Re: CUSA councillor candidates not being honest with students
In Alex Watson’s letter to the editor, published Jan. 16, he criticized CUSA’s electoral code for forcing councillors to lie about the executive slates they run with.
I agreed with all he had to say, but what Carleton students don’t realize is what it actually means when a councillor runs with a slate.
In 2012 I ran for journalism councillor. Even though it was something I had an interest in pursuing since my first year, the fact is I ran because I was approached by two established Liberal students—I was a Carleton Liberal at the time.
Initially, I didn’t know or care much about CUSA. I tended to interact on the sidelines, discussing with friends what I read about in the Charlatan. I wasn’t a political wiz, I didn’t have any real friends in political circles, and worst of all, everything happened at a time when I was already considering severing my membership with the Liberal Party.
None of this mattered though. I was approached because I stood a good chance to win, because I had a lot of friends in the journalism program, and because I was personable.
I agreed to run, and I was actually encouraged by the fact that I wasn’t just doing this on my own—the Liberal students who approached me were part a group of politicos backing my campaign from the shadows. It increased my chances significantly, but also brought to mind the sad truth that anyone running without the kind of support I had would have been at a disadvantage.
When election time came, I went through the motions, doing class talks, etc., and a few weeks later I won. The process was kind of surreal, and it all fell into place before my eyes while I stood motionless and hesitant.
One of the first things I realized after the fact was something every student should have known, including myself: because I ran with the support of those Liberal students, I became part of A Better Carleton’s (ABC) slate and its caucus. In other words, I was in on all the social media groups and meetings involved with co-ordinating ABC’s political platform.
I felt like I was never actually asked to be in this group, that it was just quietly assumed by everyone, except myself. I decided to go along with it because I thought since ABC had the majority anyways, why not try to make my mark there, even if it meant opposing the executives? I wanted to experience being part of a cohesive political unit.
As it turned out, I was more on par with ABC than I had expected, and more often than not, I voted with the caucus position.
And there lies the key point: for many who heard me vocalize my platform, and especially those who knew me on a personal level, they would have identified me as a left-of-centre liberal. But in the end, I worked with and promoted a mainly conservative political agenda. That’s something voters would have been aware of if they had known I was running with the ABC slate.
The bottom line is that despite all the cliché key words of “transparency” and “integrity” you hear about in election platforms, how a councillor will really operate is more accurately communicated through which slate they’re running with.
CUSA needs to bring its party politics out in the open, so voters can better understand exactly what and who they are voting for.
