OVER THE EDGE ~~

“

CLARK GRIEVE

ConTRIBUTOR

Do you know who James De
Vuyst, Elyse Elmslie, Tamara Mor-
rison, and Drew Adamick are? Well
I know I don’t, but that did not
stop me from voting for them on
the March 5 and 6 NUGSS student
elections. It might not have been
a pre-planned strategy, but does it
really matter?

My original intention was only to
vote on the U-Pass referen-
dum. However, I had been
aware of the NUGSS govy-
ermance candidates’ activity
around campus in the week }
leading up to the election.
One particular candidate
actually did stand out as de-
serving of my vote and sup-
port. Gavin Chung seemed
a perfect choice for VP Fi-
nance. We went to the same
high school in Smithers
B.C., he let me play Super
Mario Bros. at his election
stand, and he was even en-
dorsed by Mr. T. But, under
more serious consideration, I
did agree with his stance on
providing better funding for
student clubs. I knew next
to nothing about Chung’s
opponent, Nolan Clark, ex-
cept for graffiti written about
him on a bathroom stall (my
most.trusted.source of polit-
ical commentary outside of
OTE).

As I already stated, outside
of this particular contest I
knew nothing of any other
candidate. Due-to this, after
voting on the U-Pass refer-
endum and for VP Finance I
had nothing to contribute to
any of the other NUGSS pos-
itions for the election. But
with almost a whole elec-
tion ballot left empty I was
not going“to let my student
voice be silenced by my own
uninformed and indifferent
opinions.

Luckily I came to appro-
priate decisions over which
candidates to vote for in the
other categories on the rest of |
the ballot, albeit with highly
illogical methods. Naturally
any female candidate comes
down to which one is more
physically attractive. This
chauvinistic attitude never }
fails because it always seems
to come back in fashion at
moments like this when no
other intelligent reason is
clear.

Unfortunately, this only
worked for a few of the
female candidates whose
pictures I could remember.
Most of the other candidates }
I chose by the alphabetical
order in which they came on
the ballot. Some candidates,
including the one for Pres-
ident, were uncontested vir-

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March 26 ~ April 9, 2008

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tually guaranteeing their election.
I voted “No”-for the NUGSS Pres-
ident not because I lacked faith in
his ability to successfully hold the
office, but for jealousy that I didn’t
think of running for a vacant pos-
ition myself and making outrageous
and absurd policies and campaign
promises.

Personally I find it quite difficult
to take this and any election that
seriously. The United States may be
in the middle of their primary elec-

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tions, but a sex scandal involving
their governor seems to be more im-
portant, that is until Barack Obama’s
race becomes an issue again. Fed-
eral Liberals seem to be threatening
an election every couple of months,
only to back down, as speculation in
the media mounts. I see these big
time politics as childish games so
often, at least in the effect that real
issues and action take a back seat to
the circus surrounding them.

Ever since I first started attending

UNEC the Northern Undergraduate
Student Centre (NUSC) has been
touted as a top NUGSS project and
goal. Now that construction has
finally started I realize that I prob-
ably will not be here next year to
see it.

Maybe this is just typical voter
apathy, but it seems like such an im-
portant time for politics at all lev-
els in our world. A lot is going on.
“Change” seems to be a big word.
I just have not seen any indication

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Voting From This Student’s Perspective

that things will make this change.
This year’s speeches sounded
exactly like last years speeches. Any
change, from student governments
to national governments, is taking
too long for me to benefit from.
Other times I have already moved
on. Voting this year was much more
enjoyable because of this realiza-
tion. What I discovered is that vot-
ing by alphabetical order is the least
depressing strategy of all.

hatchback

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