By Kodie Cherrille (The Cascade) – Email
Now that the first few weeks of September have shown you all the things life as a student has to offer — like signing up for way too many student organizations, navigating the full parking stalls on a Monday morning, and learning to live with a nagging existential dread (what am I doing with my life?) — the reality has set in. You’re … a university student.
You’ve perhaps now realized how busy you really are going to be this semester. How do you expect to do your readings, prepare for that presentation, and get your required six hours of sleep while also being an informed UFV student — let alone an informed, voting Canadian citizen?
As your student newspaper, it’s our duty to provide you with comprehensive and efficient coverage of the things that matter. On the comprehensive side of things, we will be upping our coverage of election-related issues for the remaining length of the election period — we want to be the one resource that you need to make a good decision when it comes time to cast the ballot.
And on the efficient side of things, we’ve been working on a different way to get our news out.
The Cascade’s weekly recap
Being busy and being informed are not irreconcilable differences, and we hope to prove that to you.
The Cascade now has a weekly recap video. These videos give a brief overview of the content in each section of the paper. So, if you don’t have the time to read the paper front-to-back in between classes and nervous breakdowns, you can still keep up to date on any developing news, event coverage, and life-changing horoscopes online.
The recaps started in mid-September, and we’ve been working out the kinks since, but now we’re excited to share this new dimension of the paper with you.
The videos will typically run at about two minutes — Cascade Cliffnotes, if you will — and will be posted every weekend at youtube.ca/ufvcascadecanada.
The federal election
cometh
While we’ve not been averse to discussing politics, we will be ramping up our coverage of the federal election in the issues to come.
This issue, Valerie Franklin breaks down the Fair Elections Act and the steps you might need to take in order to be a registered voter on page (page). And on page (page), Megan Lambert covers the Abbotsford All Candidates Debate.
Next issue, we’ll report on SUS’s Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon All Candidates Debate, and analyze the phenomenon of strategic voting in an election where no political party is leading the pack.
And it will all come to a head on election week. We’ll give a brief rundown on how Canadian politics work. We’ll provide a synopsis of each major political party’s platform. We’ll interview candidates in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission, and we’ll provide a synopsis of each major political party’s platform and their plans for the future, should they get elected. On top of that, we’ll give a brief breakdown of the major political events of the past four years.
So rest assured, dear reader, we’re committed to keeping you informed. Between the coffee and the ensuing insomnia, the project and the anxiety, and now and election day, The Cascade will be there for you, in print and — if you’re a little busy — on screen.
