By Ryan Yau
Editors, the Gauntlet,
Re: Gauntlet Endorsement Supplement, March 8 & 15, 2001
I would first like to congratulate Barb Wright on being elected Students’ Union President. However, her success relied heavily upon the Gauntlet’s endorsement. An endorsement from the Gauntlet’s arrogant expert panel rockets one’s chance of victory. Not surprisingly, every single Gauntlet-endorsed candidate won his/her respective race. The five members of the Gauntlet review panel wield far too much power considering they are both unelected and unaccountable. This doesn’t mean that some of the elected candidates were not best suited for their position, but the bias involved in their success is in-excusable.
The Gauntlet attempts to justify its actions by claiming they are a "campus watchdog." However, the candidate’s platforms are made widely available through the SU supplement and the term "campus watchdog" is a flagrant slap-in-the-face to the intelligence of the student body. I hope the irony of Co-editor Еvan Osentоn’s editorial "Election Farce" is not lost on the readers. Osentоn blasts the voting procedures of the election, yet his own candidate endorsements damage the elections on an even greater scale by undermining the democratic process itself. Furthermore, last week’s issue featured re-endorsements. Re-endorsements? Perhaps "propaganda" would be a more appropriate term. If the Gauntlet is such an expert authority on the SU, why do we even bother holding elections? Elections are held to determine the will of the people. The federal, provincial, municipal and other university elections are not biased by the opinions of the media. The media’s role is to simply relay, as objectively as possible, the facts to the public. Your campus newspaper more closely resembles an Internet billboard.
I would like to state very clearly that I’m not bitter about the election results. While I am disappointed, it’s reassuring to see that 530 people believed in me despite the vicious attacks I received from the Gauntlet. This letter’s purpose is to help future candidates refute the Gauntlet’s domination. I encourage the readers to write, e-mail and speak to the members of the Gauntlet and the SU in order to hold them accountable for their actions. Thank you.