Political Experience Question - Chloe Rourke

I enjoyed watching you at the debate, and I appreciate your sincerity and straight-forwardness. I have some questions for you and I look forward to your reply when you have the time (I understand you must be very busy). 

My biggest reservation regarding your candidacy is your lack of political experience as a representative of the student body.

I do strongly believe that your experience as an HR Coordinator gives you an intimate understanding of SSMU and the responsibilities of the president. I also believe that much of the political side of the position (ie leading Legislative Assembly, Senate, etc) can be learned during transition and there will inevitably be a learning curve for any candidate.

However, as someone who has experience as a student representative I understand the difficulty of being one voice responsible for representing a large and diverse student body, particularly when your constituents may be divided over contentious issues. If anything can be learned from the events that lead up to the Farnan-gate/equity policy backlash is that its incredibly easy for messages to be misconstrued. And as a result, a series of decisions (that were likely made with good intentions) severely damaged SSMU's reputation in the eyes of many students

My primary concern is that navigating these types of issues is challenging, even for someone with extensive political experience. My question is how do you plan to overcome these challenges and your lack of experience in this respect?

I plan to ask for help when I need it and to work as hard as possible during transition and beyond to prepare for the challenge of navigating these types of issues. The interesting thing about the SSMU President position is that there is no position on campus that has nearly the size and scope of representation. Since I feel I am very well prepared for the other aspects of the position, I will be able to prepare and learn about this aspect of the position intensively and I am excited to do so. Also I have done my best to prepare so far, by attending Council, Senate, and Board of Governor meetings in anticipation for my campaign. Beyond attending meetings I have also read through all of the by-laws and policies.