VP External

By Jamie Hellewell

Lee has a lot of heart, enthusiasm and passion. Unfortunately, it isn’t being applied to the right position or even the right portfolio.

Experience

While he is a non-SU candidate, Lee had an especially poor understanding of the external portfolio. Of the seven important issues he identified in his platform, only two fall inside his portfolio-two others, hate crime legislation and campus parking, aren’t even under the SU’s control. He was able to name a few big issues facing students like allocation of student loans and irresponsible government spending. However, he didn’t understand the importance of lobby groups like the Council of Alberta University Students in addressing those issues.

Platform

Lee’s ideas stem from a misconception of the job and are mostly out of his hands.

Lee wants to focus lobbying efforts on Calgary’s lobby group, Calgary Faculty and Students Alliance-a group that many members of the SU admit is almost useless. In his platform, Lee suggests the SU “should focus more on student relations rather than student/government relations,” except that government relations forms the core of the VP External’s job. Other than these two things, not much of Lee’s platform is even relevant to his job. Some key aspects that may interest other members of next year’s exec include a film festival, changing pricing in the Used Bookstore and holding more events to raise money for the SU.

Intangibles

Lee is eager to help fight for student issues and benefits. However, a lack of knowledge of the SU and ideas that are almost counter-productive, make him a poor candidate for VP External. Lee’s passion would be better suited for a commissioner position-possibly not even an external one.

The Magic Eight Ball says:

Better not tell you now.