It happens every spring: the days get longer, students grit their teeth and bear down on the last seven weeks of school, and, like a bad flu, SAC elections roll around again.
The campaign to run U of T’s Students’ Administrative Council for the 2005-2006 academic year officially began last Monday, but the campaign proper more tangibly began with Wednesday night’s hastily organized all-candidates debate in the basement of the Earth Sciences building.
A total of 30 candidates are running for six SAC executive positions: President, VP Operations, VP External, VP University Affairs, VP Equity, and VP UTM. A separate election will be held in late March to fill the SAC board of directors positions.
The four presidential candidates present were the first to speak; each was allowed a one-minute opening statement, a one-and-a-half-minute closing statement, and one minute each to answer questions collected from the audience and screened by the Chief Returning Officer, Scott Tremblay.
“I think SAC has been really unresponsive to student needs,” said Shehan De Silva. “I think I have good ideas that can achieve positive results for students.” De Silva promised a $66 Metropass if elected.
“Mismanagement of student dollars,” said Mark Sutherland. “This is something that I and U of T students are concerned about. I’d like to stress SAC’s visibility-SAC has a lot of resources which are being underutilized.”
“Our platform involves eliminating Metropass lines,” said David Lee. “We feel that SAC has become far too politicized.” Lee said that he would impose one-year term limits on all SAC executive positions so that “new people come into SAC with new ideas.”
“I’m running with a talented, dedicated, and progressive team of students,” said Paul Bretscher. “I have a proven track record of getting things done.” Bretscher pointed to his work on SAC’s health and dental plan committee, which negotiated a new health insurance plan last year, and his current presidency of the Arts and Science Students’ Union as examples of his work.
Two other candidates, Dylan Rae and James Webster, were not present.
The candidates were questioned on how they would improve the SAC Metropass, which, despite being popular with students, has forced students to wait in long lineups to buy, and only modest savings over the regular price.
Lee promised to negotiate with the TTC for a better deal. “What we plan to do is to organize an eight-month plan [with the TTC] which will benefit students,” Lee said. “We hope to reduce the Metropass to $60 per month.”
Bretscher said that the original Metropass deal had been the result of work by student unions on several Toronto campuses. “When you look back at this initiative, it was a collective effort,” Bretscher said. He did not name a specific price target for the Metropass. “We have a firm commitment to improving Metropass services for our students,” he said.
De Silva said that negotiating a new deal with the TTC was unrealistic. “The TTC is near bankruptcy,” he said. “Negotiating with the TTC is not an option.” Instead he said SAC could bankroll a cheaper Metropass by finding money elsewhere. “We’re going to work with the government to get a $700,000 grant that will allow us to guarantee a $66 Metropass.”
Sutherland said a better system for selling the Metropass would make it a more attractive buy. “A great solution might be to start selling them online,” he said.
The candidates’s closing remarks finished the presidential portion of the debate.
Bretscher produced a visual aid for his final word-a sign on an easel at the side of the room outlining his six main points-and made some hardball promises: 24-hour access to the ROSI system; more Metropass sales locations; a pledge to return money collected from UTM to UTM student services; a deficit-free orientation week; a 50 per cent increase to the clubs budget; and a five per cent across-the-board pay cut for SAC executives.
Lee used his closing remarks to criticize last year’s campus referendum on SAC joining the Canadian Federation of Students. “The CFS wasn’t illegitimate simply because few students voted,” he said, but alleged CFS interference in the running of the election itself. “For this reason, we need to do it [the referendum] again,” Lee said, “for the sake of democracy.”
Sutherland closed with an appeal to make SAC more visible and relevant to students. “We need to increase the visibility of SAC,” he said. “We need to set realistic goals and not empty promises.”
De Silva sent a ripple around the room when he compared his campaign to the election of the Mike Harris Conservatives in Ontario in 1995: “My campaign is a common-sense revolution for the U of T campus.”
The same format of discussion was used for debate among the VP candidates in Equity, University Affairs, External Operations, and UTM.
The election itself will be held Wednesday, March 2 through Friday, March 4 on the ROSI website.
Read The Varsity next week for more coverage of the campaign.
