Steve Running ftw. What a fabulous platform.

I like this...2. New water fountains, but they give fruit punch. Chocolate milk on Fridays and 11. I'll come to your party and play "Wonderwall" on acoustic.

Would it be inappropriate to vote for him for the lolz b/c I'm graduating anyway?

Originally Posted by Commander

Wright seems to be the best candidate and the only one.

I don't care about all the bollocks addressed by other candidates...

I care about two things the most (Priority at Mac) :

1-Decrease Tuition fees or stop them from increasing year by year.
2-Deal with the Mugsi. Either fire all the staff or change the software or get new hardware.

We don't have a choice about paying MSU fees. So Why don't we actually get someone who is going to deal with priority 1 problems head on.

Vote for Wright. (Engineers United)

I'd like to point out that both tuition fees and MUGSI are outside the jurisdiction of the MSU. Though the president can act in a lobbying capacity to push for these issues, I encourage students to read into the platform points that are realistic and can actually be affected by a president.

Tuition fees and MUGSI are largely going to go in the same direction no matter who the president is, and any candidate that says they are going to significantly affect these issues obviously doesn't understand the role of the office. To their credit, none of the candidates, including Matt Wright, have said they are going to fix mugsi or lower tuition fees, so I encourage all of you to read deeper into the candidates' platforms and look beyond these issues.

Originally Posted by RyanC

Polical Sciences, History and Classics, what, what, and chemical engineering?

Honestly, for me, its either Alicia: appears experienced, organized, concerned, polician-y, etc
Matt: experienced, good guy, engineer (woo), etc
and MDL has sensible, straight forward ideas..
.. the rest of the candidates either don't have clearly outlined platforms, don't have a website (shows lack of interest) or are ridiculous (lul)..

I would suggest reading deeper into the front running three candidates. "Experience" is a very subjective term that can mean anything from just sitting around on the table for a year or two while not contributing anything of comparative value or being a consensus leader and innovator; because at the end of the day people are here for various reasons and because of the high turnover rate it's easy for the past to be swept under the rug every year; having spent three years in the MSU I can easily vouch for that.

Having a working experience of atleast one year with all three front runners and I would like to think that their accomplishments and efforts have been of varying degrees.

Politics is a very frustrating field where its very easy to hide behind resumes and fluff that the average voter has a hard time differentiating, I would suggest you look more closely into their history in the MSU.

Originally Posted by J-Met

Tuition fees and MUGSI are largely going to go in the same direction no matter who the president is, and any candidate that says they are going to significantly affect these issues obviously doesn't understand the role of the office. To their credit, none of the candidates, including Matt Wright, have said they are going to fix mugsi or lower tuition fees, so I encourage all of you to read deeper into the candidates' platforms and look beyond these issues.

To be fair to Matt Wright in my understanding he mentioned tuition indirectly specifically within the framework of emphasis on direction and input into provincial and federal lobbying and policy creation, there are varying approaches to the ongoing campaign against tuition(Mass Protests by York students comes to mind as one extreme example) and CASA, which the MSU recently joined as a full member. Also mentioned are "quality, affordability and accessibility of post-secondary education" and not just tuition.

Originally Posted by J-Met

Tuition fees and MUGSI are largely going to go in the same direction no matter who the president is, and any candidate that says they are going to significantly affect these issues obviously doesn't understand the role of the office.

The role of the president is to work with the VP Education and External Affairs Commissioner to best represent the interests of McMaster students. Without strong leadership, student concerns can fall by the wayside. I believe that issues like MUGSI -- with the president having an observer seat on the Systems Renewal Committee -- require a president who keeps student input at the forefront of large decision-making bodies.

Students should be electing an MSU President who knows that they have the necessary leadership skills to affect large-scale change. Students should expect their MSU President to play a large role in setting the direction of projects such as MUGSI, but moreover they should trust that the leader they chose will be able to communicate this direction effectively.

I'm scared to vote for Steven Running because there are so many people who don't give a crap about MSU politics, that they will all vote for him and his awesome platform, lol.

Originally Posted by Matt Wright

The role of the president is to work with the VP Education and External Affairs Commissioner to best represent the interests of McMaster students. Without strong leadership, student concerns can fall by the wayside. I believe that issues like MUGSI -- with the president having an observer seat on the Systems Renewal Committee -- require a president who keeps student input at the forefront of large decision-making bodies.

Students should be electing an MSU President who knows that they have the necessary leadership skills to affect large-scale change. Students should expect their MSU President to play a large role in setting the direction of projects such as MUGSI, but moreover they should trust that the leader they chose will be able to communicate this direction effectively.

Originally Posted by Huzaifa

To be fair to Matt Wright in my understanding he mentioned tuition indirectly specifically within the framework of emphasis on direction and input into provincial and federal lobbying and policy creation, there are varying approaches to the ongoing campaign against tuition(Mass Protests by York students comes to mind as one extreme example) and CASA, which the MSU recently joined as a full member. Also mentioned are "quality, affordability and accessibility of post-secondary education" and not just tuition.

I do understand the president has a role in lobbying for these issues on behalf of student interest, and I make no intention of devaluing that role. However, I still contend that visible results are more likely to be seen in matters directly pertaining to the MSU. Yes, the MSU does play a role in external lobbying organisations such as CASA and OUSA, but, in the end, I still think basing platforms on lowering tuition is disingenuous (I fully understand no candidate has done this, I'm not accusing anyone) when tuition is largely based on economic and political factors far out of the president's control.

We could elect a goldfish as president and I have no doubt we'd be paying the same tuition next year as we would if any of the top candidates are elected.

My point is not at all aimed at any particular candidate, but more at voters, who I feel, should pay way more attention to tangible MSU related platform points than vague promises of "pushing" the university and the government to do things which are outside of the MSU's jurisdiction.

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

I would suggest reading deeper into the front running three candidates. "Experience" is a very subjective term that can mean anything from just sitting around on the table for a year or two while not contributing anything of comparative value or being a consensus leader and innovator...

I know, I was just generalizing.. I did look in deeper, maybe I didn't look too hard..

Either way, could you give your opinion about whos experience is a positive quality for MSU presidency? I like your through way of looking at and explaining things.

External lobbying organizations spout a lot of conjecture, but have yet to show real tangible proof that their work helped the governments reached any decisions.

Nothing that OUSA or CASA do are innovative. They simply point out what's wrong, and offer the least-impactful way to fix that issue. They are too busy attempting to stay relevant to make any real differences to PSE issues. This is why, even though these organizations exist, everything gets worse year-to-year.

We have seen no reforms in PSE accessibility or affordability for the majority. Look the lobbying priorities. It's all about minorities. Aboriginal rights, needs-based tuition loans, married students, bla bla bla.

There is nothing about an external audit of the OSAP system to address how many middle-income students don't get OSAP. There is nothing done to address the void left when the government moved away from the Millenium Scholarships in 2008 to a needs-based Canada Student Grant Program, nothing to address the bloating of general arts and science programs, etc.

Relying on OUSA and CASA shows the weakening resolve of current students to actually take the fight to the government. A true organization would be able to show it's power in votes. These organizations can't even get the people it represents to vote.

Honestly, who comes up with this shit? It's like a bunch of idiots who have never understood politics but think they are relevant. And THAT's why today's Liberals are the opposition.

This is politics. It's about push and pull, and promising the world, and delivering the country. No politician ever has delivered on their points. Not Bush, not Obama, not Tiwari, and not Koziol. Everything is a compromise. I don't buy the shit people say. Take it, and cut it in half, that might be what they will achieve, at best.

But still, that's important, because it lets the next guy achieve a bit more. The second an idiot gets in there, that leverage is lost, and students are beaten up. It's why you need to think long term.

Originally Posted by deadpool

But still, that's important, because it lets the next guy achieve a bit more. The second an idiot gets in there, that leverage is lost, and students are beaten up. It's why you need to think long term.

Thats wonderful, but isn't helpful to me in anyway.

Originally Posted by huzaifa47

I would suggest you look more closely into their history in the MSU.

How do you suggest I look deeper into their MSU history?

Originally Posted by RyanC

Thats wonderful, but isn't helpful to me in anyway.

No offense to you, but I wasn't trying to be. I was just trying to remind my friends who are spouting nonsense that they aren't helping either.

But if you want, I could destroy each platform for you via PM? I'm good at that.

Originally Posted by sew12

Steve Running ftw. What a fabulous platform.

I like this...2. New water fountains, but they give fruit punch. Chocolate milk on Fridays and 11. I'll come to your party and play "Wonderwall" on acoustic.

Would it be inappropriate to vote for him for the lolz b/c I'm graduating anyway?

I feel like voting for him, mostly because there is personality behind what he is saying. The others are just saying what students want to hear.

Okay if you want my opinion. As much as it seems like the MSU does nothing, it really does do a lot. The problem is, you're never going to see a Student Union President achieve a lot in terms of what students think they should see.

These guys who are joke candidates are humorous. But at the end of the day, the MSU is a serious organization which needs a serious leader. You may not like it, but you need to suck it up. Steve Running or James Lim would quit 2 seconds after they got elected, or they would actually screw it all up because comedians don't run organizations.

They are entertainment, and unfortunately, the MSU is useful to every single person. It's just all behind the scenes.

Originally Posted by deadpool

There is nothing about an external audit of the OSAP system to address how many middle-income students don't get OSAP. There is nothing done to address the void left when the government moved away from the Millenium Scholarships in 2008 to a needs-based Canada Student Grant Program, nothing to address the bloating of general arts and science programs, etc.

Relying on OUSA and CASA shows the weakening resolve of current students to actually take the fight to the government. A true organization would be able to show it's power in votes. These organizations can't even get the people it represents to vote.

While I respect a decent amount of what you wrote, to be fair the 110 page OUSA Financial Aid Paper does contain 55 recommendations that address what is being mentioned. There also have been decent amount of victories with OSAP in the past few years, which did take time but finally arrived.

As for the MSF issue, It was the Tories who folded that project because of populist ideological reasons and the only way something like that will ever come back is after the next Federal Election and with a new Liberal Democrat or a non-harperesque government. It makes no sense for Federal Lobbying Organizations(Only CASA supports it; though alot of their interest lies in the research wing of MSF because even within the table there will always be varying opinions on that, CFS was mostly against the structure of MSF because it didn't fit with their leftist mandate so that is a huge number of students off the table)

Yes OUSA/CASA Approach seems weak and I don't admit that its perfect but It is the only one that even remotely seems to work. You have on one side CFS with their chest thumping, rabble rousing, government condemning, massive rally's that ensure that they aren't given their own lobbycon, while on the other hand you have these so called weak organizations who've committed themselves on a policy based approach, trying to work within the system to figure out how the legislative public policy process works and having patient and consistent communication with the government.

In an ideal world we would have a mixture of CFS's force of student support(In their campuses they do seem to have a moderate minority of strong student supporters as compared to CASA not really exciting anyone but the biggest political geeks) with CASA/OUSA's more civil and educated approach.

@Jo87, A good point would be to directly question the candidates on their threads or facebook pages. Unlike last year(with Kieran and Mary to some extent) we have three frontrunners with atleast a year of SRA on their plate, if you can work and take initiative on the SRA where there is no accountability, it's definitely measure of their candidacy, not a perfect metric by any means but a start.

@RyanC, I wish I could; There's actually alot I could say but it would start a mini political maelstrom that I'm not looking forward to. But maybe I will early next week, not sure. Right now I am between two frontrunners while having NO confidence whatsoever in the third, but that's all I'll say.