Last week, Students’ Union President Toby White, VP External Duncan Wojtaszek and External Commissioners Matt Stambaugh and myself attended the Canadian Alliance Student Associations (CASA) lobby conference and internal review in Ottawa.
The three main points CASA was lobbying on were: relieving student debt, restoring CHST and rebuilding campus infrastructure.
CASA’s membership is comprised of 22 universities and colleges
(including your SU) and they lobby the federal government on our
behalf. CASA representatives had two-on-one meetings with over
60 Members of Parliament, nine group meetings with influential Cabinet Ministers and certain MPs including Minister of Finance Paul Martin, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada Jane Stewart, deputy Prime Minister Herb Grey, leader of the New Democratic Party Alexa McDonough, Finance critic for the Progressive Conservative Party Scott Brison and Charles Townsend, who is in charge of the whole Canada Student Loan program.
One of the most successful events was our wine and cheese, attended by over 115 MPs from the parties including some influential Liberal MPs, Elsie Wayne and Peter MacKay from the Progressive Conservative Party and Stockwell Day from the Canadian Alliance. They were all very receptive to our ideas and impressed by our hard work and professionalism. Other notable people in attendance were staffers from the Prime Minister’s office and the Minister of Justice’s office.
Calgary West Member of Parliament Rob Anders agreed to have a two-on-one with us and attended our wine and cheese. The students that met with him were worried that we may have a repeat from last year. Yes, he may once again block Student Career Placement Program (SCPP) funding to students in this riding, robbing them from the possibility of a summer job and gaining some experience. Oh Rob, I hope this isn’t true. Why would you do such an un-student friendly thing to your constituents?
In other news, another SU election has come and gone and more people voted this year than last. Here is your new Students’ Union executive for 2001-2002. For details on the commissioner races, referendum and plebiscite questions drop by the SU office for more details.
President: Barb Wright
VP Academic: Nic Porco
VP Events: Chris Kerr
VP Operations & Finance: Natasha Dhillon
VP External (acclaimed): Oliver Bladek
Other positions:
Senate representative: Jane Alkhouri and Stephanie Andrews
Board of Governors: Toby White
If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me at:
agd@canada.com.