VOLUME 11, Issue 11

Poll Says UNBC Students are Undecided Voters

Parties will have to court students
on campus to gain votes and loyalty

Br KATHLEEN DE VERE
News EDITOR

Provincial parties will have to work
a lot harder if they intend to get their
message across to voters at UNBC, an
Over the Edge opinion poll has shown.

According to the poll, which asked
75 UNBC students if they had decid-
ed on which party they were going to
vote for in the upcoming provincial
election, an overwhelming majority -
54.6 percent of students, indicated
that they had not made a decision on
which party to support.

The informal poll was conducted in
conjunction with a non-partisan voter
registration drive. Although it is not a
professional survey due to the small
sample size, it does serve to indicate
the general direction of political opin-
ion at UNBC. The sutvey was con-
ducted by two fourth-year Political
Science majors.

The poll showed support for the
NDP marginally ahead of support for
the Liberals, with fourteen students, or
18.6 percent of respondents indicating
they intend to vote for the NDP as
compared to eight students or 10.6
percent of respondent indicating they
would vote for the Liberals.

The Green Party did not fare well
either, with only four students, or 5.3
percent of students indicating they
intended to vote for the environmen-
tally based party.

The informal poll indicated there
was no correlation between major and
political affiliation, with 43 students
identifying themselves with science

disciplines like Biology, Chemistry and
Physics, and 32 students identifying
themselves with arts disciplines like
English, ‘Anthropology and Political
Science.

While the number of undecided
students may be surprising, it may not
indicate a bad trend, according to
political expert and UNBC instruction
Jason Morris.

“T would hope that there are a lot of
undecided voters amongst the student
population because for many of them,
it may be their first opportunity to
vote, and hopefully this is an indica-
tion that they are taking the matter
seriously and carefully weighing the
choices,” said Morris.

However, Morris also cautioned
there might be other reasons for
UNBC students’ lack of decision.

“The alternative explanation for a
large undecided contingent among
youth is that the mainstream provin-
cial political parties do not appeal to
many of them and you thus find sig-
nificant youth involvement in interest
groups,” said Morris.

“Political parties in BC welcome
support from the youngest of eligible
voters, but in my view, don’t really
have a handle on how to get those
votes. They have tried all sorts of
things These efforts have included
running more modern, flashier cam-
paigns that utilize the Internet, popu-
lar music and I expect, soon, text mes-
saging. The efforts often backfire if
they appear even remotely preachy to
a demographic that likes to know or

Marcu 23, 2005

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UNBC students may have registered to vote, but they still don’t know who they’ll be voting for.

believe that it is making decisions inde-
pendently,” explained Morris.

According to Morris, courting the
young voter may be difficult, but it can
be done if the parties are willing to
put a little more effort into campus
recruitment.

“Tn apy-view, the best things politcal
parties in BC could do to deserve and
to earn more support from young peo-
ple would be to really build their youth
wings and their campus clubs,”
explained Morris.

“The parties, respectively, should
shoot for having campus club mem-

bership ‘equal to about 5 percent of
the total student body, and the parties
should be willing to support the clubs,”
he said.

“This would include adequately
funding the clubs from the party bank
account and assisting in the organiza-
tion of campus events, such as having
a party leader come by.”

“The parties should also give the
members of these clubs important
things to do, including sincere input on
policy development and election strat-
egy and they should back up these
contributions by paying for members

Professor Cracks a Curling Mystery

PHOTO BY DANA SCHWEHR

You may know that sweeping can change the speed of a curling rock, but do you know why it curls?

Br Betinpa Li
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Most people take the basics of life
for granted. They don’t question why
the light comes on, or why a curling
rock can spin as it slides across the ice.
However, UNBC Physics professor
Mark Shegelski is not the kind of per-
son who takes simple things for grant-
ed.

“T’m the sort of person who is curi-
ous,” said Shegelski, when asked why
he conducted his groundbreaking
research on the physics behind the
curling properties of curling rocks.

In graduate school, Shegelski
learned how to golf and curl from one
of his friends, and as a physicist, he
was naturally inclined to figure out the
physics behind the sports.

“T can usually understand things
like the golf ball, but the curling, it’s
really strange. So being a curious per-
son, I really wanted to figure out this
problem,” stated Shegelski.

“One of the most interesting things
is that if you take a cylinder like a glass
with a heavy bottom and you turn it
over so that it is heavy on top, it has a

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

ree eee

to attend party conventions and cam-
paign training,” continued Morris.

According to Morris, what it comes
down to, is if political parties want to
gain the youth vote, youth need to
identify with other people their own
age in a party.

“The clubs should come across as
much more sincere and trusting to
undecided young voters than having a
politician fly in on a helicopter to say
he cares about whatever it is his politi-
cal handlers told him that young peo-
ple care about today,” said Morris.

Jetsgoing, Going, Gone

Br JONATHAN WOODWARD
CUP British COLUMBIA BUREAU
CHIEF

VANCOUVER (CUP) — Frugal
and fuming students were among the
estimated 17,000 travellers left
stranded across North America
when discount airline Jetsgo abrupt-
ly told its customers to find their own
way home.

And thousands more had every-
thing from Easter vacation plans to
hopes of attending conferences
dashed by the sudden, midnight
announcement from the upstart car-
rier.

“We’ve been planning this for two
years and then Jetsgo says it’s fin-
ished,” said University of Alberta
student Sharon Ohayon, the direc-
tor of an upcoming national debat-
ing tournament in Edmonton.
“What do we do now?”

Over 100 people were planning to

fly from their home universities to
the Edmonton tournament, and
one-third of them were on Jetsgo,
said Ohayon.

Calculatng the costs of a lost
Jetsgo ticket and a replacement tick-
et — about $700 each — times 27
people from McGill, Caleton,
Guelph, York and Waterloo universi-
ties, the cost to the debaters alone
would be “a ridiculous amount of
money,” she said.

Jetsgo, an airline famous for its
low fares, but notorious for delayed
flights and technical difficulties, was
increasingly dogged by creditors like
the Greater Toronto Airports
Authority and Nav Canada until its
sudden end at midnight, Eastern
time, March 11.

Owing millions, Jetsgo filed for
bankruptcy protection and ground-
ed its planes.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2