By Nicole Schmidt
There’s something about the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) election that puts me and my cynical brain in an especially pleasant mood. Maybe it’s the fact that every executive candidate strolls around university turf like the Rocky theme song is playing in the background, or maybe it’s the fact that we have more news to fill our pages with each campaign season. But I can confidently say that this election, perhaps more than any other I’ve been around to witness, will be nothing short of interesting.
If you haven’t been at Ryerson as long as I have, or if you’ve never bothered to care, let me give you a Sparknotes-style breakdown: in the four years leading up to 2015, there was no opposing slate in the election. It was a system riddled with corruption, and most students couldn’t be bothered with bullshit political spiels—voter turnout was as low as 11 per cent of students. Former mastheads thought the whole thing was pretty appalling, so they decided to make things a bit more interesting by creating some opposition. In 2001, we entered the fictitious Scoop W. Gerbil. A decade later, our fun editors joined the shit show.
The past two elections have been different. There were two slates and finally, choice. This year, there’s no need for us to intervene because there are four slates.
The people elected are the ones who represent the issues you care about. You finally have the ability to choose and it takes less than 60 seconds to vote. Help hold these people accountable—you pay their salaries.
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