VP External: Jesse Chahal

Jessie Chahal is a confident candidate for VP External. He is a strong speaker and has a good understanding of the ins, outs and issues related to his portfolio. Unfortunately, according to Chahal’s platform and rhetoric, he will only be bringing a few new ideas to the VP External position.

The first of these is the current executive’s idea of developing a new staff position in the SU to handle the strategy and logistics of lobbying the government. Chahal claims this position could easily be created within the current SU’s structure and would facilitate U of C specific lobbying. On one hand this position may be a duplicate of the provincial lobby group CAUS and end up being an ineffective waste of SU funds, but it could also allow the SU to draw the government’s attention directly to U of C’s problems.

Chahal also wants to bring government officials to the U of C campus for a monthly speakers’ series and develop a comprehensive external policy for the SU. He is a confident and informed speaker with a firm grasp of the issues affecting quality at the U of C.

Chahal routinely points to current SU successes like Political Action Week in support of his campaign. If elected to the VP External position, it appears Chahal may essentially be a carbon copy of the current VP External, yet with the success of PAW in electing PSE friendly candidates into U of C’s riding, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Ideally, what needs to be in Bill 1?

“Accessibility and quality have taken huge hits in the last ten years. Greater funding for post-secondary education also needs to be addressed.”



How will you work with university administration to solve student issues and concerns?

“I’ll be the first one to say they haven’t been our allies, but we need to work with them to get our goals accomplished. We need to be strong in our positions, we can’t make compromises–tuition should not be going up.”



How will you utilize your commission?

“The commission is underutilized. I have been working with CASA’s ambassador program, which I’m excited about, because it gives commissioners more responsibility. I want to lead a commission and I want them to work with me.”