Congratulations. You stunned me.
When it comes to the DSU, it takes a lot to surprise me. I’ve been around Dal forever. I once wrote a 5000-word article chronicling the post-post secondary lives of former DSU presidents dating back to 1960. I’ve consumed so many issues of the Gazette archives that I often find myself nominating people for Lester’s Moustache Club (see the archives section in our Movember issue— this was a pretty big honour back in the 30s).
The point is that I’m a major nerd when it comes to DSU history, and so it takes a lot for any political developments to shock me. We have a habit of repeating certain themes in cycles—external advocacy angst, concerns over the relentless progression of student apathy, and at least a century’s worth of agitators (myself included) griping about that unbeatable insider political machine.
So here I was, ready to write a post-elections article about apathy and how we need to get our act together next year—and you went and completely flipped the script on me.
Out of nowhere, you nearly doubled voter turnout from last year. Eighteen percent—a number we haven’t hit since 2011.
Is it time to declare mission accomplished in the war against voter apathy? No, certainly not, but this increase was a major victory that we can all be proud of. And it wasn’t just that you voted— it was how you voted.
I’ve searched through literally decades of Gazette DSU elections coverage, and while I’ve found plenty of references to outsider presidential campaigns, I’d struggle to offer any examples of these campaigns actually succeeding.
(In the 1984 elections we elected Alex Gigeroff, a candidate whose first act in office was to stand out front of the SUB in a pink bunny suit, as per a campaign promise. Even Alex was considered a front runner well before the election began though, as there were no returning executives running against him, and his Vice Presidential running mate was a popular DSU insider. The 80s were…a different time.)
What happened this year is unprecedented. You elected a president whose entire platform emphasized fundamentally changing the culture of the DSU. A candidate with no insider connections or endorsements from influential levied societies. Dan will enter office without any backs to scratch or debts to repay—the only demographic he owes anything is the silent, frustrated portion of the electorate that saw something in his vision for change, and suspended its skepticism towards student politics long enough to vote.
I have no idea what is going to happen next, and that thrills me.
Dan has an absolutely unique mandate, but he will have to live up to 2008 Obama levels of hope and expectation. He won this election by striking up dialogues with students across all campuses. According to the interview he did with the Gazette after his victory, the hand-held clicker he used to record his conversations with individual students read “about 2100” by the end of the week-long campaign, despite losing two entire days to the unexpected winter blast that shut down campus.
If Dan wants to achieve his goals, he’ll have to put that enthusiasm to good use. More often than not, DSU execs get so bogged down in the business of running things that they forget the importance of making the DSU relevant to the average student. As important as it will be for Dantodoa good job at his daily tasks, it will be just as important to let students know what it is he is doing.
He needs to think outside the box. Take an afternoon every week to visit locations outside of the SUB. Hand out cookies to students. Introduce himself and the DSU’s projects, even though there isn’t an election going on. Listen to the inevitable complaints with an open mind.
Some people might argue that it isn’t the responsibility of the president to do the work of the street team, but this kind of outreach is exactly what the union needs. Most students I’ve talked to feel fundamentally disconnected from their student leaders. They aren’t going to brave the corridors of the SUB to meet the execs and bridge that gap.
It is up to the executives to take the initiative—to prove to students that they aren’t some isolated secret society hiding away in their offices, but passionate people who really do want to represent every corner of campus as best they can. The best way to do this is to open things up—to make their work visible and interact with their fellow students as much as possible. Odds are high that the average student will have at least some issues or concerns during their time at Dalhousie. If they’ve already had the chance to chat with an executive or two, they will be far more likely to see the union as a resource worth approaching.
Again, I have no idea how the next year is going to play out. Maybe this year will mark a turning point in the war on apathy. Maybe enough people will show up to our AGM so that we can reach quorum. Maybe Dan will turn out to be a Rasputin-like mesmerist whose calm, soothing voice has hypnotized an army of 2100 zombified followers willing to execute his every twisted command.
Whatever happens, it will be interesting—and not just by my weird Lester’s Moustache Club nominating standards.
See you in September.
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