The Muse, vol. 56, no. 13 (12 January 2006)

              The
Volume 56, Number 13
general@themuse.ca
Emiuary 12, 2006
Grenfell Student Union sacks president
By Sheena Goodyear
Just before the holiday break, the
Grenfell College Student Union voted to fire President Imuetinya Igho-
Osagie.
VP Internal Erika Leavers brought
forward the motion on Dec. 5 to remove Igho-Osagie based on inappropriate behaviour. This was followed
by a non-confidence vote in which
Igho-Osagie was the only person to
vote against the motion.
"The president's behaviour was
improper and inappropriate," said
Leavers. "We saw no resolution of the
problem, and council felt that the unresolved issues were preventing things
from running efficiently around here
and getting work done."
However, Igho-Osagie says he
was impeached because of personal
problems he had with VP External
Jennifer Brown.
He says he had an argument with
Brown in the office, yelled at her
twice, and was then accused of harassment by council.
"I did not harass her. I do not harass anyone. Not people. And if I do,
I didn't in that case," he said. "It's just
a case of two people arguing, and one
person can't take it anymore, and one
person starts screaming at the other person."
Igho-Osagie says the council asked
him to apologize, but he refused.
"I didn't want anybody to think
that I harassed anyone when I didn't.
So, I refused to give an apology. That's
why people try to bring me down to
my knees," he said.
Brown and Leavers both refused
comment on the issue as of press time
due to a council decision to wait until the release of the official meeting
minutes before public discussion.
"I don't want to say anything that
would be degrading to [Igho-Osagie]
as well," said Leavers
Igho-Osagie says council also accused him of being sexist.
"According to common sense and
the way you were brought up, there
is an average way a guy shows emotions, which is [to] sit down, frown,
break something up," he said. "There
is [also] an average way a lady shows
emotions, which is to make it obvious, and stuff like that.
"I made that statement and everyone said that I was being sexist. Based
on that again, people decided to vote
against me."
See 'President Says* on Page 2
Mudslinging reigns in Liberal,
Conservative campaigns
By Katie Hyslop
The two most prominent political parties are fighting dirtier than
ever in their efforts to win the Jan.
23 election.
The Liberal party has been in power for 13 years, one of the longest terms
in Canadian history. But, their minority government was defeated by a non-
confidence vote on Nov. 28.
The Conservative party, a fusion of
the former Progressive Conservative
and Canadian Alliance parties, is seen
by some as the only alternative to a
corrupt government, but by others as
a party that practices American-style
conservative politics.
"We have to make sure that we
don't have an American-style government, and that's one of the issues
that we have with the Conservative
party is that they do have a lot of the
American-style values and tax relief,"
said Siobhan Coady, Liberal candidate
for St John's South - Mount Pearl.
"I think most Newfoundlanders
are very much in favour of social programming, they're very much in favour of human rights, and you're not
seeing that from the big-C conservatives in Ottawa. They're not progressive, and I think that's a huge differentiation for people to make around
the province."
According to the parties, the big issues in this campaign are childcare,
healthcare, the military, party corruption, gun violence, and tax cuts. These
are outlined in both parties' national ad campaigns, which have shifted styles from outlining the party's
strengths to exploiting the opposition's weaknesses.
Conservative television ads feature
repeating sound clips from Liberal
leader Paul Martin saying "the Liberal
party is not corrupt," actors portraying disgruntled Canadian voters, and
Conservative leader Stephen Harper
criticizing the Liberals.
Liberal ads use newspaper
quotes to bolster their opinion
that Conservatives would practice
American-style governing. Their most
recent ad features menacing portraits
of Conservative leader Stephen Harper
and this quote from the Dec. 2 issue of
The Washington Times:
IAN VATCHER
Liberal candidate Siobhan Coady campaigns on campus before the Young
Liberals debate night at The Breezeway. Fellow Liberals Paul Antle and
Ken Dryden also attended the event.
"Canada may elect the most pro-
American leader in the Western
world. Harper is pro-Iraq, anti-Kyoto,
and socially conservative. Bush's new
best friend is the poster boy for his foreign leader."
Loyola Hearn, Conservative candidate for St John's South - Mount
Pearl, defends his party's negative
campaigning.
"Sometimes people have to be reminded not only why they should
vote for you, which we did in previous ads, but why you shouldn't continue to support the party or the government," said Hearn.
"The main reason this government
was brought down was because the
proof that was given from the Gomery
condition ... has shown quite clearly
that the party, not the government, is
a corrupt party."
Conservatives say Liberals re
duced jobs in Newfoundland and
Labrador by moving federal jobs to
other provinces and decreasing military presence in the province. If elected, Conservatives promise to create
jobs by increasing military representation in the army base of 5-wing Goose
Bay, returning federal jobs to the province, and reopening the weather office in Gander.
But, the Liberals say they have cut
unemployment, eliminated the national deficit, and put Canada at the
top of the G8 countries in terms of
its economy.
"When we took over from the
Conservatives in 1993, it was horrific," said Coady.
"The International Monetary Fund
was questioning whether or not they
had to come in and mess in the affairs
of Canada. What we've been able to do
See 'Major Parties' on Page 2
NDP adored, Greens
abhorred in NL
By Alex Bill
In a campaign highlighted by a tight
race between the Conservatives and
Liberals, the New Democratic Party
and Green Party are doing everything they can to ensure the voters
know they still matter.
Although the NDP picked up five
seats in the last election and almost
doubled their total number of votes,
they lost a number of close races to
Conservatives in Western Canada,
particularly Saskatchewan and
British Columbia.
The Green Party is looking to elect
their first MPs following an exceptional 2004 campaign. The Greens
finished with 4.3 per cent of the
vote in that election and are polling over five per cent so far in this
campaign.
However, not all is well in the
Green world. Party leader Jim Harris
has come under fire from other party insiders, including several prominent members of the party who have
resigned. One of the most commonly
cited concerns is that Harris is moving the party to the right.
"These are not the Greens of
Europe," said St John's South - Mount
Pearl NDP candidate Peg Norman.
The NDP are trying to emphasize
the point that Jim Harris is a former
Conservative and has surrounded
himself with former Conservative
and Reform Party staffers. Regaining
some of the votes lost to the Green
Party in the last election could be
crucial for the NDP, especially in ridings like the Northwest Territories
where the NDP lost by only 54 votes
in 2004.
In Newfoundland and Labrador,
neither party stands much chance
of stealing a seat from the Liberals
or Conservatives, with the exception of Norman in St John's South.
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians
traditionally vote Liberal outside St
John's and Conservative within the
city, something Jack Layton has encouraged voters not to repeat.
"It turns out that you can have
cabinet ministers and not get results when you have a Liberal government," the NDP leader said at a rally
for Mike Kehoe, the party's nomi
nee in St John's East. "What you also
find is that when you have a strong
NDP caucus that is ready to fight for
Newfoundland and Labrador - even
in this case, when we didn't have a sitting member - you get results."
The positive atmosphere the local NDP candidates have adopted
does not follow in the Green Party
camp. The party is likely to lose votes
in the province after they came out
with an anti-seal hunt stance, an especially devastating move considering their weakest showing in the
last election was in Newfoundland
and Labrador.
The seal hunt platform was announced during Harris's campaign
stop in the province. He used a similar tactic by waiting until his appearance in Calgary to declare that
the party supports the abolition of
oil subsidies.
The seal hunt announcement met
immediate disapproval from the local population and prompted the
resignation of campaign organizer
Lori-Ann Martino and Labrador candidate Jane McGillivray.
"I think any Newfoundlander
would look straight at [that] and be
able to see that this party does not
represent them," Martino told the
CBC.
Five of the seven candidates in
the province for the Green Party do
not even live in Newfoundland and
Labrador and will not campaign. It
makes sense for the Greens to leave
them on the ballot, however, as the
party receives $1.75 for every vote cast
in their favour. The party is using this
technique across the country. Their
candidate in the Yukon will be in
New Zealand for the entire election
campaign and election night.
For the NDP, the challenge will
be preventing their voters from getting scared of Stephen Harper, who
currently holds a lead in the polls,
and voting Liberal to ensure the
Conservatives do not take power.
They have done this so far by
pointing out that the NDP, not the
Liberals, were often the second-place
finishers in Western Canada and by
leaving the door open to working
with a Conservative minority gov-
See 'Green Seal Hunt' on Page 2