An Engaging Campaign

LettersJessica Nudo — Published March 29, 2011

I would just like to express how impressed and appreciative I am for the clean, honest and engaging campaign that Your Concordia has been running during this year’s elections.

This is especially in stark contrast to what Action has been doing. It baffles me that anyone can even take Action seriously after seeing their videos. The first one was not only vacuous and completely irrelevant to student politics, but it also included many people who have since voiced dissatisfaction at their inclusion (and implicit support).

Their second video was an obvious attempt to exploit an issue that is dear to student’s hearts—but that they know nothing about. Not only did they get the ONLY fact in their video wrong (the numbers of how much tuition will be going up) but they also all tried to attach themselves to an issue none of them have spent any time working on before campaign period. I hadn’t seen a single one of the Action team at any protests/panel-discussions/meetings/conferences prior to campaigning time.

Beyond that, the rest of their campaign has been a mix of verbally assaulting students and empty promises (shuttle bus to the moon, anyone?) However, I wouldn’t say the Your Concordia campaign has been awesome only in comparison to the incredibly shallow one their opposition has put together. No, I actually truly believe they’ve run a great campaign in their own right.

It’s easy to dismiss any effort this time of year as just empty campaigning, yet Your Concordia’s attempt to reach out to Concordia students has been so genuine. It’s sad to note that spending so much time actually having conversations with students might have hurt their reach, and I can only hope that Action’s spamming technique doesn’t prove effective.

Your Concordia has not only actually been taking in ideas and actually responding to them through their site and blog, but they’ve repeatedly addressed critical comments they received and responded to them with class.

I usually struggle to trust any candidates during this time of the year, but I believe Your Concordia has worked hard enough to prove that they really mean it.

—Jessica Nudo,
Political Science

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 28, published March 29, 2011.