Rather than a voice for McGill students, VP External Devin Alfaro has been SSMU's political mime.
His greatest achievement of the year has been laying the groundwork for the Table de Concertation, a new association of Quebec students' societies, and for that we applaud him. Unfortunately, the TDC's proposed by-laws are a raw deal for McGill students: SSMU members are severely under-represented in the voting structure (see our editorial, "McGill gets the TDC shaft," on Page 9 for more details).
And that's Alfaro's greatest achievement. Because SSMU hasn't had any external representation for the past year, a big part of the external portfolio is to lobby the provincial and federal governments-something Alfaro has failed to do effectively. In his recent lobbying trip to Quebec City, Alfaro didn't even meet with any representatives of the governing Liberal party. Instead, he had an unproductive meeting with the Parti Québécois, and spent most of his time with Amir Khadir-the Québec Solidaire party's first (and only) MNA. If that's any indication of SSMU's lobbying strategy, we're not optimistic about Alfaro's meeting with Education Minister Michelle Courchesne later this month.
Things have been just as bad on campus in the external portfolio. The "Reclaim Your Campus" campaign Alfaro launched in September had already fizzled out by winter, failing to unite campus groups after agreeing on an unrealistic set of goals. In terms of tangible results, the outreach campaign to the Milton-Parc community was equally underwhelming.
Alfaro didn't pick up any duties from the finance and operations portfolio when Tobias Silverstein resigned, hasn't been a particularly strong voice on SSMU Council, and doesn't seem engaged in other aspects of his portfolio-like the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations' lawsuit against SSMU. The position of VP external demands political savvy: something the otherwise intelligent and articulate Alfaro seems to lack.
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