Connor Coukell is a third-year cognitive science student running as an independent presidential candidate in the 2018 Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) executive elections.
Coukell is campaigning against five other presidential candidates, three of who are also running independently. He said that at this point in the race, it is anyone’s game.
“Maybe if I ran as one man against a bigger slate before it’d have been different,” he said. “But now people are apprehensive and people want [a] difference in CUSA which opens the floor for really anyone to be more eligible.”
Coukell said he believes that his experience as a minister for the British Columbia Youth Parliament in his hometown of Hazelton, B.C., adds to his bid for becoming the next CUSA president.
His campaign focuses on creating more transparency, accountability and accessibility for students under next year’s CUSA governance.
“My goal, should I be elected president, is that when you see me next April, you don’t want to punch me in the face,” he said. “Once you get into that position, people come at you like you’re the visage for everything that’s wrong, and I don’t want that to be the case anymore.”
Coukell’s ideas include a new bike rental system for students, budget reports shared through the Charlatan, and changing the CUSA fees students pay annually.
“The Charlatan newspaper has a lot more readership than the minutes for CUSA,” he said. “I’d like to see monthly budget reports shared with the Charlatan, and then a blurb shared from [the paper].”
Coukell said he believes that some presidential ideas may be far-fetched but he wants to change that.
“There’s a lot of pie-in-the-sky goals, but I want to start mine over time, even when I’m not president,” he said.
He said he understands the importance of compromise, especially since there is the potential of a mixed slate with One Carleton, as three of the executive positions were won by members from that slate earlier this year.
“If it so happens that everyone on the execs are One Carleton, it’d definitely put a target on my back,” he said. “But I don’t see them as adversarial or some sort of combative thing.”
Coukell will face off against the other candidates at the executive debate taking place on March 19, in the University Centre atrium.
“Democracy won out then [in the election], and it will win out again, whatever happens,” he said.
Photo by Meagan Casalino
