Came for the cake, stayed for the campaign
Louis Luzka and Tristan Johnston / The Runner
KSA’s Move Our Cities campaign takes off.
By Tristan Johnston
[staff Writer]
During the first week of November, the Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) ran their Move Our Cities campaign to raise awareness for increasing public transit services south of the Fraser. One of the objectives was to encourage students to vote for municipal candidates who prioritize public transit when the polls opened on Nov. 15.
The campaign was largely sparked by the fact that the ministry of transportation is performing a 10-year survey on spending, and making decisions about how their spending should be allocated. One way they do this is by hiring experts to run surveys, and consequently the Move Our Cities campaign is getting KPU students to fill out the survey, with the hope that they put down public transportation as a high priority. Students who participated were also offered free cake.
Alex McGowan, president of the Politics Club of Kwantlen, suggests that not enough students are aware of the upcoming transit referendum. “It hasn’t been widely publicized anywhere, so I don’t think enough people in general are aware of it,” he says. “Though, students use public transport more.”
“It’s not on the municipal ballot, [and] it will be its own referendum in the new year. That’s probably why it’s not being publicized right now,” he adds.
McGowan and the KSA want public transit to be on the minds of students going into the new year. The referendum, though it would affect everyone in Metro Vancouver, is important to students as high users of transit.
The KSA currently runs an intercampus shuttle between Surrey and other campuses to fill gaps left by TransLink. For example, the 301 bus from Surrey to Richmond stops running after 8:45 p.m. at night, and the KSA shuttle fills the gap for students with late classes, with their 10:10 p.m. bus to Richmond.
