Bringing punditry to student politics

It’s commonplace for Dal alumni to maintain a close connection with the university community after they graduate. But even by those standards, the commitment of the punditry.ca team may seem a bit extreme at first glance.

In just a few short years, their student politics website has become a go-to destination for news, gossip and commentary during the Dalhousie Student Union election season. The contributors include former DSU presidents, vice-presidents and councilors, all sharing their insight, sentiment and—sometimes—their snark about the day-to-day rigors of Dal student politics.

The site is the brainchild of Mike Smit, a Dal grad twice over (BCS’04, MCS’06) who’s presently a postdoctoral fellow at York University.

“We’re not journalists, and we don’t claim to be, but I hope that we’re providing discussion and commentary in a way that’s engaging,” he says.

Sparking discussion

Dr. Smit first got involved with the DSU as the Faculty of Computer Science rep on council in 2002, the year of a Dalhousie faculty strike: “It was impossible to have a casual involvement with the DSU, under the circumstances.” He continued with the union in a variety of roles, as a student and beyond – after graduation, he built the online voting system that the DSU still uses each election.

He also started publishing DSU election commentary on his personal website, aided by a network of “sources” who would send him intelligence from the ground. One of them was Lisa Buchanan, at the time a Dalhousie law student and DSU council rep.

“It became my extracurricular activity, or like a part-time job that didn’t pay” she laughs, explaining her involvement in student politics. “The SUB was even more my second home than the law school was.”

There was enough discussion on Dr. Smit’s site—and the private email list that he set up—that he decided to take the discussion public, starting punditry.ca with a small handful of contributors in 2009. That was the year of the controversial de-funding resolution targeting the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group; during one of two attempts to complete the DSU annual general meeting, the liveblog at punditry.ca was so popular that it crashed the entire website. (Ms. Buchanan, who was at the capacity-filled AGM, recalls whispers of discontent from students with laptops and Blackberries in the room when they realized the site was down.)

Dr. Smit says that during the election season, punditry.ca will average about 2,000 unique visitors – but a good number of them will visit two or three times a day. “They’re addicted,” he laughs.

Victoria Jones (BA’08) confesses to being one of the addicts, with one notable exception: when she herself ran unsuccessfully for the DSU’s vice-president internal. “I had to avoid it, or else I’d become totally self-conscious about it,” she says.

Ms. Jones, who is finishing her MA in history, is a new pundit this year; current DSU executive members Chris Saulnier and Kayla Kurin also just joined the team. Ms. Jones says that the appeal of the site is its sense of being “instant response – sort of like real politics.”

"Daily Show meets Rachael Maddow"

The tone helps too; Ms. Buchanan (BA’06, LL.B’09) calls it “a balance between The Daily Show and Rachael Maddow.” There are posts critiquing campaign ads, debate liveblogs and even ridiculously in-depth (but eminently readable) discussions about DSU referendum rules. “We are all pretty big DSU nerds,” says Ms. Jones.

“It’s like having a bunch of former and current MPs reporting on what’s happening in Parliament, or a federal election,” adds Ms. Buchanan.

In that, there’s a risk that punditry.ca may be too insular – old DSU wonks talking to new DSU wonks. Dr. Smit says that while there’s real value in allowing alumni with experience to share their views, he advises candidates to make strides to expand the DSU’s reach as well, and to not focus too much attention on the website.

And while he’s largely passed the commentary duties onto other pundits these days—admitting that a good portion of his motivation in starting punditry.ca was to keep the conversation going without him—he admires the passion with which his contributors write about student politics.

“It’s not the coolest thing in the world to admit, but the fundamental reason that the website works is because these people really care,” he says. “They care a lot about the union and the university, even now that they’ve moved on to other pursuits. They’re truly passionate.”

The DSU election campaign runs through next week, with voting taking place from Tuesday to Thursday. For more information, visit http://dsuelections.ca