The responses are in! With voting opening this coming Thursday, March 14th, students need to know as much as they can about the candidates who’ve stepped forward for AUSU. Seventeen candidates are trying for the twelve available seats on Council. The thirteenth seat will be filled by a member selected by the Indigenous Circle at AUSU.
Of those who are running, only two have run for AUSU Council before, and only one of those is on Council. This means that there’s going to be a significant turnover in who is guiding AUSU, and it’s a point where the priorities of AUSU can rapidly change.
Maybe that’s what you want. Maybe it isn’t.
Either way, it’s up to you. So trying to pick people who have the same priorities you do is especially important in this election. To help with that, we sent the candidates nine questions that might provide some insight into their ideas, values, and perhaps personalities. Thirteen of the candidates managed to send in their responses by the deadline. Be sure to check them out before you send in your vote.
Tax season is now fully upon us, but fortunately, one of our writers went out in search of ways to make it easier, and perhaps even more rewarding for distance students. Check out his chat with the CRA to see if there’s anything in there for you.
Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that today is International Women’s Day, and so we’ve got the Fly on the Wall taking a look at both the day and what some women might consider the most liberating invention ever. Some might consider it something else, but that’s not for me to decide.
It’s interesting to note that this day is considered an officially recognized holiday in several countries around the world, and is the only officially recognized holiday that I know of where that recognition is gender specific. China, Madagascar, and Nepal all have this day as a public holiday for women only. How that works out in practice, I really have no idea, as, over here, there’s few corporations that would be able to operate if just the men showed up and even those that could would have a tough time if they had to have dealings with other companies.
The idea reminds me of the Women’s Strike in Iceland, and, honestly, it’s one I think we should probably take up here. It would serve to make it immediately apparent just how much of our society depends on the contributions of women at all levels. And then we might consider doing the same thing with the men, just to see how it goes. Because I think if we all became more aware of how much we each depend on others, we’d all have a bit more respect for whatever it is they do.
Many countries also celebrate this as a public holiday for all, but almost none of them are in Western society. Except Germany, that is. Go Germans! Meanwhile, the guys over here are pretty lucky that they haven’t caught on to how much power they have yet, eh? Enjoy the read!
