By Natalie Sit
nlike last week’s presidential forum, all three candidates–Tyler Brekko, Faisal Rana and Toby White–attended the Tuesday Forum at Speaker’s Corner to prove why they should be the next Students’ Union president.
The forum started out with the question of whether elected officials of the SU should act more in a representational capacity or to produce the results the majority desires.
Brekko was believed the president should represent the students but also be a mouthpiece for the Students Legislative Council.
According to Rana, the SU motto, “To serve and represent students” should mean something.
“Our only job is to serve and represent students. If we can’t do that, there’s no point in having an SU,” said Rana.
“These are the constituents and you have to agree with what they’re saying. If they’re saying do one thing, you have to follow them because these are the people who elected us.”
White said that he believes the president should use judgment in day-to-day operations but when major issues arise, a clear mandate must be received from the students.
The next question dealt with redevelopment and expansion.
Brekko said he hopes it will happen before he takes office, but if it is cancelled, he wants an inquiry into why it failed.
“[We need to discover] why did this happen and where are the mistakes in this and how can we avoid the mistakes the next time we do something this big,” said Brekko.
While all three want a referendum held and the project to continue, White said that a referendum must be held because the students who voted to expand are no longer here and there is no mandate from the current students who pay the expansion levy.
Another question was raised by current Vice-president Academic Heather Clitheroe. She touched on the events of the Feb. 4 Board of Governors meeting and asked if the candidates would have supported the student-at-large motion for a zero per cent increase motion and why.
Brekko and Rana said they would both second the motion without hesitation.
White believes SU president Rob South made a wrong decision.
“He was trying to not take away attention away from our government lobbying effort and that was what he should have been doing,” said White. “But he unfortunately made the wrong choice because he still took attention away and the attention was unfortunately focused on the Students’ Union.”
Approximately 90 people attended, and most stayed for the hour-long forum.
With additional reporting by Roman Zakaluzny