The Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) electoral board ruled this week that one of its members, Brandon Wallingford, does not have a conflict of interest after two candidates in the ongoing election said he was biased.
Greg Owens, Change vice-president (finance) candidate, and Ruth Lau-MacDonald, an independent vice-president (internal) candidate, brought forward two Facebook posts from 2013 from Wallingford’s profile that stated his support for A Better Carleton (ABC).
Although ABC was disbanded two years ago, its candidates formed another slate the following year under the name Your Carleton, the team that won five of the six executive positions in the 2016 election. Two members of the Your Carleton executive are now running under the slate One Carleton in the current CUSA election.
“You could argue, and what I think the people who think I have a bias are arguing, that because the individuals who are making up One Carleton are the successors to this original group of people, that I have a bias towards them,” Wallingford said. “The simple fact is that I have a bias against anyone who’s corrupt, and that includes One Carleton.”
At the meeting, none of the other board members voiced concerns. They unanimously determined that Wallingford was not biased.
According to the board’s meeting minutes, Wallingford told the board he had been advocating for ABC in support of their campaign promises of fair elections—a concept he still believes in.
“I have no personal stake in the results,” Wallingford said.
This meeting determined that Wallingford has no monetary or electoral advantage from being on the board. According to Wallingford, he doesn’t know any of the current One Carleton candidates personally.
In one of the Facebook posts, Wallingford refers to the 2013 ABC candidates as his friends, and says he’s sad he won’t be joining them on council. In the second post submitted to the board as evidence of bias, Wallingford wrote, “For about six years I have been involved in supporting and working for A Better Carleton 2013, and their predecessors.”
Owens, one of the candidates to bring the concerns forward, said he was trying to avoid electoral problems like last year, which ended up in court.
“CUSA has a policy . . . that people need to declare conflicts of interest and this is something to me that seems like a blatant conflict of interest,” he said, explaining why he reported the posts shortly after Wallingford was chosen to sit on the electoral board and Owens became aware of his alleged conflict of interest.
Before the board came to its decision, Owens said he would have to accept it if they determined Wallingford did not have a bias, but that hopefully the electoral board wouldn’t be consulted this year.
“I think it’s fairly clear to the average person that there is [a conflict of interest], but you know what, that’s something that I hope doesn’t need to be addressed,” Owens said.
