At their first debate, the three candidates for VP external agreed on broader goals they would pursue if elected but diverged on specific policy priorities.
The candidates for VP external are Associate VP (AVP) External James Cabagnon, AVP Campaigns and Community Engagement Erin Co and newcomer Sanchay Jain.
Cabagnon and Co both emphasized their AVP experience and mentioned the knowledge gained from having lived in Vancouver for longer than Jain.
Jain presented himself as an AMS outsider, saying he was best poised to improve the VP external’s transparency.
“I’ve come here to bring a new change, to bring some new experiences,” Jain said.
Cabagnon and Co brought up specific lobbying points more often, showing differences in their priorities, while Jain was unable to present many specific plans.
This dynamic emerged when candidates discussed their plans to bring the voices of marginalized groups into their advocacy.
Co discussed formalizing relationships with marginalized groups to give them a “platform” for advocacy. She also wants to improve grant availability for disabled students who are taking a 40 per cent course load — which is recognized by the federal government as a full course load for these students.
Cabagnon said he would commission further studies on equity-based grants, and mentioned working alongside Indigenous students in light of the provincial government’s commitment toward the United Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Jain said he wants to “bring more transparency” to this issue, and would “conduct meetings more frequently” to reduce a perceived backlog of student problems.
Candidates agreed on the necessity to improve harm reduction efforts on campus, but again diverged on specifics.
Cabangon said he would increase the availability of Naloxone and nasal Narcan kits on campus, as well as push for a review by the provincial government on harm reduction at post-secondary institutions.
Co focused on increasing access to anonymous drug testing, as well lobbying the provincial government to create targeted harm-reduction strategies for students that educate rather than shame.
Jain showed a lack of policy knowledge, saying he agreed the VP external needed to take action but did not specify past lobbying the federal government to find a solution by “raising some funds or something like that.”
Both Co and Cabangon want to seek leadership in Undergraduates of Canadian Research Intensive Universities (UCRU), a body of cross-Canada student societies that lobbies the federal government, but pointed to different priorities.
Cabagnon said he wants to push for climate action to be included in UCRU’s federal lobbying plan, and would do so even if not elected to a leadership role.
“We need to ensure that we’re doing more and revolutionizing the way that we look at climate action to ensure we see meaningful change within advocacy,” he said.
Co focused on affordability and said she wants to leverage the collective expertise of UCRU to more effectively lobby on that front. She believes that UCRU makes an effort to include various voices.
“Even if I were not to have an elected position in UCRU I would still be able to … contribute significantly to it,” she said.
When asked about the expenditure of $7,000 on an unsuccessful campaign to elect students to the University Neighborhood Association (UNA), Cabangon said he would increase accountability on spending.
He said he would “provide students with feedback forms after each expenditure, especially something of $7000 in value, and reassess the value of students.”
Co said that despite not getting elected the campaign was not a failure, as it showed the importance of including students in the UNA.
Jain said again he would talk to a diverse group of people to understand what went wrong to improve for the next campaign.
Follow us at @UbysseyNews on Twitter and follow our election coverage starting February 28. This article is part of our 2022 AMS elections coverage.