mikesmit.com

Telus lies

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:42:54 -0500

I've experienced bad service from Telus - both technical and from actual people - more times than I can count. But I've never had them directly lie to me to get me into a contract. Or so I thought. Turns out, they did.

In June 2009 my 3-year contract with Telus ran out. I called to ask about renewing, and long story short they told me if I renewed with them, I could get a $25/month unlimited data plan. I agreed.

I went to pick out a new phone (I went with a Blackberry) and sign a new contract. They couldn't renew my plan, they had to give me a new type of plan and then add new features for free. I was worried that they would jack up the charges later on. "Don't worry," they said. "We won't do that." Concerned nonetheless, I had them write on the contract that my monthly plan was the plan plus features plus data for the named prices. I still have my copy of the contract.

Today I was told by Telus that the unlimited data plan I had been promised for renewing with them was now going up by $5. This is a classic bait-and-switch: get someone to sign a contract for one plan, then jack up the prices. I spoke to a representative on the phone who basically confirmed that Telus can raise their rates at any time for any reason; the only thing the 3-year contract does is require me to stick with them to receive the shafting.

Things had been looking up - I was very happy with Telus for the past 9 months. No longer.

The moral of the story is never sign a contract with Telus.

I'm engaged

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:33:59 -0500

In case you missed the news.

The wedding site has more.

DSU Elections coverage

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:09:00 -0500

DSU Elections coverage has moved to Punditry.ca.

Join me and 6 other DSU pundits as we cover the DSU elections. You'll probably recognize most of the names, as they are known for things much more impressive than my personal "having a website and an opinion".

You can expect the same mix of news, rumour, opinion, and random unprovoked attacks that you've experienced at MikeSmit.com these past few years. Plus, enjoy a system for leaving comments that doesn't totally suck!

Come on in, the water's fine.

good news!

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:48:00 -0400

Yes, that's my sister, and yes, she is engaged.

And no, I didn't *really* find out on Facebook, she called me.

Congrats to Meg & Chris!

If anyone reading this site has embarassing stories or pictures, I have started collecting. :D (Don't tell Megan, though, she regularly stands behind me with sharp scissors.)

(Just kidding, of course, obviously she'll see this page.)

betting pool results

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:20:00 -0400

Sorry for the delay, I was having trouble getting electrons into my electronics. The problem is solved; here now, the betting pool results.

... wow man, did I ever get smacked around. I called VP SL wrong, and was off by enough on all of the margins to feel ashamed. And Senate... wow, my margins were nowhere near the studied indifference voters displayed toward the candidates, and I called one winner wrong. Luckily for me, most other people did just as poorly.

To calculate the results, I took the official results from www.dsu.ca, removed the spoiled votes, and calculated the percentages. I then subtracted the guesses from the actuals. For 2 candidate races, I took the difference between the pundit's guess for the winner, and the winner's actual results. This was the total error. As I do for all >2 candidate races every year, I calculated all of the differences, summed them, and then divided the total error by 2 to prevent the greater room for error from skewing the results.

The overall winner is "Anonymous #2". Congratulations... they didn't enter a name, so I don't even know who they are. Chris 'No One Will Ever Live Up To My Accomplishments' Ide placed second, and I somehow came in third, but I don't deserve it. All those with total error under 100 are shown here.

Name	Total Error
Anon 2	39.8
Chris I	42.1
MikeSmit.com	46.8
Keith S	47.2
Will D	49.7
Anon 1	51.9
Election farce	52.9
Jae-Con	56.8
Mike P	70.4
Eric S	71.3
AEB	72.8
DalStudent FTW	75.8
Lisa B.	76.9
Facebook App	77.8
effdemocracy	91.5
Malcolm X	92.1

President

Amusingly, the Facebook application predicted this result, almost exactly. The best individual was C Ide. I ranked a dismal 11th, with total error of 11.74 (mostly due to my optimism regarding Hillman). Worst error was 60.

Rank	Name	Error
1	Facebook App	3.5
2	C Ide	5
3	Jae-Con	5.6
4	Anon 1	6.2
5	Will D	6.3
11	MikeSmit.com	11.74

VP Internal

Eric S called this to within .2%, well done. Anon 2 also did very well. In fact, most pundits did very well, with 10 guesses being within 3%. That was enough to push me to 15th. Clearly I had no idea what I was talking about. Worst was 22.

The Facebook app again called it to within 2.1%; in fact, the Facebook app did well for three exec positions (best overall), but was wildly off for both the Senate and the Referendum.

Rank	Name	Error
1	Eric S	0.2
2	Anon 2	0.8
3	Will D	1.8
4	Keith S	1.8
5	Malcolm X	1.8
6	Facebook	2.1
15	MikeSmit.com	7.8

VP Student Life

I called this one completely wrong, which put me at 15th. I wasn't alone, though, a lot of pundits had Ali winning. Worst error was 28%.

Rank	Name	Error
1	Keith S	0.61
2	Anon 2	0.61
3	Jae-Con	2.4
4	Anon 1	2.6
5	AEB	5.6
15	MikeSmit.com	13.3

Senate

Mike P gets it within 6, and getting it within 11 is good enough to get me 4th. Finally, a top 5 finish for me!
The worst error here was 78.

Rank	Name	Error
1	Mike P	6.0
2	Chris I	9.8
3	Eric S	9.9
4	MikeSmit.com	10.8
5	AEB	12.6

HSA Referendum

This is the only race where I actually came close, and its the referendum, which is why I say I don't deserve the third place overall... seriously boring race to call. That said, the worst guess was off by 40%.

Rank	Name	Error
1	Election farce	1.0
2	Anon 2	1.0
3	effdemocracy	1.0
4	MikeSmit.com	3.0

official results

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:34:00 -0400

The Gazette beat me to this by like 3 hours, and it was posted to this site in the comments an hour ago. My apologies; I was in the area and decided at the last minute to stop by the Grawood to see how things were going.

These are the winners; detailed results to follow.

President
Courtney Larkin

VP Internal
Dan Boyle

VP Education
Mark Coffin

VP Student Life
Kris Osmond

Senate
Kaylyn Fraser
Eric Snow
Jonathan Hughes

Graduate Senate
Yannick Tremblay

HSA Referendum
Yes (Passed)

it is almost time

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:30:00 -0400

About half an hour to go until voting closes; 2 hours after that, the results. Looks like voter turnout is going to be around 16%.

I'll try to get the results up here as soon as they are officially published by the CRO.

Just to respond more visibly to a question a commenter asked: no, I can't see the results. This is so people don't spend their time trying to parse my words trying to figure out if I am implying something about the results. I know nothing. Since I know nothing, I cannot be accused of dropping hints. :)

(History lesson: During one of the first years we ran online elections, the elections committee had real-time access to results. They intended to keep them confidential, but worked leaked out, spread fast, and accusations were levied that this information interfered with the results. Though no policy was passed regarding this, the decision was made that no one would see the results until voting closed, and that has been the convention ever since.)

Due to my role with the elections comittee, I can see the results as soon as the polls close. Due to the separation between my coverage here and that role, I will only publish the results that show up on the DSU website.

day 10 wrap-up

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:26:00 -0400

If the first election day is boring for everyone... the second one is even worse. In about 17 hours, the results will be announced.

Until then, let's entertain ourselves by talking about voter turnout. As of right now, we're a few votes shy of 2,000. I can remember days when the DSU voter turnout was around 5% - less than 1,000 people. I don't mean a decade I go, I mean like... 2003. 2004 saw high voter turnout (23%, if my memory is still with me). Since then we've levelled off in the 18-21% range. This year we might not break 20%. Why?

An email today went out to all students, reminding them to vote. Every year since 2004, when that email was first sent out, we've seen a major spike in the numbers. I don't have the 2004 numbers on me, but for the past 4 years, this is what the votes per hour looks like:

I've annotated it with when the bulk emails were sent out each year. You can see a BIT of spike in 2008, but not much, especially compared to previous years. It also drops much faster, another indication that the bulk email had little effect. Why? My guesses include:

Tremendous advertising work by the Elections Committee. Everyone had already heard about it by the first day, and those who wanted to voted on the first day. The spike at around 4pm on Tuesday supports this theory, as that came after a major push by the EC over Facebook and through societies.
I understand the subject said "DSU Dispatch"; perhaps people are conditioned to delete those.
Generally lower levels of interest among students at large; the result is they see the email, and can't be bothered. Last year's might have been artificially high because the Spaces Referendum raised the profile of the DSU among students.
Fewer candidates. Less interesting selections. My own Union elections happened 2 weeks ago; I didn't vote. I went to the elections website, read all the profiles, and just didn't care who won. And I *never* miss a chance to vote, I voted every year at Dal, even before my DSU involvement.

Regardless, this drop in turnout worries me - if there are relatively more "DSU insiders" and friends of candidates voting, and fewer "everyman"-types voting, that's going to completely screw up my predictions. If you throw out a lot of the not-involved vote, Osmond will win by a few percent, Larkin will still win but not by as much, Hillman won't do as well as I expected, VAJ will still lose, HSA will do better, and I have no earthly idea what will happen with Senate (dsu-insiders are more likely to pick 3 candidates, friends are more likely to pick 1 candidate, and those not-involved are unpredictable... no idea what that means).

I've also graphed cumulative turnout per-hour (with the overnight hours lumped together a bit).

That shows that despite a good showing late on the first day, we're tracking low relative to previous years.

If history is any indicator, that means the aftermath will see a lot of finger pointing. Tradition is that the Elections Committee will be blamed.

I'm not sure who the leading authority on DSU elections is, but I'm pretty sure any list of the top 10 includes me. If you are a candidate for that list, you already know that the primary factors in voter turnout include a) level of the Union's engagement and visibility with students throughout the year, b) the number of candidates, c) the visibility of candidates, and d) the level of controversy. The Student Spaces referendum had turnout of 27%, and that was controversial and highly visible; also, its impact on everyone was clear and immediate. The year DSU elections turnout hit 23%, there were 25 candidates and a referendum question about DalOut.

The Elections Committee, which every year tries their damndest to get out the vote, can increase the number by some percentage, but they can only work with what they are given. Few candidates, low visibility on Carleton and in residences... it's a tough situation. So if you hear someone blame the EC for the voter turnout, I suggest you ignore them. Voter turnout is everyone's responsibility.

day 9 wrap-up

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:26:00 -0400

There was no day 8 wrap-up. There was almost none today either, because I don't have much to talk about.

On the off-chance you haven't voted, do it now.

The first day of voting is quiet for everyone but the elections committee. They spend the day whipping the vote, setting up the poll clerks, dealing with bitchy & nervous candidates, and personally contacting everyone at Dal to remind them to vote (or so it seems). Bless their tired little hearts.

What that means, though, is there's not a lot to talk about. The news on MikeSmit.com today was my discussion with a user named "Gregorian" about voter apathy, in the comments on the platforms. Jenny Cooper and AEB offered consolation to the (at minimum) 7 people who will lose Thursday night.

In case you haven't heard, the elections committee is running a survey on how people heard about the election, and how they got informed. "MikeSmit.com" wasn't a possible answer, but I'm hoping for a lot of write-in responses. :)

At 9:38pm tonight, the 1000th voter logged in. The year-over-year trends say we're currently higher than in 2005, and well within reach of 2006 & 2007. With 2 days to go, anything could happen to voter turnout.

So, candidates, relax, there's nothing you can do until Thursday. Everyone else, vote early, vote often.

predictions.

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:22:00 -0400

I've compiled your predictions and my predictions. I need to remind you that this is not endorsement, this is not my wish list; rather, this is a read on what is going to happen over the next 3 days. I have no particular confidence in the percentages, though I am reasonably confident about the winners I chose.

A total of 19 readers sent me predictions; I've presented them in graph form to save time and space. Not everyone filled out every position. (Update: I've received several submissions since; I'll include those when I calculate a winner, but I'm not editing the post.)

I really have no grand language to put around this, so, uh, here they are.

Voter Turnout

I have it at 21.3%; the average of the predictions was 20.9%, the maximum was 28%, and the minimum was 13%.

President

Me: Larkin. I have it Larkin (40%), Gault (35%), Hillman (20%), Debogorski (5%).

Peanut Gallery: Larkin. 12 said Larkin, 6 said Gault, one said Hillman.

It looks like we'll most likely have a woman as president, for the first time since Galarneau was elected in 2002 (she served until October 2003).

Everyone has Larkin and Gault very close; the following picture demonstrates this, though it is hard to see much more. The third from the last column (in all images) is what the Facebook application predicts.

VP Internal

Me: Boyle, 61%-39% over Jones.

Peanut Gallery: Boyle, say 16, compared to 2 who say Jones. Most call it closer than I do (57%-43%, on average).

Boyle ran the better campaign, by far. Jones, despite a strong base of support, has alienated some members of the Young Liberals, a group likely to vote. They are splitting the DSU insider vote, and my read of the landscape is Boyle is coming out ahead there. The only question for me is by how much.

VP Student Life

Me: Krista, 54-46 over Kris.

Peanut Gallery: Tied. 9 say Kris, 9 say Krista. Interestingly, 7 have it within 5%, but 9 are predicting margins of victory greater than 10%. It covers the spectrum - some have Kris by 40, others Krista by 40.

Hard call, but I think Krista takes it. She's run a good campaign, she's demonstrated she is qualified to hold the job, and besides that she'll benefit from the 'lawl need change' vote and frankly she's young, female, and cute. For the record, every time in the last 5 years a woman has been in this race, a woman has won.

Senate

Me: Snow (32), Fraser (20), Christofi (17), Mason (17), Hughes (14). I'm taking the easy way out and putting Mason and Christofi at a tie. Whether or not Mason gets a vote depends on Sexton turnout.

Peanut Gallery: First, everyone seemed to have a REALLY hard time getting 5 numbers to add up to 100 (I fixed them). Second, how the hell do I present these results? Ok. 13 people made predictions. 13 think Snow gets a seat, and 12 think he takes the largest number of votes. 12 think Christofi gets a seat, and 9 think he comes in second. 7 think Fraser gets a seat. 6 think Mason gets a seat. 1 thinks Hughes gets a seat.

HSA Referendum

Me: Yes, 68-32%.

Peanut Gallery: Yes. On average, 65-35, but it ranged from 87.5% yes to 51% yes.

I'm fairly certain it is going to pass, but not certain by how much. The immediacy of advocating in Halifax will help it with voters at large, who historically have been far more likely to vote no in referenda than DSUers are. However, its support among DSU insiders is not unanimous. In the end, I just picked some numbers.

bai2u campaign

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:12:00 -0400

The websites are down, Facebook groups are disbanded, posters are in a dumpster... at this point the die is cast, and it doesn't land for 3 more days.

This is a last call for predictions for the election outcome. You can get details and instructions at the original post. I'm finalizing my own predictions, then I'll look at your predictions, and then I'll share them with the world.

VP Student Life platforms

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:00:00 -0400

It's hard to say what comprises the VP Student Life platforms. Though each has a 'platform' that was an early post to their website and Facebook groups, they have each been offering additional ideas throughout the campaign period. For the sake of simplicity, I'm sticking to the initial offering from each (Kris | Krista). They are short, so no summaries.

As usual, metrics. Most are self-explanatory. The Flesch-Kincaid metrics use words, syllables, and sentences to estimate the reading difficulty. Grade Level estimates the number of years of education required to comprehend the writing. Ease measures how easy it is to read, on a scale of 1-100 (100 = very easy).

Candidate	# Words	# Paragraphs	Flesch-Kincaid Grade	Flesch-Kincaid Ease	% Passive Sentences
Krista	470	17	11.8	51.8	7%
Kris	721	7	11.2	52.4	20%

Frankly, neither platform is that great, though I don't think that in this case the platforms are an accurate reflection of what either candidate brings to the table.

I'll use the mostly random categories I invented for the president again.

Most concrete innovative ideas: Kris. I have it 4-2; Krista offers a lot of ideas, but not concrete ones.

Most obvious typo: Kris. He won it entirely for this terrifyingly incomprehensible sentence: "left with little guidance accept for here is you class schedule and good look". "accept" should obviously be "except", "you" should be "your"... but what is "good look"? "good luck", I assume? Even without the obvious errors, it's a terrible sentence. READ YOUR OWN DAMN PLATFORMS.

Best organization: Kris, for the 2-3 word category he gave each item.

Most annoying use of third-person: Krista.

Best Presentation: Krista, for calling it a campaign platform, and for not tacking it onto the end of a questionable list of experience. (Kris' experience includes, for example, "attending orientation week". But I digress).

Best use of vague platitudes: Tied.

'No Shit, Sherlock' Award: Kris. I invented this award after I read this sentence: "After speaking to many students on all 3 campuses I have gotten the impression that many students feel segregated from those on a different campus, particularly Carlton and Sexton being separated from Studley." (By the way, PROTIP: spell Carleton correctly, you're not Chris Ide).

VP Internal platforms

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:45:00 -0400

I took a look at the VP Internal platforms. Obviously, my first thought was "Holy Hell, Jones, what were you thinking?" As you may have noticed, her website puts all content in this tiny little box where you can see about 5 lines of 8-10 words each. Then you scroll down to read another 50 words. Then you scroll down some more. Then you scroll down again. Then you cut yourself (remember, down the line, not across the tracks). And that's only if her green fetish didn't already make you want to put out your own eyes.

First, of course, some metrics. Most are self-explanatory. The Flesch-Kincaid metrics use words, syllables, and sentences to estimate the reading difficulty. Grade Level estimates the number of years of education required to comprehend the writing. Ease measures how easy it is to read, on a scale of 1-100 (100 = very easy).

Candidate	# Words	# Paragraphs	Flesch-Kincaid Grade	Flesch-Kincaid Ease	% Passive Sentences
Boyle	2830	26	13.3	42.8	34%
Jones	674	20	10.8	53.5	12%

I haven't taken the time to summarize the entire platforms here. You can read their platforms for yourself (Boyle | Jones).

I'll use the mostly random categories I invented for the president again.

Most concrete innovative ideas: Boyle. I even calculated this per word; he might have the most concrete practical ideas of any candidate in any race.

Most obvious typo: Jones. It's not a typo so much as it is rampant spelling mistakes: sustantial, it's instead of its, accessability...

Best organization: Tie.

Best Presentation: Boyle. In particular, I liked how his website didn't totally suck.

Best use of vague platitudes: Jones. "I hope to expand that greatly" ... "also something I will work towards" ... "encourage societies to work together to achieve similar goals." ...

Most convincing case for being able to achieve goals: Boyle. Rick Mercer endorsements only get you so far in life.

day 7 wrap-up

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:34:00 -0400

The campaign wraps up at 8pm Monday, so get your last looks at any campaign materials. Websites, posters, facebook groups... all have to be down by 8pm. This includes the Facebook application.

Remember to make your predictions for the election outcome. You can get details and instructions at the original post.

It was a quiet day - the candidates are pretty tired, and for the most part rested or plotted one last big blitz tomorrow. I, being a lazy pundit, today offer only a wrap-up of the updates on the InterTubez.

Dan Boyle updated us on the campaign, and announced the winners of his "what the hell is he holding in that poster?" campaign. He still hasn't told us what he is actually holding, though... Anyway, he's been a regular updater all week, and I have to say he's got the right idea - as a VP Internal candidate, it's probably a good idea to demonstrate that you can communicate, even for the little things like 'campaigns'.

John Hillman put up another of his entertaining videos. The Mark Coffin reference was probably my favourite part.

If you've wanted to learn more about Blair Mason, his picture & profile are now up on the official candidate information page.

14 comments, all on last night's wrap-up, including one where an anonymous poster kind of loses it a bit.

Larkin and Osmond also posted news updates.

Some of the online debates that have occurred this campaign really remind of this web comic. Hilarious in its accuracy.

predict the results

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:00:00 -0400

Good morning, and welcome to day 7 of the campaign.

As is tradition here at MikeSmit.com, I'm running a 'betting pool' where you predict not just who wins, but the margin of victory. It's lots of good clean fun.

If you want to participate, first pick your winners. We ignore spoiled and blank ballots. Also, sad to say we won't be predicting the VP Ed / Grad Senate races this year, as feedback last year indicated that yes/no votes for candidates were completely uninteresting.

Then, fill out this form. You can choose your privacy settings. I won't be publishing everyone's individual guesses beforehand; rather, I'll publish my own guess, and some numbers in terms of who the peanut gallery predicts will win. Then I'll publish the winners once the results are announced.

I have most of my own predictions in mind already, but I still have some thinking to do. I'll close the form to submissions once voting starts next Tuesday.

I should tell you, I've won for two straight years - calling the races to within .2% at times, and on average to within 2% - but there are other very strong contenders, like Jen Bond. Every year is different - this year it could be you.

day 6 wrap-up

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:59:00 -0400

So little happened today that I've gone off on random tangents in this wrap-up to make it seem longer. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Quiet day on the campaign front. Some candidates visited residences, others are recovering from the night before, and of course some are still in Antigonish. Quiet day here at MikeSmit.com, too, though I did do some work on the presidential platforms.

Fine rumours - Debobraegorski was fined $20 for comments made on this site (in particular, the comments about the full time staff having inappropriate relations with dogs). The EC has broad authority to govern campaigning, and that comment was definitely objectionable. Having worked with many current and past full-time staff of the DSU, I can attest to how hard they work and how they are really great people, especially once you get to know them a bit. Running for change is fine, free speech is fine... mounting personal attacks on staff that are apolitical is not something you want to see in a DSU election campaign.

Speaking of those comments, many of you will have heard that during the question period of the presidential debate, Kris Osmond brought up some of the comments Debo has made on this site. More on that in the debate summary, but since then Debo has thrown his support (and supporters) behind Krista. "You have my vote. We need new blood in DSU."

Poll Results are still updating live, now at 30 responses. Looks like Krista supporters have shared their thoughts, and there seems to be some back-and-forth quasi-debates. Add your own thoughts.

Quiet electronically today, too. Dan Boyle weighed in, and Krista made major design changes to her site. She also posted a news update and some pictures. Of note is her explanation of her slogan, "get a life". I haven't been a big fan of the slogan, but her explanation makes sense to me: "... going to DAL is not just about going to school: it's also about a community of people that seize the opportunity to have amazing times together." I work with high school students doing recruitment, and without fail my message to them is to get involved with campus activities - university is more than just classes. I learned a lot during my university years, much of it through extra-curricular involvement (including the DSU, which might be why I'm so twisted). I think if her paragraph of explanation were her online profile, she'd have the election locked up. Krista, I love the sentiment. Word of advice for the future, though - slogans should make sense without the backstory.

In case you've ever wondered, I try to consistently use last names when talking about candidates. The exception is Kris Osmond and Krista Ali, and that's only because I like the Kris and Krista thing.

presidential platforms

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 03:10:00 -0400

It would seem I am trying to make up for a lack of posts today by posting one really long one. I've been going through the presidential election platforms. Slowly. I've written summaries, which are below.

I don't know what percentage of voters will be checking out these platforms - since the websites will be down on election day, I suspect the number isn't high. That said, I think it's important that candidates articulate ideas and a vision. People like me WILL read it, and it's a useful exercise to do yourselves.

For the record, I looked up the profiles Gault and Larkin ran with last year... neither made well-defined promises, so I can't really track their performance. I can tell you that although Debogorskhrushchev wasn't elected last year, his promise was that he would keep running and raising his ideas, and he's done that.

Then I tried to locate the executive review report, and found the first one in one of the three sets of minutes posted, in January (only late by 5 months, yay Council!). I'd forgotten how toothless exec review reports had been in recent years. How is that recommendations that we made 6 years ago and were universally agreed to STILL haven't been implemented? I was, however, pleased to see they are still using many of the student survey questions my committee wrote in 2001, and that they are still using the software I set up for them years ago (now maintained by the Dal-ACM). Wow, I'm meandering like an old man.

Don't get me started on exec review. Anyway, there wasn't much there, but I noticed one interesting thing - councillors felt that Gault better reflected the will of Council but less so the will of students, whereas Larkin better reflected the will of students but less so the will of Council.

Moving on.

In keeping with my autocratic streak, I've invented some categories, and declared winners.

Most concrete innovative ideas: Debogorski. I suspect some are not practical, and I am certain they won't all achieve the stated objectives, and some are batshit crazy, but he gives a detailed plan. Actually, some of his ideas make good sense. I think he has political Tourette's - he can sound like an outsider with a vision for a better DSU for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden he's calling a great bunch of people dog f***ers. John Hillman is the runner-up.

Most obvious typo: Larkin. The very first sentence: "Courtney Larkin is a strong leader that can leader you..." (emphasis added).

Best organization: Gault. Break it down by vision, then by ideal, and then offer some ideas on how to get there. Nice.

Most annoying use of third-person: Larkin. Michael Smit wants you to know that she wins hands-down.

Outstanding Achievement in unattainable goals: Debogorski.

Best Presentation: Hillman, for highlighting the important points of his platform so we don't have to read every word.

Best use of vague platitudes: Gault. "students must now create a unified voice" ... "Engage with community partners" ... "These initiatives need to be strengthened" ... "This is a clear growth opportunity" ... "facilitating connections and collaboration" ...

Most convincing case for being able to achieve goals: Larkin. Melding her experience in with her goals works well for me. Gault also did well in this category.

Summaries

These are (mostly) my words, based on my reading of their platforms. For latest versions and more details, see the platforms for Larkin, Gault (3 pages), Hillman, and Debogorski.

(My commentary is offered in italicized parentheses).

Gault
She's pillaged the "Imagine..." catchphrase, and is imagining a three-quality union based on Approachability, Sustainability, Empowerment.
Approachable:

Make the DSU more diverse by putting free-for-all society space and gender-neutral washrooms in the SUB (That's *all* we are missing.)
Come up with a strategy to improve communication (Vague platitude... we must need a committee!)
Further existing leadership initiatives, working with Dal and local businesses (To hell with local businesses, we need jobs in ONTARIO)

Sustainable:

Let the sustainability office do its job (yay thanks!)
More financial review (sexy stuff!)
Long-term vision, facility improvements, consulting students on upcoming food services contract.

Empowered:

Help societies with turnover, encourage open Council dialog (My recollection of Council is that it needed hella less dialog)
Give students a voice through HSA and municipal election
Improve Metro Transit, add late-night route
More campus awareness of post-secondary education issues

Debogorski

Extensive research to learn about the DSU, its employees, its facilities, its structure. (This, by the way, will be achieved in 3 days.)
Study the finances of the Union and all societies, hold all unnecessary spending, maintain day-to-day operations over the summer.
Deliver an address of the union to describe potential cuts, based on relevance, cost, and usage of services. Then, hold a referendum, voting line-by-line on budget cuts. (Please, take a few hours out of your day to vote in the referendum)
Using the savings, host a 2-day "Unity Day" after finals, including multi-disciplinary events and an unparalleled celebration.
Fix the DSU website, including publishing minutes, major upcoming decisions and past decisions with voting records, and quartery financial reports.
Abolish in-camera discussions
Allow in-store pickup for online bookstore orders.
Put the Dawgfather inside the SUB(Hello, health department? I have a tip...)
Consolidate and eliminate committees; implement Union Criers.
Hire students with different backgrounds to audit and report on the Union.
Open Union-owned business, subsidized by the government. These businesses will sell skills, replacing the currently ineffective services sector.(Amusingly, the services sector now accounts for over 50% of the US economy)
Have law students fix the constitution to prevent political cliques.
Offer online voting on issues before Council.
Use the Gazette to make students aware of Union issues and events.
Work with the DFA to get professors to advise and help the Union.

Larkin
Student Experience

Student engagement by motivating the DSU executive and encouraging teamwork
Encourage societies as a vehicle for student engagement; help societies reach out to students.(Hey, you know what the DSU needs to do? Muck about with something that's already working.)
Work with BoG Student Experience Committee to help guide university in its efforts to understand the student experience.
Increasing awareness of DSU services, using orientation week, society fairs, residences, etc.
Work with CASA and ANSSA to improve the student experience, and encourage students to understand and get involved with both.(Not a goal so much as a job description.)

Safety in the Community

Advocate for student safety throughout the city. (... who are we advocating for 'safety'? Are we cutting a deal with gangs?)
Work with the HSA.
Security on campus - safety walks, more foot patrol officers.

Sustainability

Support the initiatives of societies, students, and the sustainability office to move the DSU to be more sustainable.

Hillman
Student Involvement

Dialog with the students, through channels like Gazette and DSU, to reduce the mystique of the office.
Solving approachability through real action, like visiting student hubs at lunch, passing out cookies, and listening.
Using his first month of pay to run an event designed to reach out to students and learn their issues, like some type of competition. A ground level, affordable approach instead of throwing money at TVs.
Work to make societies more inclusive, including Kings students.

External Lobbying

Continue the leading role Dal plays in CASA and ANSSA
Full support of the premise of the HSA, especially given its perceived relevance to students relative to ANSSA and CASA

Student Safety

More late-night bus routes
Improved campus safety - better lighting, major improvements to Tiger Patrol especially walking services, learn from examples on other campuses.

Sustainability

Fiscal prudence - stewardship of student fees.
Using sustainability to save money

day 5 wrap-up

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:59:00 -0400

Let me start by saying that if you read last night's wrap-up and walked away thinking that the candidates were fighting tooth and nail, I understand why. The post could certainly give that impression. While that makes for good television, it's not an accurate impression. While tension exists, and some individuals have their issues, the candidates are in general good people who are running with noble purpose, and waging a campaign of ideas. Some of their supporters, on the other hand, foam at the mouth :). (Speaking personally, while most candidates take my satire in stride, I've gotten some pretty abusive comments from their supporters. You know who you are, and I send you my love <3). Kris and Krista, in particular, have both asserted they are getting along.

The president's debate was tonight; while I've heard some news, I'll hold back until I can give a more detailed report. Kris Osmond was good enough to record the debate; he plans to send it to our fearless CRO. I will offer (/ shamelessly beg) to publish it online as a public service. Otherwise, I'll just write fiction: ("John Hillman bought everyone a round, and then gave them all a cookie.")

There are 16 responses to the poll, and counting.

Looks like I got one of my statements about the Sexton forum wrong. Dan Boyle did not make a mistake about the SEC; rather, it was Jones who mixed up the role of VPI on the Student Advisory Committee. Boyle corrected that error. I rely on highly reliable, selfless individuals (most of whom are not anonymous to me) who send me their summaries, thoughts, and comments on the forums. I combine these summaries into a single mostly-coherent summary. In the process, between hastily written notes, memory, collation, and translation, mistakes happens. Thanks to commenters for correcting me, and my apologies. I present the forums as factual information, mostly separate from my tongue-in-cheek commentary, and I try my best to get it right.

I personally like to keep track of who makes the effort to show up at GeekBeer, the CS social night. Word from the building is only two candidates made it: Snow and Boyle. I appreciate that. (In fairness, with trivia @ T-room and the Commerce Ball going on, there were a lot of places to be).

Tremblay has posted extensively on a variety of subjects. In particular, he talked about candidate visits to the DAGS AGM. Worth reading. Larkin offered more details on the AGM in a thread on MikeSmit.com.

Hillman has a new video up. I found it amusing.

As promised, Debogorskiavelli has updated his platform with more details. New metrics: 2226 words (+1171), 25 paragraphs (+10), grade 9.2 (-0.1), reading ease 59.7 (-2.9), 14% passive sentences (-4).

Mark Coffin offers his first news post on his website.

Other website updates include Kris & Krista (as described above), Boyle, Snow

Coffin and Tremblay are joining Tipping at ANSSA in Antigonish, St. FX territory. (Possibly Gault, though a witness says she was at the Commerce ball tonight). By way of trivia, St. FX held their student executive elections recently and had voter turnout of 45-50%. That's higher than the recent provincial elections in Alberta. By way of comparison, SMU pulled down 20%, and Acadia 27%. Of course, larger schools - say, UBC - have turnout of 6-7%. But I digress.

I count 36 comments. Read them all, but otherwise: Pelley would win this year, Wetton is a man webserving for two masters, shots at Chris, Larkin allegedely stiffs Krista on fact-gathering meetings, Kris likes to be comfortable wherever he is, Kris sets the record straight, Hillman doesn't have mexican children, we should replace Sodexho with The Dawgfather, Hillman tells the story of his Gazette involvement, plenty of blame to go around for SAN problems.

Not much change on the Facebook application, though it seems Kris is developing a notable lead.

Quiet day on the MikeSmit.com front... Pi day festivities, reviewing papers for an upcoming conference. 1,000 unique visitors, only 4,500 pages.

some early comments

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:32:41 -0400

The presidential debate went on tonight at the Grawood. All-candidate trivia at the T-Room followed. I may not be able to cover the forum until tomorrow, given how late in the day it was.

All submissions to the poll I posted earlier are now available.

The results page will update live & automatically every time a new submission is received.

If you haven't yet, tell us how you made up your mind who to vote for.

what do YOU think?

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:32:00 -0400

Many of you have told me what you think, but now we can do it with some structure. I was hoping that the Facebook app would fulfill people's desire to discuss candidates, but it looks like people are a bit shy.

So... fill out the survey!

The survey asks why you will vote a certain way - or why you don't care. It can be done with complete anonymity, though of course I will ask that you not be a total douchebag. Tell us why your chosen candidate will be the savior of the DSU. Or whatever.

The results will be released here once we get a few responses, and like last year will continually update as responses come in.

day 4 wrap-up

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:30:00 -0400

I need to start by saying that collectively, the people who submit to my tips line could basically take over my job. Some of the stuff that comes through there cracks me up. Maybe next year I'll just give out a free account to everyone who wants to post.

Here now, the wrap-up.

"Imagine a DSU where the President and their VPs are constantly at each others throats..." Yes folks, it could happen. There is mounting tension in the campaign. Gault and VAJ are at odds over the Council thing. Gault and Larkin, current VPs, are no longer speaking. Kris and Krista are at each other's throats more and more. It's negative campaigning, but not the fun kind, the whisper-campaign kind. Speaking of campaigning, how would you feel if you learned Hillman had fathered a mexican child with a Zapatista rebel in Chiapas? I'm just asking.

75 comments today. You should read them all, but the highlights are: Rehash of Kings, society, and the Gazette; the Gazette is elitist, no it isn't, yes it is, no it isn't; renewal referenda for levies; the Gazette should be the propaganda arm of the DSU; the old Grawood, the Gorsebrook, and the T-room; Gazette staff defend the Gazette and King's students; apparently, VAJ threatened physical violence toward a sitting exec; "Vajitarian" defends VAJ's support among homosexuals; how candidate's handle criticism; what does JSB stand for?; JP calls Larkin hot, and Debo insinuates she's a 'scaly iguanna'; on the purpose of King's students (hint: it involves fries).

Speaking of comments, this week's Gazette came out. I haven't examined it in detail yet, but I'll refer you to Ian's comments.

Scott Wetton was definitely on a roll at the sexton forum, asking questions of each position and then going on to ask more to the whole group of candidates. Commendable, and his questions were certainly all legitimate. I do find it a bit strange, though, as it seems he designed and hosts Courtney Larkin's website: http://www.scottwetton.com/court/. Is he an impartial advocate for Sexton, or is he schilling for Larkin? (Update: About 75 people kindly took the time to tell me Scott also designed and hosts Gault's website. Mea culpa; about 5 seconds work would have been required to figure that out on my own.)

Via the tip line, I heard some defense of VAJ for her Council tantrum: she was launching a defense of her innocent society and she doesn't like Jen Bond very much. Sorry folks, not good enough. This is a Council meeting, it's run a certain way for a reason. It's not preschoool. Don't get me wrong, if she was blamed inappropriately, it shouldn't have happened, that's bad, and someone is at fault. But there's ways to handle that.

If the cattiness of some of the tips I am getting is to be believed, Mark Coffin will be the only competent exec next year, and that's only because "Mark Coffin - No" doesn't have email access at home. IF you believe everything I hear: Gault is 'smarmy'. Larkin is "just so bitchy". Gault is "petty". Larkin is "conniving". Gault is "yay mediocrity". Larkin is a "megalomaniac". Krista and a massive army of volunteers can barely keep up with Kris' single-handed effort. Larkin ran the DSS into the ground and then ran away to Management. Kris "seems to be a strong candidate during most forums, but that's only because he's hopped up on energy drinks. Soon his liver will start rejecting the sugar-liquid and he'll be back to singing Emo songs at the infodesk making everyone in the lobby want to find their way to the roof." Krista "lacks experience and vision". Kris' posture at the forum was reminiscent of a porn star being serviced. Victoria Jones is 'useless', a 'resume padder', and has people "cheering for a leprechaun". A member of DAGS contacted me to say that VAJ had come out and told them that being VP Internal is "an important next step for HER". Boyle is a 'kilt-wearing waste of poential'.

Shit son, if that's what they are saying about each other, I can only imagine what they are saying about me.

Deboxerxes calls the full-time staff "middle aged dogf***ers", and encourages us to "get the whip out". He also wanted to let us know he slept through the presidential debate on Thursday night. PROTIP: the debate is Friday night.

As of about 1am Atlantic, the only candidates with updated websites were Dan Boyle and Eric Snow. (Update: I figured 1am would be a safe time to stop checking, but it's now 4am and Larkin is STILL updating her Facebook page).

Dan Boyle, apparently inspired by my comments on his poster, has launched a bit of a contest to determine what the phallic blue thing in his hand is. By all means, enjoy yourselves.

MikeSmit.com served 6,000 pages to 1,000 unique users.

Sexton forum highlights

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:28:00 -0400

I once moderated a Sexton forum where our only contact with actual engineers was when some came over to ask us to turn down the volume, because they could hear us on their side of the lounge. Attendance was much better this time. I think that is a testament to the increased attention DSU is giving Sexton, and the work of fine people over the past few years, like Scott Wetton and his predecessors.

Again, thanks to the kind people who sent me their observations. Here's what went down.

Nerogorski and Hillman were both absent (Hillman had academic commitments, not sure on Debo). Kris was late due to an exam, but did show up.

Presidential candidates were asked about DSU Services on Sexton. Gault mentioned the T-Room; Larkin mentioned T-Room, Health Plan office, SAS. Gault then mentioned SAS.

Then they were asked about their role in the executive. Gault mentioned leadership and supporting VPs, helping with communication, and being approachable and visible. Larkin mentioned being a resource for VPs and getting them to work together despite conflicts. She made particular mention of presidents supporting their VPs instead of pushing their own pet projects.

VPSL: Krista got caught offguard with a question about the Sexton Entertainment Committee. Kris, of course, knows all about it, having been busted for pre-campaigning to said committee already.

Kris demonstrated a worrying pattern. He would speak, Krista would address a shortcoming in what he had said, and he would respond to "clarify" what he had said to fix the shortcoming. I'm not sure if it is because Kris is communicating poorly or Krista is putting words into his mouth, or both. Krista's pattern is constantly saying "ummmmmmmm". (One tipster put it more succinctly: 'Kris Osmond starts every debate answer with "I want to clarify that I didn't say..." making the implication that Krista puts words in his mouth. Not true. Krista can't even put words in her own mouth (other then "Um...").')

For example, when asked how they would improve Sexton turnout, Kris wanted to use existing student groups. Krista didn't want to 'use' them, but rather to pass on her passion and excitement and that societies would be more likely to do the promotion. Kris clarified he didn't want to 'use' societies, and that he had excitement and passion too.

When asked how to get sexton entertainment directors, Krista suggested better advertisement and pushing it in residences. Kris suggested people already involved with demonstrated records. Krista responded that they shouldn't discount those who are uninvolved. Kris "clarified" he didn't mean to look at those people exclusively.

VAJ seemed a bit sensitive still. The CRO said "We're going to start with Victoria on this one", and VAJ shot back with "Actually, I went first on the last one." The CRO, showing patience beyond her years, responded by saying "We're going to start with Victoria on this one."

Boyle slipped up, thinking that the VP (Internal) chairs the Sexton Entertainment Committee (it is chaired by the VP SL, VP I doesn't even sit on it).

Senate candidates were asked about their roles on Council. Christofi wants to hold the exec accountable; sounds like he wants to be on Exec Review. RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN, CHRISTOFI. Fraser talked about leadership and communication. Hughes talked about - surprise! - hockey. As a referee, he gets to deal with emotional people. Sadly, John, outburts aren't (weren't) common during Council meetings, though if you want to give VAJ a game misconduct, I'll provide the whistle. Mason and Snow described their current council involvement. Snow mentioned that he is very outspoken at Council even when not a councillor ("that's for damn sure", remarked a pundit). He encouraged better assistance for new councillors.

Coffin again impressed people with his knowledge and preparation for a race in which he has no competition.

senate videos

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:16:00 -0400

I've posted the Senate candidate video profiles. I have a few thoughts...

Eric Snow

It's very odd watching this video... I kept wanting to tilt my head to the side to match the angle of his.

I have a five point platform articulating issues on... committees

Nothing resonates with voters like hard-hitting platforms on committees.

I have a five point platform articulating issues on... external lobbying

Please, someone tell me we don't have senators doing our external lobbying. Have you *seen* the senators we've had over the years?

Jonathan Hughes

For years I have worked as a referee in hockey and as such I have come to understand the intricate differences and subtleties

Quick, word association. When you think "hockey", what do you think of? "intricate and subtle"? No? Ok, how about top 10 things you think of. No? 20?

With that skill and experience I hope to represent you

Listen, if I need someone who understands the intricacies of hockey rules, I'll let you know. You don't want to take a tangential relation and parlay that into experience. Rather, describe a history of community involvement, admit to inexperience with Senate, and then tell us why you are running and why you'll represent us well.

highest governing body

Highest *academic* governing body.

Kaylyn Fraser

(Sitting in the Grawood, with its wonderful acoustics)

Mmm, the campus bar - the very seat of democracy!

If we in the student community are to succeed and grow, we require responsible governance...

There's been no sign of that requirement thus far, mercifully.

I, uh, don't hate it. What does that say about me?

Andrew Christofi

Sustainability. Certainly one of the most important concepts of the past few years.

... perhaps to you, but let's allow our students to make up their own minds.

how does [sustainability] apply to the DSU? ... The first is by furthering the interests of students wherever they are represented. ... The second is through increasing student involvement ...

What the HELL are you saying? I watched the video 10 times trying to figure out if I had the transcription correct. Sustainability applies to the DSU in that we need to further their interests? Huh? And also that we need to increase student involvement? In what? The DSU? I have no idea what the message is here.

PROTIP: BE COHERENT.

Having more individuals involved in the process also helps the problem solve itself more easily.

... I, uh, what?

I believe that I am the best candidate ... to solve these problems.

Well, that makes one of us.

But wait - what problems? The problems are going to solve themselves more easily with more individuals, or something. Is the problem then getting more individuals?

Blair Mason

No video.

Campaigning is hard :(

by the numbers

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:25:00 -0400

I was browsing around the Facebook Application today. In the demographic breakdown, you can see how demographics are splitting up - so what percentage of Joe's support comes from men, but also how are Men dividing up their support between Joe and Billy. Here's what I thought was interesting.

Now, these numbers are only representative of the people who use the application to express support. Most are associated with the DSU, or are friends with a single candidate. I expect these people to have opinions that sometimes differ from those who have no association with the DSU.

Gault has a 10% lead in pure support, but if you look at the Eligible voter graph, it's 50-50 between her and Larkin (at the time of writing).

Gault has the women's vote; Larkin has the men, though to a lesser extent.

Larkin has the residence vote.

The stupid application should have asked what campus students were on... I'm willing to bet Larkin is leading on Sexton.

Boyle is leading by 10%, and in fact leads in most demographics.

The majority of VAJ's support is coming from "Liberal" or "Very Liberal" - 75%, in fact. This is not surprising given her involved with the Dalhousie Young Liberals, or whatever they call themselves. The university-aged representatives of the party that decided to elect an academic to be their party leader. (insert slow-clap) Given that the majority of campus doesn't not belong to the Young Liberals, it will be interesting to see how she does.

Boyle is still dominant with the male demographic

Most people want to elect Mark Coffin.

Those that do not are 100% female. Ex-girlfriends?

Kris has a narrow lead over Krista... again, it would be interesting to see how much of his support is coming from Sexton and Larkin supporters.

They split demographics almost equally. A major exception is relationship status, where 83% of those supporting Krista are single, compared to only 50% for Kris.

Eric Snow leads the pack by a comfortable 20-point margin, with the other four splitting up the pie almost equally.

... but Fraser's support dwindles to a distant 5th if you consider only eligible voters.

50% of men and 50% of women support Eric Snow.

Looks like Tremblay's Yes supporters will carry the day.

The referendum looks to be about 75-25, which is low for an inside-the-DSU crowd.

Gazette

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:09:00 -0400

The Gazette coverage is up.

http://www.dalgazette.ca/

Thoughts?

links!

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:47:00 -0400

In case you haven't noticed, I shared my list of links to the candidates Facebook groups and websites.

I am happy to say that almost all executive candidates - even the unopposed Mark Coffin - have websites that contain platforms, history, and sometimes even blogs / news. The only one missing out is Hugogorski.

Reports have flooded in, describing how I, as one reader eloquently said, "drastically understated the extent to which VAJ lost her shit" at Council. Several cited an instance when the chair was trying to maintain order and explained that a "point of information" wasn't your license to say whatever you wanted whenever you wanted, and VAJ snapped back something like "No! This is my society, I'm asking my question, YES, I'm going to." Not something you see a lot on CPAC, for example. Consensus is that Gault handled the second, fourth, and fifth outbursts with aplomb. Reports were mixed on the first, third, and the general mutterings.

Several readers have commented on that little performance, reporting that in a previous open space session she had talked about councillor apathy, not taking things personally, debates are for in Council only, and so on. All good advice. "Strong leaders", though, lead by example. Losing your shit, launching a direct attack, and then taking the festering anger home with you sets a bad example.

day 3 wrap-up

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:46:00 -0400

Things are heating up out there. Candidates are out and about, in classes, in residences, trying to get their name out there. Another big day tomorrow: the Gazette elections issue comes out. There is also a debate on Sexton campus tomorrow. As always, I thrive on your news tips and input. Here's the kind of day it's been.

Council met tonight; I always find it interesting to see who was in attendance. My tip line tells me that Debogortsetung was not able to attend, nor was Hillman. The other presidential, VP internal, and VP SL candidates were all there. Snow was the only senator who stuck it out to the bitter end.

I count over 60 comments today on MikeSmit.com, some quite entertaining. I recommend reading all of them. The "highlights": academic elitism, mock sexism, the days of yore; Maggie weighs in; shots at Kings, Mexicans, French people, trust-funds, and hippies; people giving away some of my favourite manglings of candidate names; Kris clarifies his position; Where In The World is Hillman's Bordello?

Jen Bond gave in and talked about the elections on her blog. In DSU Elections - as in all other areas of life - Jen and I don't always agree, but I place high value on her opinion. Of note is our shared distate for VAJ's "VAJ: THE INTERNAL CHOICE" slogan. She was pretty hard on Eric Snow last year, but this year she went as far as to say she'd like to see him as VP Ed. - no small compliment from a former holder of the position. You kids out there, pay attention - all you have to do is work in basic servitude for a few years to gain some credibility.

Whoa, two candidates are actually talking about the same issue and disagreeing: society use of the Grawood. Krista posted her position, and Kris clarified his.

At the Council meeting tonight, Gault and VAJ had words. As she'll remind you, VAJ was involved in the Spread The Net campaign. A Spread-the-Net related event was held in the Grawood. The Grawood lost money. Gault offered an explanation that seemed to blame the Dal Spread The Net group. VAJ was ready to strike down upon her with great vengeance and fuuuuuuurious anger.

Word on the street is the elections committee handed out a few fines. Kris Osmond got a fine for illegal use of Union facilities, or something like that. His first fine was a week ago for pre-campaigning; he's not in fine trouble yet, but he needs to show some caution, those things add up fast. Courtney Larkin was fined due to an illegal endorsement email from a society.

There was another debate about the Gazette. Not strictly elections related, but I expect you'll hear a lot more about it in the weeks ahead.

Amusingly, Council never officially elected the Elections Committee. *Oops*. It's a rubber-stamp, but still not something you want to forget.

A number of candidates post updates to their site. Krista, Kris, Eric, Dan, Larkin's facebook and John are all daily reads for me.

MikeSmit.com served 7,000 pages to 1,000 unique visitors.

presidential platforms: metrics

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:50:00 -0400

I am preparing more detailed comments on the platforms of the various candidates, but I thought you might be interested in some basic numbers.

Most are self-explanatory. The Flesch-Kincaid metrics use words, syllables, and sentences to estimate the reading difficulty. Grade Level estimates the number of years of education required to comprehend the writing. Ease measures how easy it is to read, on a scale of 1-100 (100 = very easy).

Elections candidates are often encouraged to use the active voice. "I will engage students" is active. "Students should be engaged by candidates" is passive. Passive is usually less concise, and an abundance of passive sentences is undesirable in most non-scientific writing styles.

Candidate	# Words	# Paragraphs	Flesch-Kincaid Grade	Flesch-Kincaid Ease	% Passive Sentences
Larkin	814	12	13	41.6	13%
Gault	1224	62	12.9	36.3	8%
Hillman	1604	19	14.8	40.6	5%
Debo	1055	15	9.3	62.6	18%

carleton forums

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:16:00 -0400

A fair bit of elections news today, I'll cover it all by the time I'm done. But first:

BREAKING NEWS: Attendance at the forum in Tupper Link was very poor.

This entirely unanticipated plunge in attendance threw organizers and candidates into shock. "Where are the hordes of people?" asked one candidate, who declined to be named. "Last year, we didn't have enough chairs. This year, people are walking outside just to avoid us. I feel like a CS student at the Palace."

Yeah, not a whole lot of people showed up. In fact, some candidates didn't even make it - Debogorskexpialidocious, Mason and Hughes didn't show. Debo I understand - he knows his votes will come from people who won't be at forums. Mason and Hughes, though, still have room to persuade those involved with the DSU to vote for them. Eric Snow is a shoo-in with the DSU faithful, but they get to pick two other candidates. The faithful may not have attended the debate, but word does get back to them.

The forum was, frankly, more of the same. Courtney and Tara vied for the win again, hard to pick a winner. Daniel for VPI. Kris and Krista... call it a tie, I have one vote for Kris and one for Krista. We'll give Senate to ... Kaylyn, just to mix it up a bit; she performed well, as did Eric Snow. They may talk about things on their blogs again.

day 2 wrap-up

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:45:00 -0400

Another day, another forum, another few votes gained. Nothing terribly exceptional, also nothing dull. Some candidates are posting daily news on their sites, which is fantastic. Enough patter... on with the wrap-up.

Big forum today, covered here. I picked winners, but I wasn't there, so who cares?

Dr Twinkletits, elections connoisseur, has weighed in on the posters if you missed it earlier.

The "posters!" thread, which should be renamed "sparring with Debotrotsky", hit 34 comments.

The "Eligible Voter" demographics are up on the Facebook application. It turns out that although it looks like VAJ is edging Boyle, it turns 20+% of her supporters say they aren't eligible voters, so in fact Boyle is narrowly in front with actual voters. Similar circumstances put Larkin slightly ahead of Gault. Statistically irrelevant, but worth a note.

There are over 100 users of the application, but most are only supporting one or two candidates - meaning there is a notable "undecided" or "indifferent" vote out there.

The presidential platforms are out at the respective sites of the candidates, Debogorskimarx, Gault, Hillman, Larkin. More on that tomorrow.

Comments on this site suggest Larkin and Stalin have a lot in common. Comments sent to the tip-line suggest she is, and I'm quoting here, "ditzy". PROTIP: A MINIMUM OF ONE OF YOU IS WRONG.

The "A" in "VAJ" apparently stands for "Anne". Doesn't excuse that nonsense of a slogan, but I have been so informed and I thought you'd want to know.

Day 3 brings another forum at Dal, and some more talk of videos on MikeSmit.com. Ideally before midnight, but we'll see what we can do.

candidate forums

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:49:00 -0400

Today was the first all-candidate forum/debate. Reports say attendance was a "record low", though I'm not sure how they got less than "0". I have in my hands four separate reports from readers to whom I now owe a great deal. I wasn't there in person, but these reports are highly credible. Based on them, I'll be naming winners in the forums. I'll also summarize some of the points made, but remember the damn thing went on for like eight hours, I can't get all of it.

President. Winner: Courtney Larkin. Not by much, but enough. Demagogorski told us you can't represent students if you aren't taking a full course load - apparently an executive is incapable of remembering what it was like to take a full course load a whole year ago? Tara played the "ideals but no concrete ideas" cards, which stopped impressing me in early 2001. She is capable of delving deeper, I think, and she should. Hillman pushed his competition for ideas funded from his own pocket, as described in his platform. Debo encouraged budget cuts and getting out of the office to talk to students. Gault pushed for visibility, approachability, and working with societies. Larkin suggested intellectual events (PROTIP: aren't they called 'classes'?) and more attention to beyond the 18-22 demographic. Apparently some took issue with Debo doing schoolwork during the forum, especially given his insistence that he'd be taking 5 courses as president.

VP (Internal): Winner: Daniel Boyle. Mostly, VAJ said "VAJ" too much. What was she thinking? Boyle could have stood there and read from the constitution and sounded better, but instead he had solid things to say. He talked about addressing some apathy issues, gave a teaser including residence students and some communication strategies, and then sent us to his website to read his platform.

VP (Student Life): Kris vs Krista. Infodesk vs Infodesk. Blue vs Pink. Winner: Krista, by a nose. She summarizes her answers on her website, but she didn't get it for that. Ali admits to some inexperience but came across as highly competent. One point of disagreement was society nights at the Grawood - Kris wanted to require societies to bring a certain number of people to get cover, while Krista thought that disadvantaged the smaller societies and wanted to get them access that didn't depend on size. Kris mentioned licensing other areas on campus (*cough* GeekBeer *cough*, plus many other well-established events). He backed off some of his ideas when they took criticism - could be a good quality, could be bad.

Undergrad Senate: Winner: Eric Snow. He knows his stuff. There weren't a lot of questions - one about academic issues, and a second one that was a pop quiz about vanilla Senate stuff. They all named academic integrity as the top academic issue. Eric answered his pop quiz question and then went on to recite a bunch of other information, like that annoying know-it-all in your first-year English class. Other op quiz results: Christofi was asked when Caucus meets, said every Monday - not a bad guess, Senate meets on Mondays, but no specific meeting time is stipulated for the caucus. Fraser guessed that the quorum for the caucus was the senators, the president, the VP Ed, the faculty reps (?). (Actual quorum is three people, any three of the four senate reps, the president, or the VP Ed). Hughes didn't know who the chair was (VP Ed); Mason correctly named the DSU President as the deputy chair. Luckily, your ability to memorize Section 6 of the Constitution has no bearing on your ability to be a Senator. But ya'll should probably give it a look. Yes, I said ya'll.

HSA Referendum: Snoozefest. This referendum needs a strong "no" campaign, just to inspire a little healthy debate. I know VAJ opposed it in Council, as did Zimmerman - ladies? Anyone?

grad students: they matter

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:24:26 -0400

In my candidate roundup, I completely ignored the Graduate Senator. You can call it a commentary on how often the DSU ignores graduate issues, but truth is I just forgot. And I'm a grad student.

Truth be told, it's not an interesting race - Yannick Tremblay is the only candidate, and he's represented grad students before. He's been spending time in his campaign raising the profile of grad students, and kudos to him for that. The position of grad senator is actually a relatively new one, and he is the kind of person that proves the importance and usefulness of the role.

Maelstrom 08: video profiles

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:07:00 -0400

Sorry for a day without posts - my job in real life took all of today's time; by the time I was done, it was past midnight on the east coast. There are more to come tonight, but for now, the transcripts of video bios are up for the exec positions.

I have a few thoughts on what the presidential candidates had to say.

Courtney Larkin

Hi Tigers

I spent 7 years at Dal, 6 of them with the DSU, earned two degrees and a barrel of awards, and I've never once thought of myself as a "Tiger". Perhaps because it always made me think of frosted flakes.

passion and dedication to be a strong leader

If that's all it takes to be a strong leader, Stalin was a strong leader. Don't get me wrong, I like the sentiment - when you start your purges, I have a list.

have been able to exceed all expectations

... you should *really* clarify whether or not everyone had really low expectations.

Through the management skills and leadership roles, through being a vice-president...

Did I transcribe that wrong, or is it just a really awkward sentence?

John Hillman

(Standing in front of a pink curtain...

First of all, it looks like you are in a bordello.

Uh, running out of time,...

Whoa, whoa - you made one point, and then ran out of time?

the student union needs your participation.

If that's true, the student union is totally sunk.

Tara Gault

The DSU is more than a building.

The DSU is, in fact, not a building at all!

The DSU is a way for students of all backgrounds, experiences, and interests to come together... Together we can rejuvenate ... Together we can make the DSU more approachable ...

I feel that "We are the world" is the ideal soundtrack for this speech. "There comes a time ... when the world must come together as one". I mean, it sounds nice, but in reality, how much of your term is going to be you doing your thing, and us doing our thing, and then in a year someone coming and promising to do it better?

Gregory Debogorski

(Standing in the management building and above the noise in the Atrium.)

There is something that amuses me about promising to get up close and personal with all 15,000 students once elected, yet standing half a mile away on the other side of a multi-story drop for the video bio.

program review, uh, some external auditing, ... bring the students back into the Union.

Because nothing brings students running like program reviews and audits. Toss in calculus textbooks and you'll be the most popular president since Reagan!

I think we need to take another look at our constitution...

Ah, there you go, *that* is what was missing in the plan to bring students back to the Union.

day 1 wrap-up

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:19:00 -0400

What a day. The campaigns were launched with a fury; between checking the Facebook app to look for interesting demographics and trying to get through the video bios and campaign websites, you can spend a lot of time trying to get informed. Let's see what happened today.

Debutantorski's poster inspired a brief discussion that includes parodies of Miguel de Cervantes and Karl Marx. He promises us more detailed solutions will come. (All of the other posters are up here as well.)

Jones' campaign slogan this year is "VAJ: Your Internal Choice". Initial feedback: What the hell was she thinking?

The Facebook Application is, at the moment, basically a poll of those currently involved with the DSU, and is really only a useful barometer of that segment of support. Nonetheless, based on the 80 people using it:
- Larkin and Gault are basically tied, with very similar demographics.
- Boyle and Jones are splitting the vote 50-50, but while Jones has an even amount of support among men and women, Boyle's support comes mostly from men.
- Kris and Krista also each get 66% of their support from their own gender.
- Eric Snow seems to have a good grip on 50% of the support, with the other 4 candidates splitting up the remainder. He's not as popular with the ladies, though, despite the goatee.

... yeah, that's all I've got.

posters! (part 2)

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:28:00 -0400

I have posted pictures of all of the posters in this campaign.

Some of them were a bit boring, so I offered my own commentary. By all means, enjoy yourselves.

posters!

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:19:00 -0400

I am indebted to the reader who supplied me with pictures of the candidate posters, as posted in the SUB. Debogorskinejad decided to use the space to deliver a message (see right, or larger version). I can't make this stuff up. There are other posters in the SUB worth checking out, if you are so inclined.

Candidate websites are up, Facebook groups are up, and support is being declared using the Facebook application. Add to that the profiles, pictures, and videos already on the official site, and I've spent some portion of the day just trying to keep up. My profuse thanks to those of you who have been sending me more information about the candidates I've never heard of.

I'll try summarize it tonight in the daily wrap-up.

Facebook and the DSU Elections

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:00:00 -0400

My apologies for a handful of boring, informative posts. It'll get better. You know, maybe. At some point. I'll let you know.

This year's campaign includes a Facebook application. It presents information about the candidates, you can choose candidates to support (publicly or privately), it allows you to see who is garnering support, it shows you demographic breakdowns, it has a discussion board, you can make an asshole of yourself, you can invite your friends... go see for yourself.

Based on the candidate profiles, at least 5 out of the 8 candidates for executive positions have websites. A disappointing 1 out of the 5 Senate candidates has a website listed, but there's still time. Which leads me to this:

Dear candidates,

It's the year 2008. Students use the Internet to get information. So do you. So why don't you have a friggin website? While most voters can't be bothered to haul themselves on campus to listen to candidates talk at each other for 3 hours, many will click a link. If the candidates in 2000 managed to get themselves websites, you can, too. Use blogspot or wordpress or anything. It's not hard, honest. And if you've got $6, you can buy DouchebagMcGee.com and look professional. A winning candidate from last year told me that 800 people visited their website during 1 week of campaigning. Do you want to lose that market?

Love always,

-Mike

candidate round-up

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:53:41 -0400

Campaigning for the DSU Elections starts Monday (tomorrow) at 8am. I see the candidate profiles and pictures have been posted.

I've spent a little time talking about the presidential candidates, mostly because I'm giddy with anticipation for the impending maelstrom. There are, however, other positions available:

Vice President (Internal)

Victoria Jones

Jones had a successful run at a Senate seat last year; you may recall her clever "VOTE VAJ" t-shirts. The online portion of her campaign was entirely unmemorable.

Daniel Boyle

After a close loss in the Board of Governors race last year, Boyle took a seat on the Board of Operations of the DSU. Now he's back. I... got nothing. Someone tell me something interesting.

Vice President (Education)

Mark Coffin

Mark is part of SustainDal, appears to be active with the Green Party, and .adsgf8-3129fj12c,fadfagajasgg

Whoa, sorry, dozed off there. Yeah... *boring*. One candidate? No one loses Yes-No votes. If he has unique ideas, I'll listen, but I read his profile and it's all ideals with no ideas. Step it up.

Vice President (Student Life)

Kris Osmond
Krista Ali

Never heard of 'em. Rumour is they are both SUB infodesk staffers, so there is potential here for an interesting campaign.

Undergraduate Senate Representative

Kaylyn Fraser
Blair Mason
Jonathan Hughes

Who?

Andrew Christofi

I only know the name from his role on the Society Policy Committee; given the recently-raised furor about some of that committee's recommendations, he may face a few interesting questions at the forums.

Eric Snow

Eric ran a very visible campaign for Senate last year and missed the seat by a handful of votes. By all reports he's been active with the DSU ever since, so we'll see what he's got this year.

Board of Governors

All of the elected BoG representatives have elected to serve their full 2-year terms, so there will be no elections for this position.

News? Ideas? Let me know at the tip line.