UNA Election and Big Promises

Tough on crime, push for affordable housing, and push for skytrain. These are just some of the promises that AMS sponsored candidates for the UNA are sharing through their campaign materials. They aren't alone, at least one non-student candidate is also planning on ending all crime in the UNA areas (without explaining how). 

Over promising and setting objectives outside the purview of governing bodies isn't a new phenomena in society.  It is something new to UNA campaigns. In the past  most candidates focussed on how their experience would make them reasonable choices for serving on the UNA Board. With the arrival of the AMS slate in the board elections, over promising (and over claiming the power of the UNA) has become a thing.

The AMS campaign management has decided that the UNA has a kind of special power.  In their November 1 blurb that tell UBC students that the UNA has a lot more "control than you think." They then go on to suggest that the "UNA directly impacts housing affordability and the Skytrain to UBC." That's simply factually untrue. 

The UNA may be engaged in consultations with UBC (primarily through the offices of AVP Michael White in planning and staff from UBC Properties Trust). But consultation  isn't control. UBC's engagement plan is quite clear that while UBC will listen, decisions remain under the domain and authority of UBC. 

Does this really matter though? One might suggest that passionate overreach brings enthusiasm, spirit, and willingness to try new things. Isn't that what we want in our community representatives? Yet in our wider world many of us share a disillusionment with politicians promising us the world and then deliver nothing or,  worse, claiming the accomplishments of others as their own.  

One thing I have found refreshing about the UNA elections has been the undersell candidates normally engage in. One wouldn't know it from their candidate bios, for example, but several of the current UNA candidates are internationally recognized in their areas of expertise.  I appreciate this humility in a candidate's focus. It gives me a feeling of confidence in their maturity and capacity to work together on the mostly mundane and generally banal decisions the UNA actually has to deal with as the erstwhile municipal agency in the UNA zone.