Although just elected in March, AUSU Council has lost four of its 13 members since the 2020 full council election. In response, a by-election has been scheduled and the voting starts on August 25th. All members should keep an eye on their email boxes for their ballot.
Eight students have chosen to run for the four seats available and various campaign opportunities, such as the AUSU Forums, some campaigning on social media, and others have sprung up. To help students decide who they want to sit on AUSU Council this term (a term that I maintain will be a very important one given the various challenges that will be coming forward over the next two years) we’ve provided eight questions to give you a little bit of background on the candidates, who they are, and what they think the real issues facing students and AUSU, and maybe even a bit about how they’d deal with them.
Their responses are our feature article this week, so be sure to read “Eight Questions for Eight Candidates” and be sure to send in your vote when you receive the ballot this coming Tuesday.
But also this week, we were lucky enough to get an interview with the current Vice-President of Student and External Affairs, Stacey Hutchings. This isn’t an interview about AUSU at all, but a personal look at who Stacey Hutchings is, in our latest “Minds We Meet” column. As a quick note, we’re looking for more student to interview for the Minds We Meet column, and while I can’t promise you fame or fortune for doing it, I can promise you a bit of swag – so if you’re looking for some branded merchandise to prove you were at AU, why not contact me at karl@voicemagazine.org and let me know you’re interested in having a chat.
Now, if I featured this editorial on the front page, that’d make it a hat trick for me, but that’s probably pushing things right? Instead, we’ve got Adrienne Braithewaite’s look at how the Pandemic has changed how people, and particularly herself, now live. She compares it to past pandemics in history and notes that even if things do eventually get back to “normal”, just what that is may be considerably different from what came before.
As a side note, today is the last day that ballots can be submitted for the leadership of the Conservative Party. If you’re a conservative party member and don’t have your ballot mailed already, you may well have to drive it over to your nearest constituency office before 5pm. Results will be in in a few days and I’ll admit I’m quite curious about what the outcome will be. I have yet to do a deep dive into any of the candidates running for the party leadership, but whoever is chosen has an uphill battle ahead of themselves. Whoever it is will have to, if they hope to get elected, find a way to create a policy document that can appeal to a Canada that is primarily progressive in nature but that will be accepted by the social conservatives that make up a large portion of the party membership.
I couldn’t do it. But then again, I don’t have to. Enjoy the read!