At the start of the second Senate debate, moderator Gordon Katic informed the audience and participants that we’d be “doing things a little differently.” After making the audience promise to participate in the debate, Katic started by asking candidates to introduce themselves and to tell the audience what their entrance music would be if they were a professional wrestler. As a result, in addition to learning about the candidates’ platforms, audience members also learned that Nick Dawson’s introduction song would be “Barbie Girl,” while Lily Takeuchi would choose to be introduced with the Pokémon theme song.
After the introductions, Katic ran the rest of the debate as “last senator standing.” In groups of two to three, senators had to give answers that were more liked by the audience than their counterparts.
Some highlights from the first round were Takeuchi and Daniel Lam agreeing that the change in medical school prerequisites was Senate’s worst decision — Takeuchi said the exam database was one of Senate's better decisions. The database has been facing criticism over the course of this year, however.
Subsequent rounds saw Kaidie Williams stating that she would use the announced $2.5 million increase in mental health funding to hire more student counsellors and decrease wait list times.
With Zahara Baugh, Lina Castro, Khaled Nasra, Kaidie Williams and Dario Garousian moving on to the next round, Katic moved to questions from the audience. Garousian and Williams discussed current Senate members that they have talked to and what they have learned from that, and Baugh, Castro and Nasra talked about their thoughts on the proposed “extraordinary circumstances withdrawal status.” Nasra appeared to not have heard of the initiative, but once this was clarified, he said he was in favour of the “W” with an “E” standing.
In the final round, Garousian and Castro talked about how their previous experience qualified them to be a senator. Castro emphasized her past collaborations with faculty and senators, while Garousian focused on his position as academic affairs commissioner. After a rousing applause for Garousian, Katic gave him an Ottawa Senators tent as a prize.
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