On progress and policy: What we can learn from this year’s elections

This time last year, I wrote a much-needed article in defence of campaigning. Today, I can say with full confidence that we have experienced a rigorous and successful campaign period, especially for Week One elections. This is due to a confluence of factors.

Policy-oriented discussions that have been taking place all year, both internally at Trinity College and externally at the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU). An online “Ask Your Candidate” forum has been created. We have also hired a non-Trinity Chief Returning Officer (CRO) and Deputy Returning Officer (DRO) for the first time since I have been a student here. Also significant was the introduction of several equity-related motions and reforms at the Trinity College Meeting (TCM).

I am impressed. This year’s elections are testament to a desire to finally address the need for open discourse on a wide variety of issues at this College. They are evidence that we have enough confidence in our own democracy to cast our ballots with conviction and with full knowledge that they mean something, that we value electoral integrity and that we respect our procedures and that we are empowered to enact change.

At this point in the year, I want to reflect on where we are, how we got here, and our direction for years to come.

First and foremost, we are having complex conversations about identity, representation, policy, and equity — topics that I never imagined we would discuss at this College, which is still such a beacon of privilege. I confess that I had never thought about these things until more recently than I would have you believe. For context, I can for example admit that I was against a spontaneous Rush format for Saints Ball in November 2013.

Between the language and gender-based reforms proposed repeatedly by Haley O’Shaughnessy and myself, and the ongoing Board of Directors structure debate at the UTSU, as a student body we have been forced to consider how best we can represent and interact with our membership, who we include, and who we exclude.

At the Heads’ forums and online, our concern with these issues was evident. Prior to election season, I organised Equity Training for all interested parties, extending a special invitation to holders of elected office. Equipped with the tools needed to discuss equity and its practical ramifications, our questions took our future leaders to task. We challenged them to name structures of oppression and to identify mental illnesses. We asked what reforms they had in mind and what their broad visions for college governance were. In my opinion, each candidate engaged with these issues seriously, even if I disagreed with them on many counts.

The important thing is that we are talking. We are finally having conversations that will propel us into the twenty-first century, where we belong. The results of the elections themselves have demonstrated that we value accountability, progressive attitudes, competence, and fiscal responsibility. Above all, we value community. I am pleased that these are finally the values that the College has, and that our leadership choices reflect them.

I would even go so far as to say that we are starting to realise our place on this campus and at this university. The widespread external condemnation of the rejection of the original “Members of College” motion, under secret ballot, showed we are held to the same standards as the outside world, which we so often — and sometimes willingly — forget. Our notoriety enhanced by a Varsity article on the subject, prompting a response in The Strand and several Comment pieces, we were rudely awakened to the fact that we do not exist in a vacuum.

The relationship between us and our elections process has also changed. The appointment of an external CRO and DRO shows that we are no longer afraid of non-Trinity students bursting the Trin Bubble, so to speak. In my first year, the CRO and the DRO were both Trinity students and even had votes of their own. This year, I requested that the TCM Chair call the Electoral Commission correctly and solicit applications campus-wide. This endeavor was a enormous success, if I do say so myself. The CRO’s report highlighted issues in our electoral system that I have no doubt we will fix. We have come to embrace change and evolution, not shun it in fear.

For me, the crowning jewel this year was the victories of #TCM911. The vast majority of equity-related motions proposed passed, and we stayed up until midnight, extending the meeting and covering all 14 pages of the agenda. In all honesty, I couldn’t believe that so many progressive motions passed with much less opposition than I had anticipated.

We are in an excellent place. I hope that our discourse continues to be healthy, that we continue to listen to each other with open hearts and minds, and that we continue to be an empowered body. I hope that this year is a landmark year and paves the way for future precedent.