolutionary idea)

Email every single student through the SFUO list-serv to promote the debate. (Radical idea)
UPDATE, 23h40: Pam Hrick is open to the idea of sending it through the list-serv! Should be sent out tomorrow afternoon.

Have free Pizza during the debate (Oh my God. Investing to get students out!)

Rent out the Alumni Auditorium and make it a "grand" affair.

We have two days left to promote these debates. There was a debate as to have the debate on Friday or on Monday, and we felt that considering the circumstances, it would be better to have it on Friday to have at least on campus newspaper an opportunity to cover them.

If these ideas interest you, and if you have any other ideas, please email François Picard (vp.communications@sfuo.ca) Pam Hrick (president@sfuo.ca) and Sylvia Havard-Lewis (elections@sfuo.ca)

By-election campaign: Debates on Friday

2008-03-04T22:15:00.002-05:00

As rumoured before, the By-election presidential debates will be held on Friday March 7th in the UniCentre. They are scheduled to last from 11:30AM to about 1PM. More details to come.

Evacuation of the UniCentre

2008-03-04T14:50:00.010-05:00

Sources tell me that parts of the University Centre (UCU) have been sealed off. No word on the reasons. More information to come (maybe). (Thanks Ryan Kennery)

UPDATE, 15h03: According to Melanie Wood, editor in chief of the Fulcrum, a suspicious package was sent to Community Life Services. Parts of the building are taped off. Sophie Nadeau, Media relations for the U of O, was not extremely generous on information.

UPDATE, 15h23: According to Nick Taylor-Vaisey, news editor of the Fulcrum, the official response seems to be that it was a false alarm and that the UniCentre is set to open soon.

Great job by the entire Fulcrum staff. More details to come (probably) in tomorrow's issue of the Fulcrum.

But what does this have to do with the SFUO elections? According to my sources, Joseph Wesley Richards II went to the Elections Office to get his posters stamped, and, due to this "false alarm" was unable to reach someone. The stars do not seem to be aligned for JWR2, at least, not yet.

More reasons why this matters? We have been trying to reach Community Life Services since this morning to book the Agora of the UCU for the "all candidates'" debate.

Photo courtesy of Meaghan Walton, Fulcrum Art Director. The Fulcrum/The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: The platforms

2008-03-04T14:30:00.005-05:00

The SFUO Blog 1 - The Elections Office 0.

While the SFUO's official website is still showing a blank page, the SFUO Blog has got you covered.

Here are the platforms of all three candidates. I have made no changes to them and I am posting them as I have received them.

In alphatbetical order:

Renaud-Philippe Garner
Dean Haldenby
Joseph Wesley Richards II

All platforms are bilingual.

Any other requests?

By-election campaign: Criss-crossing

2008-03-04T13:18:00.002-05:00

Presidential candidates have been criss-crossing in classrooms and from what I have heard, all three have completely different styles. Renaud-Philippe Garner was able to completely silence the room and was clearly drawing a lot of attention today. After his comment: "I will not pollute your environment with posters." many students applauded. Many others seemed more intrigued than anything else.

Dean Haldenby has his stump speech figured out since yesterday and is playing it safe.

Joseph W. Richards II has started seriously campaigning and had the opportunity to follow-up on Dean Haldenby's in at least one classroom today. Haldenby stuck around for the speech and took off like Flash Gordon as people started applauding, probably to get ready for another class presentation.

By-election campaign: Delays explained

2008-03-04T12:56:00.003-05:00

As I posted earlier, the SFUO Elections website has still not put up the candidates' platforms. At least one candidate was counting on the SFUO website to transmit his platform to students.

According to my sources, "nothing is simple at the SFUO. Everything needs to go through a person at Marketing, and unfortunately, that person is on vacation. So they [elections office] send it to someone at the translation department, who works part-time. He looks at it and sends it to someone else, also part-time, who then finally puts it on the website." According to this source, the process might take a few more days.

There you have it.

I sent an email to all three candidates about 30 minutes ago. I have already received one of the platforms. The moment I receive all three, I will post them here on this website.

By-election campaign: If only the SFUO was the U of A...

2008-03-04T10:24:00.003-05:00

In certain universities, "joke candidates" are permitted. A fire hydrant has run, unsuccessfully in British-Columbia, and above is a video of Soundwave debating Dollansky at the University of Alberta.

That would certainly be unconventional, original and unique if it was permitted at the University of Ottawa. Any thoughts?

By-election campaign: How long does it take...

2008-03-04T10:03:00.002-05:00

To put the candidates' platforms up?

The vote is in a week.

Also, would it not be a good idea to change the dates in the header?

How to win a Presidential by-election

2008-03-04T02:10:00.007-05:00

I hesitated for a very long time before posting this. But clearly, certain candidates need all the help they can get. For those who dislike politics, continue walking. There is nothing to see here.

FIRST RULE: VOLUNTEERS
Recruit as many volunteers as possible. This seems obvious. But to some it is not. Friends in classes, your friend's friends, acquaintances, students seated on federated bodies... It really does not matter. Send emails. Make phone calls. Organise meetings with each person individually and tell them why you are best suited to be President. Adapt your speech to each person.

Be effective with your volunteers. Do not burn them out. Use them to post some posters, but not all posters.

Find prominent volunteers. Regardless of whether that person is popular or not, if they are known, it will help your campaign by adding credibility to it. Remember, your enemy's enemy is your friend.

SECOND RULE: CLASSROOM PRESENTATIONS
Stick to basics. Here is what wins: Classroom presentations and posters. It's not rocket science.

Though it might not seem that way, most people are not even aware there is an election. Most people do not even know what the letter "S F U O" stand for. Most people don't know who you are and still won't know who you are after this campaign. The only way to reach students is through classroom presentations. Focus on large classrooms. Witchcraft has roughly 400 students. First year engineering courses have 2-3-400 students. Unsure about the class sizes? Research. A serious candidate will do, at the very minimum, six classroom presentations per day. Anything less and you should not be running in this campaign.

Competent campaigners will be able to do more than six. Use volunteers to help you do classrooms. Use DVDs for classrooms with multimedia capacity. Contact Professors before the classes to inform them that you will be coming in. If you establish contact, ask what time the break is at and go during the break, to allow you to do more than one class per hour.

THIRD RULE: POSTERS
You should have posters. And you should have the maximum amount of posters, if not more. Rarely, if ever, will the Elections Office count each single poster. They will take your word at it. If they say 100, print 110. If they decide to count because they read this post, then just say "That's what Staples gave me." Bottom line, every candidate I spoke with in the General election printed more than the allowed quantity.

Your posters should be visible and clean. People will not read your platform on your poster. Be concise with the text on your posters. Forget about writing clichés like about status quo and more communication with students. People are indifferent. You want the nicest photo of yourself. You want to be smiling. You want your name in big. As big as possible. And you want your website and one huge idea. That's all.

Post often. Post everywhere. If you see your opponent's poster, post one next to it. Do not under-estimate the value of the posters.

If you are running on a green campaign, and think postering is absurd, I agree with you 100%. Most students will agree with you. Unfortunately, they will not know of you unless they know you are running, and they won't know you are running, unless they see your poster and see you in a classroom. So keep it simple. Make posters. Bite the bullet. And say "If I win, I promise to reduce the amount of posters on campus. It is obscene." This will 1) help you get elected 2) be coherent with your green values.

FOURTH RULE: IDEAS + YOUR MESSAGE
Run on good ideas. This might sound obvious, but it is not. People are indifferent to more communication or more visibility for the SFUO. You need to limit your message to one or two big projects and you want people to identify your campaign to those ideas. You want to be the candidate who said "I want the SFUO to run a day-care" or "I want the SFUO to give all students legal advice by improving the Legal clinic." You want other candidates to steal your ideas.

Keep your ideas simple. You want to be able to summarize them in one sentence. If you need to explain your idea for more than one minute before people understand it, then it is not going to sell well. Put it in your platform, it will encourage students who like your main ideas to come and help you. But don't use it in your speech.

Also, your idea might not reach unanimity. But you are not looking for unanimity. It is not as though 30 000 students vote. 3000-4000 students usually vote and who knows, for this by-election, maybe less than 2 000 will actually vote. You need an idea that inspires 1500 students enough to vote. Even if you encounter controversy in your classrooms or from other candidates, carry on. Just inspire enough people to go out and vote.

Do not dilute your message to attract your opponent's supporters. Odds are this will fail and will, if anything, push away your potential supporters. There is ample room to get more students out to vote. This is the demographic you should be looking at. Not the students already voting.

FIFTH RULE: YOUR MESSAGE
Adapt your speech to each classroom/department/faculty. If you are in Law, talk about the Agora and how you plan on making it more relavent to Law Students. If you are in Music, talk about the lack of support the Music department is getting from the SFUO. If you are in Telfer, talk about the bad management that is happening at the SFUO. It really does not matter what your message is, but you have to adapt it to your audience.

Also, be awake when you are in front of the class. By dynamic. Be interactive. Ask questions. Get the teacher involved, if possible. Plant questions, if possible. Repeat, scream, be seen, be heard. Some candidates will start speaking when half the class is absent and the other half is talking. What's the point? Walk around the class. Get the teacher to introduce you. Write your name/website on the chalkboard. Hand out flyers. Whatever it takes.

SIXTH RULE: REACH OUT
Contact each and every club, federated body, BOA member, Service, Gee-Gees team, journalist you can see. Request meetings. Email them your platform. Do not send generic emails all the time. Establish a rapport with as many groups as possible. The Muslim Student Association, for instance, has 1000 members. They have been lobbying for separate pool/gym hours. Last year, a presidential candidate made a promise to lobby in that direction to the group and needless to say, it helped the campaign. That is an extreme example, but it is easy to pick up 10, 20, 30 votes here and there. If you are able to reach a larger group, like the MSA or like Green Campus, then that number might significantly grow.

Clubs are iffy. Some are efficient and are able to send a message to their members. Others are one person led organizations. Figure out which ones work and meet with them.

Federated bodies are effective because they are the closest to the members. Request meetings with as many as you can, and start with the largest ones (Engineering, Arts, PIDSSA, etc.)

Services think they are more important than they are. Service Directors are the proudest people you will meet. Make the effort to meet with them. Explain to them how your candidacy is relevant to their service.

Gee-Gees will be a bit hard now. But each team has 20 players. There are a dozen of teams. If you are able to reach out and explain that you want a partnership, or at the very least you feel it is important, you have a potential of getting 100-200 additional votes.

Go to RGN twice. Your opponent will probably go once. Go twice. Different days of the week, and if possible different hours. During lunch time, you will get about 200 people that are directly targetable. If you go on Mondays and Fridays you are likely to avoid getting the same people there. RGN students like to be heard/seen. There is a free shuttle bus that goes to RGN every half-hour (or is it hour) from campus. Use it. Get volunteers to go and talk about you. Get someone studying at RGN to campaign on your behalf. You can easily get hundreds of vote on RGN alone.

Media
Journalists are just like regular students, but with a pen. They're influence is somewhat limited. An endorsement might help your campaign, but it will probably not be the breaking point. What an endorsement does is simple: It gives credibility to your campaign. Even if you do not get endorsed, if you are able to extract something positive from the editorial/column, then you walk away with credibility from other student politicians and other politically obsessed students. The coverage you will receive will also help/hurt your campaign, if only in the eyes of those who "buzz" around campus. You want to prepare your articles. Before your interview with, say, Nick Taylor-Vaisey from the Fulcrum, read his past columns. If Frank Appleyard is interviewing you, read his articles. Do the same for Andréanne Baribeau and Céline Basto at La Rotonde. Note: Both papers do not share the same values and opinions. Adapt your message. Control your message. Repeat the same sentence as many times as possible so that it gets into the newspaper. Choose that sentence wisely. And if possible, put a word you would not usually see in a newspaper.

The point is, you want to be seen, you want to be heard and you want credibility. If you can not meet every group individually, send videos adapted to that group. Find a member that is willing to leak you an email list of that group and send an email directly to the members.

If you can get list-servs from Federated bodies, get them. Do not send an email too early in the campaign for two reasons: 1) people will forget. 2) you will get a penalty. Do it later on, closer to the voting day. Penalties will be impossible to enforce.

SEVENTH RULE: YOUR OPPONENT
Do not publicly attack your opponent. It is not necessary. It is beneath you. Get your volunteers to do it. Do it privately and "off the record". To it subtly. Say "My opponent is well-intentioned and frankly, some of his ideas are good. My biggest issue with his candidacy is the fact that it is simply not achievable/realistic/etc."

Figure out your opponent. And attack them efficiently. If you are running against an incumbent, mention that. "Do we really want someone who has been there for so many years?" If you are running against someone who is running for the first time, mention his lack of experience. Point is, adapt your message. This will be Dean Haldenby's fourth attempt to get on a SFUO ballot. That sounds much larger than it really is. Both other candidates are on their first attempts, and have no "inside" SFUO experience. That sounds much more scary than it really is.

Be respectful to your opponent. The worst thing you can do is marginalize yourself from the get-go. Try to meet your opponent before the campaign/during the campaign/after the campaign. Get to know that person. It will help you avoid complaints against your campaign and it will allow your opponent to say something like "He's a nice guy. I like him.", which will reassure your opponents.

EIGHTH RULE: LAST DAYS
It really does not matter what happened on day 1 if you are unable to get people to vote for you. Get as many volunteers (see First Rule) as possible and get them to stand close enough to the polling stations without being seen. You should have at least 20 volunteers on the last two days, all close to polling stations. All your volunteers should be identified somehow. Let them wear Blue/Red/Orange T-Shirts (their own) and use a Black Sharpie to write your name on them. Or use Posters and stick them on those volunteers. Essentially, you want them everywhere on the last days. You also want them to hand out flyers.

Flyers are effective because 1) they are cheap. 2) they are effective. You can print 20 flyers on the back of one poster, if not more. The cost is practically free. You should want 1000-2000 of these. Give them to each person that walks your way (or your volunteer's) and if possible, put them on the desks of large classrooms (Auditoriums).

These days will make a difference.

NINTH RULE: SPEND YOUR MONEY, AND MORE
Odds are, your opponent is not declaring all his expenditures. You have two choices. 1) Try to denounce him. 2) Join him. You do not need to declare each one of your scotch tape rolls, or each one of your markers, etc. There are ways to cut corners. If you feel this is unethical, find a way to catch your opponent doing it. (This blogger would not do it).
Some do it without realizing. In fact, most do.

You have 225$ to spend. If you get fined, so be it. You still have 225$ to spend. You will just get less money back. If you are uneasy with this, fundraise. If you are unable to fundraise 20-30-40-50-60-70 or even 100$, then you should not be running for this race. You have 225$ to spend, spend it.

TENTH RULE: ADVERTISE ON FACEBOOK
These ads are cheap. They are effective. Not many people will click on the ad. But they will see your name. Spend 20-30-40$. It really does not matter. You want your ad to be seen and seen often. Most candidates do not come close to the "highest" bid they put, so bid high. If you are worried about your expenses, put two ads and only declare one (Highly unethical and this blogger would not do it).

ELEVENTH RULE: MOVIES, PHOTOS, BLOGS
People are easily impressed. Make daily videos. Post often on your blog. Post photos of you shaking hands or meeting a club. It really does not matter what you do. But do a lot of it and do it well. What's the point of having a website if everything is under construction or if it is not updated throughout?

Make as many YouTube videos as possible. They really do not need to be fancy. Get someone to film one of your classroom presentations. Get someone to film you walking around campus. Get someone to film you dancing. Just get videos. Post them. And send links out to as many people as possible.

TWELFTH RULE: RESEARCH
If you are unable to get mailing lists, no sweat. Get volunteers to get as many U of O student's emails through the Search option on the uOttawa website. While your volunteer is at it, let them get you the names of coordinators, service directors, federated bodies' members, etc.

THIRTEENTH RULE: CHEATING
If you are going to cheat, cheat well. There is a "three strikes you're out" rule, and I am not aware of anyone being "out" in the last couple of years. The closer you get to the election date, the less likely it is you will get disqualified. Avoid getting warnings at the beginning. If you do decide to cheat, cheat effectively and make your warning count. Skipping meetings, postering on a painted wall are not effective cheating methods. The last two days of the campaign are literally free for alls. Do what you want to do. There is no way they can disqualify you at this point.

FOURTEENTH RULE: TIME
This is a short campaign. Stop wasting time. Stop reading this blog. Waste your time only when there are no more classes and no more students on campus. Stop going to classes. Take time off of work.

FIFTEENTH RULE: ASK FOR HELP
You will not be able to do this alone. You need help from other people. And a lot of people. Call people. Facebook them. Email them. Do whatever it takes, but broaden your coalition. You want someone to help you make posters, you want someone to help you poster, you want someone to help you do classroom presentations, you want someone to help you with strategy, etc. If you are running your first campaign, you clearly need some help. If you are running your third, your volunteers might start taking this race for granted.

---

There are many other ways to win a Presidential By-election. Every candidate has his own style. You might disagree with some of these posts, but in the end, most of them will be essential to a potential victory. Winning takes a lot of work. So does being President.

I forget who said this, but I completely agree: "It is unfortunate that it takes one type of person to win elections and another type of person to govern effectively." Politics throws off a lot of people. It attracts many others.

By-election campaign: JWR2 accepts rejects (reluctantly)

2008-03-03T23:51:00.007-05:00

Joseph Wesley Richards II has accepted Austin Menyasz' help, but sources say he is worried about being associated as "Austin's candidate". He has already taken some advice from Menyasz, most notably an idea that was expressed here on this blog, and echoed by Menyasz, to purchase a domain name.

Menyasz would have also recommended JWR2 to drop the "New Day" from the "New Day, New Way" slogan.

UPDATE, 00h14: JWR2 would have asked Menyasz not to talk to him for the rest of the campaign, as he really is scared of the backlash. That being said, he has been taking Menyasz' advice and he might revise his position.

UPDATE, 00h28: Austin Menyasz sent this statement:
I felt that in order to be a responsible member of the process I felt that I should get to know the candidates. However, this meeting was just an opportunity for me to get to become more familiar with a very interesting platform and I will not be playing an active role in this election other than voting (which I urge all students reading this to do, and talk to their friends about). We spoke briefly about the campaign, but this is the extent of our interactions. Any advice I gave him was out of good will and in the hopes of a campaign that will engage students and build interest in the process as I recognize that pulling out the vote could be difficult.

Although I am flattered by the implications, but I have no intention of getting involved. Had I wanted to be involved, I should think that I would have submitted my signed nomination form! I certainly wish ALL candidates the best of luck, and I am sure that the best candidate will win.

---

Following the decision of the Elections Office, JWR2 will have a maximum of 155$ reimbursed. All candidates get 225$ reimbursed at the end of the campaign (if necessary). Nothing would prevent JWR2 to spend 225$, but he would have to use 70$ of his own money. Sources tell me he is not willing to do that.

By-election campaign: Some statistics

2008-03-03T21:57:00.005-05:00

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."

By-election campaign: JRW2 update

2008-03-03T21:46:00.004-05:00

JWR2 tried to appeal the Elections Office decision to fine him 70$, to which they replied:

Please be advised that the Elections Office has discussed your concers and maintains the decision that it had made on 02 March 2008.

Thank You,
Sylvia Lewis-Havard
Chief Elections Officer

***
In other news, the meeting between JRW2 and Austin Menyasz happened and JRW2 has told Menyasz that he will give him a response in the coming hours. More information to come.

JRW2 is set to put his posters up tomorrow.

By-election campaign: JWR2, meet Austin Menyasz

2008-03-03T21:21:00.001-05:00

According to my sources, Austin Menyasz is meeting Joseph Wesley Richards II (JWR2) as we speak.

More information to come.

By-election campaign: Renaud Garner says "Progress, not change"

2008-03-03T21:01:00.004-05:00

I just spoke with Renaud-Philippe Garner and I must say, wow. Those were the most original interview responses I have ever received from an SFUO candidate.

I will not post the entire exchange here, as I will do features on every candidate later on in the campaign, but for those wondering where his website is, Renaud is a firm believer in using the resources we already have. "The common good", as he said. He has submitted his platform to the SFUO and he is waiting for the Elections Office to put it online.

He will not be postering, as that is a wasteful and ineffective way to campaign. "It's campaigning at a distance with cliché'd slogans and jumbo-sized images."

He wants Progress, not Change. What's the difference? "You can change the bars of a prison cell, but it's still going to be prison bars." He wants an ethics committee at the SFUO, he wants the SFUO to look at the quality of the education given at the University of Ottawa and he is suggesting a reduction in the salary of the executive, to name just a few ideas.

He will be doing classroom presentations every 90 minutes until the end of the campaign.

By-election campaign: New media? Now media.

2008-03-03T20:24:00.004-05:00

Note to candidates: Go above and beyond. Make videos. Blog. Be accessible to all students.

I just found this video and I must say, wow. Julie Séguin was invited to an event and she could not stay very long. After a cameo appearance, she made this video and she (most likely) forwarded it La LIEU (the group that had invited her). Candidates can't be everywhere at once. Using now media is a way to reach a larger number of students.

By-election campaign: Websites

2008-03-03T15:44:00.005-05:00

Dean Haldenby has officially launched his website.
Here is Joseph Wesley Richards II's website.

I have called Renaud-Philippe Garner - no response - and I am still searching for his website. If anyone has a link, please send it this way.

Time-out: Commenting etiquette

2008-03-03T12:50:00.007-05:00

When I first started this blog, I had to make a decision: Should I be moderating the comments?

I decided to put it at the most minimal level, thus allowing anyone who wishes to comment to be able to do so.

This system worked quite well during the SFUO General elections. I only deleted one comment throughout the day regarding an attack on a random student I had interviewed. Most of the other posts were intelligent, respectful and fair.

I am not sure why this has changed over the past day or so. Many personal attacks are flying, and I have had to delete a few comments in the last hour alone. I am establishing rules and I hope that visitors to this blog will respect them.

Anonymous posters: I will certainly be stricter with anonymous posters. It is your right to remain anonymous and I encourage you to choose a nickname and stick with it until the end of the campaign, but if you do choose to remain anonymous, your comments will be scrutinized much more than other comments.

PIDSSA: Like most students, I am aware PIDSSA had problems this year. That does not mean I am particularly interested in hearing current and past executives argue about those problems here.

Relevance: Please keep your comments relevant to the the initial post.

Censorship: I will certainly not "censor" anyone. I will remove direct attacks, gratuitous attacks, hurtful comments, etc, towards individuals. I do not mind getting attacked and I will tolerate much more when it is concerning myself than if it is directed toward other students. There is simply no need to have such comments on this blog. That does not mean you can not criticize. On the contrary. Please do. If anything, that is the objective of the blog.

In case of abuse: Please do not hesitate to call, text or email me to remove a comment. I can easily blog from my wPhone, but it is more difficult to remove comments from it. I do not always have the chance to read all the comments, and I can easily miss some.

Moderation: As it stands now, anyone can post anything. I hope to keep it that way, but if there continues to be abuses, I will simply have to start filtering the comments.

UPDATE, ELECTION DAY 2:50AM: I am already saturated by the immature, unintelligent and partisan comments I am getting on this blog. Especially from "anonymous". For this reason, I have changed the settings to the comments section. My apologies to those wishing to remain as anonymous as possible. If you do wish to comment but are unwilling to create a Google account, you can email me at sfuo@wassim.ca and I will add your comment to the post.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Dean Haldenby's complaint

2008-03-03T01:05:00.011-05:00

This topic was discussed over and over, and I do not want to dwell too much on it.

However, I am surprised about the Elections' office decision to fine Joseph W. Richards II for "campaigning" before the allowed date. What really shocked me about this was the fact that Dean Haldenby launched an official complaint. Of all people, this surprised me.

In all honesty, if anyone has had a "pre-campaign" it is certainly Dean Haldenby. Not everyone gets to be featured on the Front page of a student newspaper, not to mention the subject of the main news stories, editorials and even editorial cartoons of both campus papers! Haldenby also had the advantage of doing classrooms for the U-Pass, once again, getting seen. This is all without mentioning the fact that he has been VP Finance for the last year.

Some might argue, and rightfully so, that he was not directly campaigning before the allowed time. Granted. He was only getting "seen". Correct. I do think it is stretching it to say that a blog, seen by at most 20 people, indicating who JWR2 is and what he stands for, is getting an unfair advantage on Haldenby.

I understand that rules are rules. Haldenby was entitled to launch a complaint. The Elections Office was in its right to fine Richards. I am not contesting any of the events that took place today. I am simply surprised that they took place in the first place, considering how respectful and understanding the general elections were.

JWR2 is contesting the decision, as he states here.

Why we shouldn't go down this path...

I have already received this leaked email from the Elections Office:

''Dean Haldenby came in my BIO 2533 class in Lamoureux 121, Monday
February 11th @ 1pm to advertise his SFUO campaign for President.
According to the electoral regulations, you cannot advertise before Sunday
March 2nd at 4:30pm. I think it follows section 7.9 in the regulations''

What will the Elections office do? Will they follow-up? Why shouldn't they?

Haldenby started this and the Elections Office contributed to it by giving a partisan/subjective complaint way too much credence. The 50$ fine was certainly not necessary. A simple warning would have sufficed.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and the conversations on this blog and elsewhere will focus on ideas, vision, leadership and debates... As opposed to this "politicking" we have been witnessing.

I want to be clear. Dean Haldenby had a right to launch a complaint. The Elections Office had a right to fine JWR2. I simply disagree that this is the best strategy for the frontrunner to be using and certainly think the Elections Office is setting itself up for a series of challenges and complaints by rendering such a decision.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog™ exclusive.

By-election campaign: Advice to candidates

2008-03-02T18:16:00.003-05:00

Advice to candidates: You have 250$ to spend. You can only print a limited amount of posters. Buy a domain name. These cost 6$ on GoDaddy.com. Then? Re-direct them to your blog. This whole operation will cost you 6$. People get lost. No one will go on mynameplustheyeariamrunning.wordpress.com. Keep it simple.

By-election campaign: Dean Haldenby draws first blood

2008-03-02T17:49:00.006-05:00

Today is the first day of the by-election and President favourite, Dean Haldenby, has already struck first blood against his main challenger, Joseph Wesley Richards II (JWR2). For the record, there are three candidates running. Along with the two mentioned above, Renaud Philippe Garner.

So far, most of the buzz is between Haldenby and JWR2.

JWR2, who is running as the candidate of change, is presenting quite a lot of it. His platform can be found right here. He is quite certainly more conservative than most candidates that have been running as of late, but nothing radical.

A few years ago, Haldenby was the "conservative" candidate. Oh how times have changed.

JWR2 put up his website two days early, something most candidates do. Unfortunately, he advertised his website on facebook. Haldenby took out the guns right away by launching a complaint to the Elections office. They slapped JWR2 with a 50$ fine.

As if that wasn't enough, JWR2 did not show up to the candidate's meeting at 4:30PM. They slapped JWR2 with a 20$ fine.

Many student politicians have expressed interest in helping JWR2 and some sources are telling me Austin Menyasz might be interested in helping him out with his campaign.

According to my sources, JWR2 has no experience running campaigns at this level and does not have his campaign posters ready yet. Also according to the same sources, JWR2 has not drawn up a game plan for classroom presentations yet.

UPDATE: Someone asked me to link Dean Haldenby's website. It's right here. I am still looking for Renaud's.

By-election hype: Interesting point

2008-02-29T20:00:00.004-05:00

I was speaking with Nick Taylor-Vaisey of the Fulcrum and he raised an interesting point.

The debate around bilingualism has evolved so much this year. In the past, people used to debate whether or not that rule [candidates have to be bilingual] should exist. Today, we are debating whether someone is bilingual enough.

Any thoughts?

By-election hype: If only the U of O was SFX...

2008-02-29T19:34:00.004-05:00

It is bizarre how complacent we get. Every year, the SFUO does the same thing. Every year, the SFUO claims to expect higher voter turn out. Some from the Federation tell us that low voter turnout is the same, all across Canada, and that's the reality of Universities.

Well... Not so.

From the Canadian University Press wire:

Danielle Webb, The Xaverian Weekly:

In a time when student apathy is soaring, students at Nova Scotia’s St. Francis Xavier University turned out in droves to vote in their annual students’ union election — breaking 50 per cent voter turnout. The massive turnout is unique in Canadian student politics.

“We advertised the living shit out of it,” said Michael MacIsaac, the union’s chief returning officer and chair of council.

Blogs designed to cover the candidates were introduced this year, the union’s website was updated regularly as the campaigns progressed, a second all-candidate’s debate was held, the campus was covered in advertisements, and the union even convinced the university to post a link to election information on the main university’s homepage.

But St. FX’s Stephen is not one to rest on his laurel’s after his elections promotions racked up an impressive 50 per cent voter turnout. He believes that there is still room for improvement, particularly with off-campus students.

Imagine that type of vision and energy at the SFUO.

By-election hype: The BOA matters too

2008-02-29T15:32:00.002-05:00

Three candidates ran for the BOA.

Mélissa Borduas is the only candidate for Health Science.
Michael T. Brown is the only candidate for Common Law.
Jonathan Weber is the only candidate for Engineering.

All positions will have to go through a "Yes/No" vote.

By-election hype: Tyler Steeves speaks

2008-02-29T15:22:00.004-05:00

I just spoke with Tyler Steeves and he is contesting the results of the bilingualism exam.

He claims that he was nervous during the exam. He is only speaking in French, ironically, Office manager of the elections, Kyle Simunovic is responding only in English.

I just spoke with him (in French), and I can attest that his spoken French passes my completely subjective test. (I said the same about Dean Haldenby a month ago.)

He feels tht the test only measured his ability to achieve tests, not his linguistic aptitutes.

We will await to see the outcome.

By-election hype: OFFICIAL LIST

2008-02-29T14:09:00.005-05:00

Official list:

Renaud Philippe Garner
Joseph Wesley Richards II
Dean Haldenby

*François Picard passed his bilingualism exam but has dropped out of the race. (Or will in the next few minutes)

Only three candidates. Expect interviews with all three in the coming days.

By-election hype: DEAN HALDENBY IN! TYLER STEEVES OUT!

2008-02-29T14:06:00.002-05:00

This just in.
DEAN HALDENBY IN.
TYLER STEEVES OUT.

Everyone else, in.

By-election hype: Delay update

2008-02-29T13:44:00.001-05:00

Just spoke with Mary-Ruth Endicott, Test Operations Coordinator for the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute and she would not tell me the reasons for the delays but she did assure me that we would be getting the results before the end of the day.

By-election hype: Delays, delays, delays

2008-02-29T12:42:00.001-05:00

Still waiting.

By-election hype: Waiting for the bilingualism exam results

2008-02-29T11:42:00.002-05:00

Results are scheduled for noon. Stay tuned.

By-election hype: Exit Dominic Aebi

2008-02-28T21:48:00.003-05:00

According to my sources, Dominic Aebi has pulled out of the Presidential By-election.

More information to come.

By-election hype: Haldenby's day

2008-02-28T14:20:00.006-05:00

Dean Haldenby, the Former Future President of the SFUO, was spotted at 600 King-Edward with François Picard. Both Presidential candidates were writing their exams.

Some irregularities occured, as there was some confusion with the clerk at the Second language institute and the two candidates. More information to come.

Results of the exams should be coming in the next day or so.

UPDATE: According to Kyle Simunovic, Elections office employee, an official list should be released Friday at noon.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO Blog exclusive.

The Fulcrum elections!

2008-02-28T12:03:00.002-05:00

How is the Editor in chief of the Fulcrum chosen? Who will be the next EIC? What can students expect?

All of these questions answered... And much, much more... All on The Fulcrum Blog.

New EIC will be chosen today. Stay tuned.

Media synergy: Elected candidates on CHUO

2008-02-27T22:54:00.010-05:00

As mentioned in the last post, all five elected members of the executive made a cameo appearance on L'Antenne d'Ivoire, the only French radio show, in the entire World, dedicated exclusively to the University of Ottawa. Live on CHUO-FM, every Wednesday at 6PM.

For those of you who missed it, here it is. Available in podcast. Just for you. Oh. And all five candidates talk about CFS. And General assemblies. And voter turnout. And bilingualism. And a potential "Welcome" week for the Winter semester. And whether or not the SFUO should take "political" stands. And much, much more.

Photo courtesy of Jason Chiu. The SFUO blog exclusive.

Meet the (new) executive

2008-02-27T14:31:00.007-05:00

(Monster truck rally voice)

LIVE ON CHUO 89.1FM! TONIGHT! ONE TIME ONLY!

IT'S DUBOIS! WOLFE! SÉGUIN! BRISSON! LAROSE! IN AN ALL OUT ROYAL RUMBLE...

EXCLUSIVELY ON L'ANTENNE D'IVOIRE.

Tune in at 6PM.

If you feel like calling in with questions to the new exec, please do not hesitate to: +1-613-562-5967 (Long time listener, first time caller!)

If you are more comfortable sending in emails: sfuo@wassim.ca

The show is in French, but I will translate all questions.

(Also available on Rogers Digital Cable 943, online at www.chuo.fm and on your FM Dial 89.1FM)

By-election hype: Delays in the process

2008-02-27T12:02:00.002-05:00

After many failed attempts to receive an answer from Latifa Baba, Chief returning officer, I contacted Dean Haldenby and François Picard directly.

Their exams will be Thursday at 9AM and 1PM respectively.

Needless to say, the official list will most likely come out later than expected.

By-election hype: Picard is a candidate*

2008-02-26T23:21:00.003-05:00

According to my sources, François Picard will be a candidate in the upcoming Presidential election, given he passes his bilingualism exam.

UPDATE: Official confirmation:

Francois Picard is a candidate for the position of President of the Student Federation at the University of Ottawa pending his successful completion of the bilingualism exam.

Thank You,

Kyle Simunovic
Office Manager, SFUO Elections Office
www.elections.sfuo.ca

Student Federation of the University of Ottawa

By-election hype: Picardgate explained

2008-02-26T22:35:00.003-05:00

I just have had an update on Picardgate.

According to my sources, Picard's flight was delayed from France, hence, he missed the deadline to bring forward the nomination forms. According to my sources, Picard would have called friends from the airplane to ask them to collect signatures.

They were only able to collect 31 signatures by 4PM, but got the remaining number required in the next half-hour.

---

Dean was also on the same flight that was delayed by 27 hours and got an extension, as he missed his bilingualism exam this morning.

If the argument worked for Dean Haldenby, shouldn't it work for Picard as well?

Not necessarely. Also according to my sources, some deadlines are more important than others. For instance, Austin Menyasz missed the "mandatory" candidates' meeting, but got an exemption thanks to a doctor's note. Haldenby missed the bilingualism exam, but was able to get an exemption because of the plane delay. Picard? To be determined in the next hours.

What does the Chief electoral officer think of all of this? She is in Mexico. The two other staff are actually meeting as we speak before making a decision.

To be continued.

By-election hype: Constitution conundrum and a bit of history

2008-02-26T02:34:00.009-05:00

Ryan Kennery, recently elected BOA member, contacted me shortly ago with the minutes from the meeting where all these amendments took place supporting Hrick's earlier assessment of the situation.

Ramy Sonbl seems to also have revised his initial position with this comment: "Ryan is correct, everything else took effect immediately. I just looked at the minutes."

So if everyone sees eye to eye, why is there confusion?

Because the only copy of the Constitution that is accessible to students... has not been updated. Yes. You read correctly, the most important document of the SFUO, has not been updated on the website. Please note that by the time most students will read this post and go to the SFUO website to download the Constitution, it will probably be updated.

UPDATE: The SFUO Blog is ready for everything, hence the screenshot. Oh. And if the Constitution is updated, which I predict it will be, please do not hesitate to contact me for the version that was online on Febuary 26th at 2:46AM.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

Two years ago, the Student arbitration committee (SAC) used the online version of the SFUO Constitution to come to a decision. It turned out the Constitution was (surprise, surprise) out-of-date. So the BOA voted to overturn the decision. (March 2005-2006 BOA meeting)

***

It would be interesting to see how many signatures Picard collected when he ran for VP Communications a few week ago to judge whether or not he was aware of the change. Some might argue that given the situation - the fact that he was in France and that volunteers were the ones collecting signatures - it is possible that someone used the Constitution as a reference for the number required.

Regardless of the outcome of Picardgate, the SFUO's inability to post an updated version of its Constitution is either an act of incompetence or laziness. Either way... not reassuring.

By-election hype: Pam Hrick (seems to) disagree

2008-02-26T00:25:00.007-05:00

According to SFUO President Pam Hrick, the only change to the Constitution that was suspended and set to take place on May 1st was the BOA reform.

I should mention, Pam Hrick is on vacation in British-Columbia and added "let me review the minutes and the Constitution."

Any members of the board willing to comment?

More details to come...

By-election hype: Picardgate (is it really Picardgate yet?)

2008-02-26T00:18:00.004-05:00

Ramy Sonbl, who is featured on this section of the blog, has just raised serious concerns about the validity of the election rules.

According to Sonbl, the decision to raise the number of signatures on the nomination forms, from 25 to 50, was approved at the BOA, but the changes were set to take effect on May 1st.

Here is article 4.6.1. of the SFUO Constitution:

But According to the constitution that is available at the moment on the SFUO website
4.6.1
The Chief Electoral Officer must ensure that all nominations:
(a) specify the position solicited;
(b) are signed by at least twenty-five (25) members of the Federation;
(c) are signed by the candidate, and indicate her acceptance of the nomination;

As mentioned above, the Election rules require 50 signatures.

Constitution v. Election rules.

Picard has at least one supporter to let him run: Ramy Sonbl.

For those wondering, Chief electoral officer, Sylvia Havard-Lewis is in Mexico.