The Cord has made the conscious decision to refrain from endorsing a presidential candidate in this year’s 2022 Students’ Union election.
After thorough deliberation and discussion, our team believes it would be in the best interest of our paper and the Wilfrid Laurier student body to reevaluate the purpose and value of election endorsements.
While we believe both Ezra Ceniti and Shane Symington possess valuable qualities that would make them qualified for the role of students’ union president and CEO, we stand behind the choice to abstain from recommending one candidate over the other.
After attending the Presidential Debates and reading each platform, our team was not strongly drawn to either candidate.
We do not want to endorse a person who we believe our readership should vote for unless we stand in unified agreement about this decision and we are passionate about a candidate’s platform and plans for the role.
Based on feedback The Cord received during last year’s election season and after listening to various perspectives and concerns, we want to ensure we are doing our duty as Laurier’s student newspaper to provide this community with the most balanced reporting and perspectives possible.
Endorsements have been a longstanding tradition with The Cord, along with many other newspapers worldwide, however, we trust Laurier student voters to choose the ideal person for this position.
This is not to say that we are necessarily tabling endorsements indefinitely, but we believe it’s important to continue critically engaging with the comments we receive from our readers, volunteers and staff.
The Cord will continue to provide unbiased coverage of students’ union elections and their overall operations.
We commend this year’s candidates for their clear and unshakable passion for Laurier and their desire to enact positive changes. We hope whoever wins will work towards achieving the goals outlined in their platforms and highlighted in their interviews with The Cord.
With that said, take the time to vote, Golden Hawks.
