Bring on the Golden Hawks
The Mustangs women’s hockey team completes a sweep of Nipissing and moves on to the second round of the playoffs. >> Pg. 7
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2015
WESTERN UNIVERSITY • CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
Elections Canada preparing for October elections
TODAY high -10 low -19
TOMORROW high -13 low -18 VOLUME 108, ISSUE 75
Western researchers concerned about funding Drishti Kataria GAZETTE STAFF @uwogazette
CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER MARC MAYRAND
Chief electoral officer explains changes to voting, including online registration Amy O’Kruk NEWS EDITOR @AmyAtGazette
Canada’s 2015 federal elections are fast approaching, and the key to ensuring voter turnout is an efficient and accessible polling system. Marc Mayrand, Canada’s chief electoral officer, came to London last week to update returning election officials on changes to the federal electoral process, and consequently what voters can anticipate when they go to cast their ballots this October. Mayrand explained that a major new feature is an online registration process for voters — an addition, he said, that could prove particularly significant for young, potentially first-time electors. “You can go online again and check if you’re registered, and if you’re not you can add yourself,” Mayrand said. “They get voter
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E’RE NOT THERE YET BECAUSE NOBODY HAS RESOLVED THE ISSUE OF WHETHER THE ELECTOR THAT’S CASTING THE BALLOT ONLINE IS ACTUALLY THE PERSON HE OR SHE CLAIMS TO BE, OR WHETHER THAT PERSON IS BEING INFLUENCED. MARC MAYRAND
CANADA’S CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER
cards that tell them their options for voting, and the location where they can go cast their ballot, so we hope that this online registration will allow more young electors to register.” Other changes will include new federal electoral districts, more days for advance polling and polling stations on select campuses across the country, one of which is Western. The chief electoral officer added that youth voter turnout hasn’t been great over the last three general elections with only 39 per cent of 18–24 year-olds consistently hitting the polls. While he said the statistic isn’t dropping, he hopes a combination of online registration, voting on campuses and other new services will encourage youth voters to come out in October. In 2011, Elections Canada sought to modernize Canada’s elections by lobbying to test online voting. Mayrand said that while online
voting may seem like the next step in political engagement, there are barriers to overcome first. “We’re not there yet because nobody has resolved the issue of whether the elector that’s casting the ballot online is actually the person he or she claims to be, or whether that person is being influenced,” Mayrand said. “Until we resolve that it’s going to be tricky to have online voting, but again some issues around the security and integrity of the vote remain.” Mayrand said he encourages students who are interested in the elections process to get involved this fall. “There are opportunities during the elections, and students could benefit from the opportunity, learn a bit more about how elections work and certainly get a bit of an honorarium for their services, so we are open for young people to join us in delivering the elections.”
The dean of Western’s medicine school is raising concerns with how scientific research is funded in Canada. Although financial constraints and tight funds are an ever-present issue faced by most research institutions, there is an even larger problem to be dealt with that is affecting the numbers of junior researchers. “The national change that is occurring with regards to philanthropic organizations asking for matched dollars is creating a problem that is only getting worse,” said Dr. Michael Strong, dean of the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. Having to match dollars in this case means the research institute must have money to provide up front to match the grant they are applying for. “The difficulty with that is that we have insufficient funding through a variety of avenues for everything we want to do,” Strong said. “If I have to take dollars and match a grant so that an investigator can be eligible to even apply for that grant, that means that those are dollars that are not available for me to utilize for broader initiatives of the faculty.” It’s not a problem for universities that have large endowments but it’s a major problem for smaller universities that aren’t able to have their researchers compete at that level, Strong pointed out. In Western’s case, as a fairly large university with a medical school, its resources are not endless and scientists have to be careful of where the matched dollars are, he mentioned. The federal funding agency, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is in charge of the allocation of the money in the health research sector. In an article published by the London Free Press, Dr. Bill Avison, chair of the Children’s Health Research Institute in London, said the process of matching funds diverts scientists from conducting research and instead forces them to spend time fundraising. “Also hurt are scientists whose research doesn’t attract donors easily, including those who combat childhood disease,” Avison said. >> see FUNDING pg.3