I happened across a YFS debate today when I was visiting my friend. Decided to go in and take a look. I took a bunch of pictures and stuff. The CRO said that all recording of the debate, including photography, was strictly prohibited except by student media. The student media was required to sign in. I signed in from the Silhouette as I saw a news story in the debate itself plus the photos could be used if we do a future story on the 407 GO Express Bus Service which is a major issue for both York and McMaster.
Anyway, I was impressed with the venue for the debate: The student union pub named The Underground which is very nice.
I had a chance to speak with the only independent candidate in the election; Paul Boyland. I missed him in my previous post where you can find all the other campaign links. His website is: http://paulforvp.blogspot.com/
I have to say that I was impressed by him and my friends says he has a lot of support.
In terms of my last post on posters, the Excal ran a pic which can sorta be seen here: http://www.excal.on.ca//images/stories/2007-03-14/…
Another observation that I saw is that campaign teams are able to store campaign material in clubspace. I think that it is something that the MSU should look into, having a location where material can be stored. I was leaving the Excal office after checking out there operation, I saw that the one campaign is using the Somali Students club space. I rather see the MSU have a central point. I know that two candidates in the past have said that a lack of storage on campus was a problem for them.
The banners used by the campaigns are definitely nice. I like them. Of course, McMaster does not offer really anywhere to hang banners so it would not work here.
In terms of the debate itself, it was pretty much just campaign teams and decided supporters present. The same thing occurred at McMaster and that is very common across Canada. I was impressed with the energy shown by them and the candidates. It was interesting. I had to leave about 20 minutes in ’cause I needed to make my way to the meeting I was having in Toronto which was the purpose of my trip to T.O.
Here are some pics:
I filed a bunch more pictures at the paper. These two give you an idea of the environment and they will not go to print anyway, there are many better ones that I got.