Q&A with Tom Green

Tom Green’s “World Standup Comedy Tour” made a pit stop at London’s Grand Theatre Monday night. Gazette Associate Editor Arden Zwelling caught up with Green over the phone from California last week to talk about his standup show, the pitfalls of the internet and getting out of the house for the first time in four years.

Also see Arden’s profile on Green and his comedy tour.

Gazette: How’s it going, man?

Tom Green: Well, I’m awake…

GAZ: Yeah, me too. It’s about 9:30 here in London — Where are you right now?

TG: I’m in Los Angeles so it’s like 6:30 in the morning. Getting up, doing a bunch of interviews today for the Canadian portion of my tour. And looking forward to getting up there.

GAZ: It must be exciting, coming back home to Canada.

TG: Yeah, it’s very exciting. It’s been an exciting year. I’ve been on tour all year doing standup. Travelling all around the world telling jokes and doing this show that I’ve put together. It’s been a lot of fun. But it’s kind of cool to come back and be doing shows up in Canada — for sure.

GAZ: You mentioned that you’ve been touring around for a while — it must be a big change for you, seeing as you’ve basically been working from your living room for the past four years. What’s it like to get out of the house and go on the road?

TG: Man, it’s really nice. It was sort of what spawned the idea of doing this tour. It was having to get out of the house, you know. I just wanted to get up in front of some audiences and actually perform some stand up. It’s fun doing the web show, I really enjoyed doing it, but it sort of became a little bit odd having people come into my house and not leaving. You can really get sort of isolated here in Los Angeles. You can isolate yourself in your house if you’re not careful. So I’m looking forward to it.

It’s going to be cool up in Canada doing the show. I think people are going to enjoy it. I’m looking forward to people seeing exactly what it is that I’m doing.

GAZ: Well it’s sort of a trip back to your roots, right? People know you from the TV show and movies and everything, but stand up is really how you started to get into comedy, right?

TG: Yeah, absolutely. As a teenager I did standup when I was in high school at Yuk Yuk’s in Ottawa. I did that for a few years. So I’ve kind of always rooted everything I’ve done in stand up. I’ve always enjoyed traditional comedy and I sort of took that and put it on its head a little bit with my TV show. But it always had that sort of cadence to it and I love it. It was always something I never really quite mastered as a teenager so it’s been an exciting year for me to go out and really focus on this and figure out exactly what it is that I want to do with this show.

It’s an ongoing, evolving process. I’m always writing new jokes and changing the show every week. It’s really been one of the most creative things I’ve ever gotten to do. You don’t have anybody else coming in and changing what you have to say. Even music, you still have to work with musicians and other producers and record company executives and with television it’s the same thing. You have people coming in and changing what it is that you’re doing. That was always kind of frustrating for me.

But with stand up, ultimately you decide what it is that you’re saying on stage and you say it and nobody’s going to give you any sort of notes or anything like this. It’s the most independent kind of thing there is, you know. So it’s been fun for that reason.

GAZ: Well, you’re actually writing jokes now. A lot of your success with the TV show and the talk show has come from bits where you’re improvising and you’re creating humour spontaneously. Standup is so much about having structured material and timing and prepared jokes. Is that a strange transition for you?

TG: You know, it’s always been very structured what I’ve done. I’ve always appeared to make it look like it was just kind of insanity but it was always very structured. It’s sort of similar in a lot of ways. The big difference and the big variable is audience. It’s a real audience of people who are coming out to a theatre and coming out to have a good time. In television you don’t have that factor a lot of the time. Even when you’re doing television with a studio audience there’s not necessarily the same connection there because you’ve got the cameras in between you and everything. Audiences on television are really a little bit disconnected from the performer. They’re sort of clapping along and looking at all the lights and not really paying attention to what’s going on. So that is the big variable that really has changed. That’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of improv involved. I improvise a lot with the audience and that makes the show exciting.

GAZ: You’re right. I’ve checked out some of the stuff from your earlier shows on YouTube and a lot of the comedy seems to come from what you’re doing physically on stage — whether you’re standing on a stool or running around or whatever. Do you feel like your physical interactions with the audience are almost as important as what you’re saying?

TG: I like to be very physical with the show. I definitely move around a lot and I like that. The main focus of the show is what I’m talking about and the issues that I’m discussing. I’m talking a lot about things that are changing in the world. I think the theme of the show is how everything is changing in our world so fast now. I just turned 39-years-old a couple months ago — I’m turning 40 this year. It’s going to be a crazy year. I’m turning 40 — I can’t believe it, man. I’m starting to look back on my life and say ‘wow, look how different the world was when I was a kid.’ We didn’t have computers or the internet or text messaging or Twitter or Facebook or any of this stuff. I don’t necessarily think the world is changing for the better, to be honest to you, which is what I think is surprising but funny to a lot of people. What I’m trying to find a lot of humour in is the pitfalls of technology and the downside of all this new social networking and conveniences which are actually really kind of making life a lot more complicated.

GAZ: Yeah, from a lot of what I’ve seen on YouTube, you’re riffing on technology and the internet and how we’re sort of rewriting the way that we interact with each other and the ways that we communicate. But at the same time, don’t you have the internet to thank for much of your success over the last six years?

TG: I mean, it’s something that exists. That I’ve always enjoyed. I think that’s what gives me the perspective to be able to make fun of the internet. I’m not worried about offending the internet. The internet can’t be offended. But I do think that because it’s been so woven into my life… I mean, I started Tomgreen.com in 1996 and I’ve been doing it ever since in various forms. Of course we couldn’t broadcast video back then but we were blogging. It wasn’t even called blogging back then but I was writing a daily diary about my public access show.

It’s been there but because of that I’ve sort of had my life opened up like what has now happened to everybody who’s on Facebook. We have our lives opened up and have people coming in and being able to see inside our homes and invade our privacy. And it’s affecting everybody’s way of communicating with friends, family, dating, husbands, wives — everything is changing the way we interact with the world around us.

Because I’ve been doing it for a long time I see that there’s a lot of pitfalls to it. It’s not always necessarily good to have yourself out there that much. When you put yourself out there to the public people can be negative. You’re always going to get at least half the people being negative and only half if you’re lucky. We’re in a time when all of a sudden everybody’s realizing this and going ‘wow, I don’t know if I necessarily like being on this Facebook thing all that much.’ But it’s become such a popular thing to do that it’s almost hard o not to be on it anymore. And there lies the comedy. There are a lot of funny scenarios and pictures I can paint that we have all experienced. Hopefully we’ve gotten to the point where we can start joking around about it.

GAZ: Well, for you, having your privacy invaded and having your life out there for the public — a lot of that comes from the nature of being a celebrity. I’d imagine it’s pretty impossible for you to escape that.

TG: I guess that’s kind of what’s happening now to everybody. Everybody’s sort of experiencing what it’s like on a smaller, more microscopic level. They’re able to be a public figure within their own group of people. You’ve got 200 people now who can watch you and see what your photos are and see what you’re putting out every day creatively. It’s a creative process putting a Facebook page together. And then they can have feedback and it can be commented on by the public. It really becomes a microscopic look at what it would be like to be on television or be a traditional public figure, a celebrity, a famous person, whatever you want to call it. There’s a lot of downside to that that people might not think of at first. It’s an interesting time. I think it’s really changing the way everybody looks at celebrity and fame because everybody gets a taste of it now.

GAZ: Is this when Tom Green gets serious and starts talking about life issues like this? So many people know you well for the outrageous comedy that you used to do on your TV show. Is this when Tom Green starts talking about life a little bit?

TG: It’s a very outrageous show and it’s a very high energy, silly show. But I’m talking about things that are real. That’s always been true of what I did on my old show too. I would always like to bring reality into the mix. Whether it was waking up my parents in the middle of the night — the underlying sort of idea of that was ‘hey look, I’m living in my parents’ basement.’ It’s fun to show that we can all sort of lash out at authority. When I would take on security guards and people like this, there’s always sort of been an element of taking on the status quo with my show. That’s what I think my standup is about too.

GAZ: Right on. You’re coming to London next week to do some standup. What do you like about coming to London?

TG: You know, I’ve also done a couple of performances there with my rapping when I was with Organized Rhyme and with my recent tour with the Keeping it Real Crew.

I think a lot of people might not necessarily know what to expect with the show. I hope that everybody who came out to the rap shows comes to this show because it’s going to be a similar kind of experience as far as it’s going to be a fun, crazy night. It’s definitely going to be a lot different with the show as well. Anybody who loves stand up should come out. I’ve had a lot of fun in London before, doing some smaller, more punk rock kind of shows. Call the Office is where I played last time. But we’re going to do something a little bigger this time and have a fun night.

GAZ: I’m impressed you brought up Call the Office — that’s a cool venue. Being in a university town around students does that bring back some memories from your days in Ottawa working at campus radio stations?

TG: Oh yeah, absolutely. I grew up doing college radio. Even when I was in high school I was doing college radio. I’d go down to the University of Ottawa station when I was in high school and do a show there and I loved that. So it’s good to be up and doing comedy in front of students. A lot of my shows I do in front of college crowds. It’s fun.

Wintersleep entertains fans with new and old music

On Saturday night, Canadian band Wintersleep returned to London to rock the London Music Hall. It had been three years since the Nova Scotia natives paid a visit to London and fans have been waiting a long time for their return.

The band has had a busy couple of months — they’ve been touring around Europe and are about halfway through their North American tour. Wintersleep has been promoting their fourth studio album, New Inheritors, which was released in North America on May 18.

The night started strong with Saskatchewan natives Rah Rah and Quebec rockers Besnard Lakes opening. While many of the fans seemed unfamiliar with the songs, the openers exposed listeners to up-and-coming indie bands to look out for.

When Wintersleep hit the stage they didn’t disappoint. Fans enjoyed a set list full of old favourites and recent singles and the crowd was a diverse mix of diehard fans and new listeners. Those who knew the songs were singing along to favourites like “Black Camera,” “Insomnia,” and “Weighty Ghost.”

The band left the stage after completing their set. The audience immediately began chanting the band’s name in unison and clapping for their return. Soon after the persistent cheering, Wintersleep members returned to play three encore songs, much the crowd’s delight. The night was capped off by an extended version of the popular song “Avalanche.”

The London Music Hall, which has a maximum capacity of 650 people, was the perfect intimate venue for Wintersleep fans to get up close and personal with the band. Rather than just listen to the music, the audience could actually see each member’s incredible musical talent.

Hopefully Wintersleep doesn’t wait another three years before they return to rock in London. Next time they come around, it’s definitely not a show you want to miss.

Mustangs golden against Hawks

For a team with such a highly touted defence, the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks failed to meet expectations at Thompson arena Friday night.

The Mustangs men’s hockey team used a combination of quick skating and strong forechecking to defeat the Golden Hawks 7–2. With the win, Western moves to the top of the Ontario University Athletic standings with a record of 3–0–1.

In a game expected to be a defensive battle, the Mustangs came out of the starting gate strong, grabbing an early 1–0 lead on a shorthanded goal from forward Jason Furlong. He intercepted a poor clearing attempt by Laurier goaltender Ryan Daniels and went hard to the net before depositing the puck behind a sprawled Daniels.

“The game plan was to forecheck hard and keep up the offensive pressure from the start,” Furlong said. “When I got that one–on–one chance, I knew I had to take the puck to the net and I was just able to find the rebound and bury it.”

Photo by Corey Stanford

The London native finished the game with a goal and an assist, but his standout checking and strong play along the boards were perhaps his greatest contributions.

By the end of the first frame, Western had outshot Laurier 25–7, but held just a 1–0 lead thanks to several desperation saves by the Laurier netminder.

The Mustangs came out in the second with the same intensity and utilized an aggressive breakout strategy with crisp, clean passes through the neutral zone allowing them to further expand their lead.

Four minutes into the period, Chris Corbeil capitalized on a 2–on–1, when he took a beautiful pass from captain Kyle Lamb to find the back of the net.

The offensive pressure continued, and three minutes later, Western claimed a 3–0 lead when defender Scott Aarssen fired a slap shot from the point past a screened Daniels. Within the next six minutes, the Mustangs had stretched their lead to 5–0 with goals from Aaron Snow and Steve Reese.

Laurier finally solved Mustangs goalie Anthony Grieco in the closing moments of the second period when a shot from Alexander Poulter bounced off of a leg and through Grieco’s legs.

As the game moved into the third period, scoring chances for the Mustangs continued, keeping the sophomore Daniels far busier than anticipated. Snow tallied his second goal of the game after some quick passing around the Laurier net.

Shortly after, Brandon Greenside rounded out the scoring for Western, firing a wrist shot into the top corner after a rush through the neutral zone.

The Golden Hawks scored on the powerplay with 10 minutes remaining in the game, when winger Thomas Middup beat Greico with a well placed wrist shot from the slot to finish the game’s scoring.

By the final buzzer, Western had outshot Laurier by an unprecedented 57–23.

Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer was eager to spread credit for the win to all his players.

“Our guys really came out hard tonight and followed the game plan almost to perfection. We picked up the lead early and never slowed down,” he said. “We still have some work to do, but this is definitely a win we’re happy with.”

The Mustangs next home game will be against Waterloo on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

Double Down not downed

The KFC Double Down made its Canadian debut last week to the dismay of some Canadian health experts and nutritionists.

When the product initially arrived on Oct. 18, Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best told reporters the government might review the product with intentions of banning it. However, her statement was amended in press release shortly afterwards, stating: “consumers have the right to choose the food they wish to purchase.”

“I think [fast-food chains] introduce these items for shock value,” Anne Zok, University Students’ Council nutritionist, said. “KFC should promote that this is not something to eat on a daily basis.”

The breadless sandwich consists of two slabs of fried chicken between bacon, cheese and sauce. It has 30 grams of fat, 540 calories and 1,740 milligrams of sodium — more than the average adult’s recommended daily sodium intake in one sitting.

Zok said educating consumers is more important than attacking a single product for its nutritional value.

“We need to stop pinpointing individual food items as being unhealthy. What we need to promote is a healthy lifestyle. We need to think about what we need to add to a diet rather than what to take out.”

Steyn changes venues

Mark Steyn’s campus controversy won’t be happening on campus after all.

After announcing the author’s plans to speak at Western, Strictly Right and the Campus Coalition for Democracy said they were overwhelmed with interest from students and the London community and decided to book a larger venue downtown to accommodate the expected crowd.

“Unfortunately, there were no available rooms at Western large enough to handle the demand. We moved off campus so that more people would have the chance to listen to Mark,” Ryan Ruppert, president of the club, explained.

Steyn, a Canadian-born author and activist, has received attention for his controversial personal views on human rights, free speech, and particularly Islam.

Once the decision was made to leave campus, the groups approached the London Convention Centre, but were met with another brick wall, according to Ruppert. He claimed the LCC first accepted their request, then later rejected it.

“The London Convention Centre cancelled Mark Steyn because they did not like what he was going to say — that represents a stance against free speech,” Ruppert said.

But Lori Da Silva, general manager of the LCC, said the LCC did not book the event because they did not provide enough information in time to move finalize the booking.

“Our contract is with the organization booking the event. Our contract has nothing to do with the speaker coming in,” Da Silva explained.

Da Silva also said the LCC didn’t believe they had appropriate space to accommodate the number of attendees, which were estimated at the time of booking to be from 800 to 1,000.*

Ruppert claimed the LCC cited pressure from local Islamic groups when they declined to host the event.

But Da Silva asserted there was never any pressure from outside groups, and Steyn’s politics had no effect on their decision.

“This event was never actually booked or contracted. There was certainly no mention of it being held at the Convention Centre, so the general public would never have been aware that this was being held here. There was absolutely no pressure from any outside groups,” she explained.

Correction (Oct. 26, 2010): The sentence was amended to clarify that the LCC could accommodate the size of the event but felt the space wasn’t appropriate.

Two Player Tuesday: Controversial Speakers

University is a time to grow, expand minds and push the limits of what we believe to be fundamental truths.  Why then, for the past two years, have two of the most controversial — albeit popular — political speakers brought to campus been a mirror image of one another?

Last year the Campus Coalition for Democracy brought in controversial right-wing extremist Ann Coulter, this year they’re bringing in controversial right-wing extremist Mark Steyn. Way to mix it up.

After the Coulter controversy last year, wouldn’t it be nice for the student body to have the opportunity to see someone that offers a new perspective on politics? Perhaps something that will actually expand minds and promote discussion. That is the goal, isn’t it?

Rather than offering new controversy, Steyn is likely going to repeat many of Coulter’s opinions — this is evident from the number of times he parrots a range of controversial talking points on his website. Bringing in Steyn isn’t really giving students a new way of thinking so much as acting as a gimmick to draw attention to the speaker through controversy.

Moreover, Steyn’s appearance has already proven to be a point of contention among students. When he actually comes to London, I have no doubt Steyn will cause controversy similar to that caused by Coulter last year.

While it’s a great idea to incorporate controversy into the academic environment of a university, Western should consider hosting controversial speakers with something new to say. The CCD is providing the conservative viewpoint with a voice, but I hope in the future we will have speakers who will actually push the boundaries of the familiar, not just repeat things we’ve already heard.

If we want to broaden our horizons in terms of political discourse, the university should work to do just that — not limit the intellectual debate we can have by bringing in people saying the same things.

— Monica Blaylock

We all enter university with a set of beliefs, be they political, religious or otherwise. Often these opinions are passed down to us from our parents and communities — and it’d be a comfortable existence to only associate with those who reinforce these beliefs.

But if you wanted to do that, you shouldn’t have gone to university.

Higher education means exposing ourselves to viewpoints that challenge our own. Maybe that means taking a world religions class even if you’re an atheist, or taking a course on sustainability even if your idea of being green is investing in hedge funds.

Or maybe it’s catching Mark Steyn’s upcoming appearance on campus — even if you disagree with his ultra–conservative beliefs.

Steyn is a widely–read author and commentator who has many sympathizers. But for many, his appearance on campus is a chance to hear from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

Whether you get riled up and storm out halfway through, or pause to consider the issues buried beneath the controversy, this is a chance to see things from a different perspective.

On the online comments page of our recent Steyn article, one Western alumnus from the ‘80s recalled another controversial figure on our campus — Western psychology professor John Phillipe Rushton — who raised a lot of eyebrows in his day for his views that race and intelligence were correlated.

Rushton’s research sparked intelligent discourse among students about “race, ideals of higher education, freedom of expression” and more, recalled the alumnus.

Sounds like topics we ought to be talking about at an institution of higher learning, rather than shying away from.

“If you don’t agree with the message, challenge it, but don’t shut down the conversation,” the alumnus said.

I couldn’t agree more. Let’s welcome folks like Steyn, whether or not his views reflect our own — and then let’s talk about it. That’s what university is all about.

—Lauren Pelley

Photo Gallery: Wintersleep @ London Music Hall

Halifax-based band Wintersleep entertained London-area fans with songs new and old in their appearance this past Friday evening.  Check out my shots from the concert below:

Western Mustangs make Toronto sing the Blues

Graphic by Anders Kravis

For at least a half, the Toronto Varsity Blues tried to make me look like a genius.

I might have been the only person in the country who predicted a Toronto win last weekend, and it looked good for a while. But in the end, the Mustangs’ talent and depth took over in the hard-fought 35–23 victory.

While Western had virtually nothing to play for, the Blues came into the game knowing they needed a win to make the playoffs.

“We were very motivated to come out today. We had a lot of emotions coming in, knowing that our season was on the line,” Varsity Blues head coach Greg Delaval said.

“They were a scrappy team and they tried just about everything they could to beat us,” Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall added.

On their second possession of the game, the Blues dipped into their bag of tricks and pulled out a reverse–wide receiver option pass for a 58–yard touchdown. They followed that with an onside kick, leading to another touchdown. In fact, Toronto attempted seven trick plays in the first half alone.

“First half, we played well. The defence held Western and the offence moved the ball. We had a couple of big plays on offence and special teams and we went up 17-0 because of it,” Delaval said.

Blues quarterback Andrew Gillis was impressive, completing 25 of his 43 pass attempts for 282 yards and a touchdown. He needed to play well considering Toronto managed to run for negative seven yards on the day.

“We played with a lot of confidence. That hasn’t been there in the past few years. No matter what happens, the team is starting to believe that they can win,” Delaval said.

But the reality for Toronto was that they weren’t the ones beating Western — the Mustangs were beating themselves. Three fumbles, 146 yards in penalties and multiple mental errors were killing the Mustangs.

“I thought they did a good job showing some resiliency. It was one of those halves where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,” Marshall said.

Once they corrected those problems at halftime, it was all over for Toronto. The Mustangs ran all over Toronto’s defence, rushing for a total of 333 yards. Running backs Nathan Riva and Jerimy Hipperson both had over 130 yards on the day.

“They couldn’t stop us,” Marshall said. “We muscled through [the mistakes] and overpowered them.”

Riva was instrumental in turning the game late in the second quarter when he got loose and ran for 52 yards. The Mustangs would cash in on a Hipperson 11–yard touchdown just a few players later, to bring the halftime score to a more respectable 17–9.

“We are very strong running the ball,” Marshall said. “We had a lot of chances to break big ones and Nathan finally got loose for that long run. We needed that.”

The touchdown swung the momentum in Western’s favour and they came out firing in the second half, reeling off 26 consecutive points and putting the game away.

Gillis’ last minute touchdown run was merely consolation for the Blues, who will go home and start preparing for next season.

“Each year we have gotten a little bit better,” DeLaval said. “But we are a young football team and we have the capability to make a run for it next year.”

The Mustangs now get a week off before hosting the Ontario University Athletics semifinal on Nov. 6. However, if they plan on winning that game, they better be more prepared.

“It’s a good thing that this happened during the regular season, because if it was the playoffs, we might be packing up our lockers,” Marshall said. “We’re going to have to play better than that.”

Caught on Camera: Mustangs Fight Back Against UofT

If you saw the game, you were thinking the same thing at the end of the first quarter as most of us were: “What London high school team is wearing the purple jerseys?”

By the end of the second quarter, all in attendance at TD Waterhouse Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 23 were feeling better, but still a little leery of what to expect when the teams took the field for the third quarter.

Thankfully, the Mustangs we have been watching all season came out of the locker room this time. The defence completely shut down the Varsity Blues and the offense took over the game — running all over the opposition.

Here is a pictorial story of how the Mustangs came back from a 17-0 deficit to beat the Toronto Varsity Blues 35-23.

Shut up and think

Have you been threatened lately? Vote or die, shut up or vote, the list goes on. Slogans like this try to shake the apathy out of young voters a few weeks before an election. But getting students to care about municipal elections feels a little like passing a kidney stone — it takes a lot force and, after all that work, things just return to normal.

After campaigning with the “Shut Up or Vote” slogan, the University Students’ Council was able to rouse two per cent of campus to cast a ballot in early voting. The turnout was called a resounding success by organizers. After all, Fanshawe College found just 64 people to vote at their on-campus voting booth. Suddenly, Western seems like it’s leading the charge with just 569 votes.

Western also played host to a bunch of new election-themed events. For the first time in recent memory, candidates came for a meet-and-greet at the Wave, made a presentation to the USC and competed in a game show on campus. But the same theme kept emerging — few students showed up and fewer students seemed to care. Most of the people in attendance were already involved and probably going to vote anyway.

This week’s game show was hosted by Hack the Vote, a group of Londoners — most of young people — who are trying to curry interest in the election with some new ideas. Despite just forming this year, the group’s getting all sorts of attention by the media. Columns in the London Free Press, stories on A Channel news and several appearances on these pages — including another article today. It seems like everyone is shocked to see young people showing interest in the city.

Shawn Adamsson, an organizer with Hack the Vote, said their efforts are looking at more than a single election.

“We need them to care about little things all along the way, so when the election comes around they have something to hold on to,” he said.

It’s a refreshing change: attacking students with fresh ideas instead of pithy slogans. The disconnect between voters and their cities extends well beyond campaign season.

It’s unrealistic for Londoners to wake up from their slumber for a few days every four years. And for students, the situation is much worse. They’re often torn between London and their hometown. First-year and second-year students are often too new to the city to know the issues. Upper-year students are on their way out the door. Even if students vote, they’re unlikely to reap the benefits of their chosen candidate before migrating elsewhere.

Of course, it shouldn’t be this way. We can and we should vote, but we don’t.

This year, students also have to fight against a lackluster selection of candidates. There’s nothing sexy about municipal politics to begin with. But it’s even harder to sink your teeth into a campaign with 15 mayoral candidates — most of them write-offs — and a mayor with 10 years in the big chair. There’s no single hot button issue and no scandalous problems in the city. Sure, public transit could be better, but it’s not TTC bad. Taxes might be high, but they’re only four per cent above the provincial average.

Contained in these pages are probably everything you’ll need to make a choice on Oct. 25. We’ve talked to the mayoral candidates, broken down some key issues and explained how easy it is to actually drop that ballot in the box.

For fun, we added some stories about the election campaign and what students probably need to feel engaged.

What you do with that information is your call. And as a bonus, if you don’t feel engaged with the election this time around, you’ve still got four years to get excited for the next one.

Mayoral candidate rundown

Cynthia Etheridge

Etheridge has been managing a small business for 23 years. She placed third in the mayoral race in 2006. She has volunteered for campaigns at all political levels. She hopes to see more young people working in city hall if elected.

“The students are the life of the party and this City has become boring and stagnant,” she said. She noted she hoped to see students take a more prominent role in London if she is elected.

Jonas White

If elected, White hopes to increase the City’s investment in software development and medical research. He would like to make London a hot spot for young professionals and hopes to create high-paying jobs to encourage students to stay here. He said he wanted students to begin to care about politics because politics cares about them.

Ivan Kasiurak

Kasiurak currently owns two businesses in London and has served in the Canadian Air Force. He wants to encourage students to graduate university and stay in London. “When they graduate they can stay in London, start a business; as a doctor they can practice in London; run for mayor or council,” he explained.

Eric Southern

Southern is currently a Masters student at Western. If elected he hopes to improve internet speeds using fibreoptics cable, which will attract large companies to set up shop in London. “The jobs offered by those companies and the spin-off jobs are not just technical in nature, there are marketing, advertising, communications and other jobs for every type of graduate from our post secondary institutions,” he explained.

Tom Winnicki

Winnicki currently works as a router operator and programmer. He hopes to invest in manufacturing facilities to keep business in the area. He also wants to create a distinct London currency for the city. He hopes to help students establish roots in London.

Aaron Broughm

Broughm has been working as a paralegal and private investigator for 10 years and has experience with not-for-profit organizations. If elected, he wants to have an open-door policy for the mayoral office. He also wants to expand the placement facilities in London for students. “I see our students playing a larger part in London’s future, both politically and in other ways.”

Zak Young

Young admitted to achieving some success as a professional gambler. He explained his past, which includes a criminal record, would be an asset for the mayor’s job because it will shed some of the delusions some people have about politics.

“Voting changes nothing. Instead you should educate yourself, participate in honest dialogue with others about your and their views,” he explained.

Christopher Foerster

Foerster recently completed his Masters of science at Western after serving as a paramedic. He said students are residents just like long-term Londoners. He felt students can be apathetic about municipal politics, but so are other voters. “[Students] also bring with them a variety of backgrounds and experiences that make London an interesting place to live,” he noted.

Dan Lenart

Lenart has held leadership roles in the field of community mental health. He is also a graduate of Western engineering. If elected he hopes to improve off-campus housing with changes to the housing standards bylaw. He felt too many landlords are making money while students live in poor conditions. He noted there were many challenges in a college town like London.

Stephen Beckles

Beckles has managed several auto shops in London. He emigrated from Barbados in 1974. He is also involved in ministry. He noted it was a plus for London to have students and he wanted them to know he cared. He wants to allow for mentorship opportunities in London.

Raymond Ford

If elected, Ford hopes to have night time bus service. He currently works as a taxi driver and felt this is an asset because he frequently works with the public. He has been self-employed for most of his life. He noted students were a valuable income source for the city and hoped they would voice their opinions in the future.

Ma’in Sinan

Sinan has worked as an engineer and has invented new green technologies. If elected, he intends on creating economic growth in London. He plans to achieve this through positioning the future energy and automotive industries in this city. He hoped this would encourage graduates to stay in the city.

‘Your vote is your voice’

Voter apathy during campaign season can be par for the course, particularly for students. But while some might think the results of this year’s municipal election don’t affect them, this is far from true.

The decisions made by the mayor and city councilors have an effect on the entire London community — students included.

“Municipal government has more of an impact on your day to day life than federal government,” Nancy Branscombe, current ward six councilor, explained. “[Municipal politics] are not as sexy as the party politics and the conventions and all the fun that goes along with that, but it really does impact you’re day to day life more.”

Engaging students is a difficult endeavour, but one group is taking a new approach that just might see results.

Hack the Vote, a nonpartisan voter mobilization initiative, has taken on the task of trying to engage the unengaged. So far their methods have included an informative website, organizing a game show for all candidates, guerrilla marketing and an invitation to a big post-election party at The London Tap House if you bring proof that you’ve voted.

Shawn Adamsson, a Hack the Vote organizer, is adamant students should be informed and have a say in their political future.

“Most traditional politicians will look at the student constituency and say ‘They’re going to be gone before the next election so why should I bother?’ Adamsson explained. “Between Western and Fanshawe, students contribute something in the neighbourhood of two billion dollars to London’s economy.”

By hosting events and appealing to a younger audience, Hack the Vote is attempting to make municipal elections interesting and informative through events not normally a part of campaign season.

“Organizations such as Hack the Vote have concerts and things that young people are involved in and they will be coming to them on their own terms,” explained Branscombe. “I think that is a great way to get people engaged and interested.”

Adamsson regretted organizations like Hack the Vote have to be formed to make up for the lack of effort candidates put into engaging students.

“Candidates have a large audience to engage in a limited amount of time, so why spend time on campus if there aren’t any votes to be gained?” Adamsson said. “Many candidates don’t really believe in the internet either ,which makes getting candidate information exceptionally difficult for a generation that expects their information to be online.”

“Your vote is your voice — it is the one voice that politicians listen to consistently,” Adamsson added. “There is simply no better time than during a municipal campaign for you to have a direct impact on the quality of your life through the election process.”

Head to www.hackthevote.ca for information on city councilors and mayoral candidates.