uFail? you tell me.

Now that the city has passed the uPass, as you all know, it's up to the students in referendum to decide.

Here are my pre-campaign thoughts.

The Good:

• The whole city becomes much more accessible to all students
• Students who live farther from campus save money
• It discourages driving from a cost point of view (but NOT from a time one), which could reduce congestion in parking lots, and you know, environmental such

The Potential Bad:

• If there is no "uPass upgrade" option, students who need an express or rural X pass, those who need the bus the most, are in the worst situation
• It remains to be seen, but buses in the Laurier-Lees corridor might get awful congested

The Confirmed Bad:

• There's no opt-out, which screws students who are not in bussable Ottawa (Gatineau in the morning, extremely rural, student exchange, etc)
• The summer semester pass is not included (though this is good for those that don't want ANY bus pass)
• It discourages bicycling as a primary means of transportation
• It will heavily reduce ridership on the shuttle bus

The Translated:

$290 is equivalent to:
• 252 bus tickets (126 regular rides, 84 express rides)
• 41 cab rides from the market to residence
• 10 cab rides from uOttawa to Algonquin College
• 316L or 2000-3000km of gas
• ~800km of driving, or 16 trips across the city using AAA estimates that include averages for gas, insurance, maintenance, purchase price, and depreciation
• A new on sale Norco Rio Vista
• 2-3 pairs of running shoes
• 3-6 textbooks
• 6 regular lectures
• 25 pitchers of beer at La Maison

That looks good when compared to other transport options. Not so much against the beer and books. I'm probably voting in favour, but am still unsure. Thoughts? Comments?

leaf em aloan

Wai evribuddy gotta pickin on quittarz?

Fancie and Julie dropped from the race, and everyone is yelling angry things about a slate.

But, there was arguably not enough evidence to call them a slate last year, so although they are friends and don't hide the fact that they'd like to see each other elected, that's the case for most of the nominations. Does that mean prospective VP University Affairs Osama Berrada and prospective BOA Director for Engineering Bassam Javed are a slate? Not really.

Oh, sure, they probably are a slate. I'm just saying they don't run as one. Uninvolved students don't know about their bonds, or those of the other side.

More importantly though, why must we rip on them? Is it the CFS? We're stuck with that for at least another three years, so it doesn't much matter if our exec is pro- or anti-CFS. Is it the hippy? So someone has different opinions and priorities than you. Let it go. Is it the uselessness? That has everything to do with the people and nothing to do with their agenda.

Let "The Base" alone. By branding them as a politically driven slate, you're only feeding the fire.

mah voetz

Here are the candids.

Update: you can see the official list of candidates on the SFUO elections website now, since I apparently forgot to post this for several days.

Welcome to the 2010 edition of AppleDave votes! Before I hear anything anyone has to say about why they should be elected, here's what my gut tells me to vote:

Chieftain: Tyler Steeves. He's so dedicated. This'll be his third time with his name on the bill - he's had years of debates and camp-painting and board membership to really get to know the ins and outs of being president. Let's let him put his expertise (see what I did there?) to work for us.

OR, Marc Kelly. Maybe his candidacy was rejected, but I might give him a write-in vote. His campaign last year and general activities on campus shows us he is apolitical, full of integrity, and a wise and mature leader. His election would bring about a new golden era of the SFUO.

Soashul: Alex Shampoo. Nobody else is running. I wouldn't want to compete with Snowdin, God of Winter, either.

UAffairs: Billy-Bob THorton. I loved his tenants rights campaign and the student bus stuff victory. The dude gets stuff done. Let's keep him around.

SAffairs: Agbodjogbe is definitely getting my vote is not in the race anymore, so I abstain (for now).

Monet: Moneen Hasinoff. She's the only one who really wants it, and therefore the only one who'll have the passion to do it right. SJK and Loko would both rather be UAffairs but can't compete with Teddy. Fancie is branded as being a slate backup, but true or not, he has never given me the impression that he's up to the task of exec work, especially not an important role like Finance has withdrawn from the race and therefore not eligible for voatz.

Communicajun: Triscuit Denummer. He's a dickface and barely speaks Henglish. Vote for him.

BOA: Bay. He has experience in student politics, and wasn't a useless tit on the board like I may or may not have suggested a year ago, so I'll let him stay. Plus, who the devil is this Bassam Javed?

Senate: Undecided, but not Lendrum. I'll wait and hear what the others have to say, but for the sake of feminism I'll say Andrea Bordeau until I hear more.

Who you should vote for BOA: Keep Flynn and Prazeres around and get Brisson out since she's been there three years already. Otherwise I'm not partikalar about how you vote.

When campaigning starts, maybe I'll change my mind. I'm tempted to jump over to the Mark Kelly camp for good. I love him.

line of time

Tonight

5pm: nomination period closes
6pm: exec candidates meeting
7pm: board candidates meeting

Next Monday

List of candidates published

31 Jan

Campaigning begins

9 Feb - 11 Feb

Polling Days
Results the evening of the 11th

I'll leak the names of as many candidates as I can before next week, but these are the dates to watch for.

Blaggin' 'bout votin'

Changed my mind. Absent or not, I need to blog the BOA at least once, as KJ360 updates me that the board just passed the list of polling stations, to be:

• Tabaret lobby
• Desmarais lobby
• Simard or Arts
• SFUO office
• UCU Tim Horton's
• UCU Cafeteria
• Montpetit 2nd floor
• Fauteux lobby
• Marion basement
• CBY basement
• Sports Complex lobby
• SITE first floor entrance
• RGN somewhere

In spite of encouragement from several members, we're missing residence entirely. Who needs first years to vote, right? They haven't been here long enough to know what's what. They get no say in their future, speaking in terms of student politics.

A lot of the words from board members seemed to sum up as "the list is great if we have e-voting." But as KJ360 reports, e-voting isn't a sure thing. I for one hope it's not happening, though I'll leave it to the e-voting activists (who seem awfully quiet this year) to complain about. I would point out, however, that you can't evote if you don't know about the voting, and polling stations are just as good for promo as they are for doing the voting.

Phish concert

I love Phish. And the internet.

Check it. There's more here and here, too.

I wonder if there'll be any fancy lawsuits? Who would want to phish uO students anyway?

Wondering why I'm playing with URLs and not blogging the BOA this week? It's at RGN. Fuck. That.

theyz lissennen

I think someone in the elections office heard our cries.

Walking through CBY and SITE yesterday, I only saw new posters styled like the website. Fame and glamour were nowhere to be found.

I'd raise the score of this batch by 5 points to a 7.5/10.

I also saw would-be BOA candidate Brandon Bay collecting nominations on his Tablet and making claims of a paperless candidacy. Green or lazy?

I have confirmation that Ted Horton is running for re-election as VPUA, not for President. Tyler Steeves is unsurprisingly making a bid for that role again though.

newspaper goo goo, marketing gaga

The Fulcrum beat me to the punch, but I will blog my thoughts anyway.

The Lady Gaga themed posters all over campus are obnoxious and/or disgusting. I'll let you decide which.

Firstly, SFUO fame is not fame. Hey non-involved students, stop me when you hear a name you recognize. Mélanie Lefebvre. Jocelyne Turner. Adrienne De La Rosa. Brigitte Noel. Danika Brisson. Michele Lamarche. No? Most of you have only heard of Michele, if any? Even Danika is already a stretch? Hmm. Usually fame lasts a little while. You'd think the names of VPs Student Affairs over the past seven years would ring some bells.

Secondly, fame or power or money (LULZ) or resume padding are NOT good, valid reasons to run for a position in student government. Student leaders should be there because they want to defend the rights and interests of students, not for personal gain. If an elected student politician forgets that it is the students that put him there to serve the students, then the politician will be taught that it is the students who can remove her.

Thirdly, the posters are not even well-designed. They're ugly and blend in with all the other posters on the wall. I barely noticed them enough to get offended and blog.

I'm not sure who is responsible for this, but I hope that whoever designed the elections website does the next batch of posters.

That's all I got. Read the editorial I mentioned for moar bitchinz on this topic.

-AppleDave

omglulz

Nomination forms are now available in the Fed office, so sayeth their webgods. What does this mean? Finally, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Stay tuned. Oh, and watch your back, De Bellefeuille.