Post-Cusid Atlantic Novices 2008 Entry

Trying Canadian Parliamentary is a-ok. My first impression was a shock but eventually I fully understood why they only need four individuals debating (two on each side of the house). Throughout the Atlantic Novices Debate, I performed two tasks and only two tasks. I am either the Minister of the Crown if we were on the Government side: or, I could be the Member of the Opposition if we were on the Opposition. There is a logical sense to this and I'll explain that later.

My teammate, Andrew, has higher scores than me and I'm not bitter on that. Well, he should have higher scores, after all, he's a Political Science Major from University of British Columbia who transferred to University of New Brunswick. I'm actually impressed by his pool of knowledge that in almost every debate I will ask him about the status quo, and yes, he is that smart. It's scary that he almost know everything.

The debates were okay for most part and some were just painful to watch. I believe that we should be in the Semifinals but thanks to the very talented tabs officials, they put us up against Dalhousie B twice. It would have been better if we were government on the second debate but we were opposition which sucks because they run very tight cases or very isolated cases that I as a common person wouldn't even care about knowing. (Talk about mercenaries and Iraq!).

Debate 1: University of St. Francis Xavier (St. FX) B vs. University of New Brunswick (UNB) A

Those kids ran a mandatory civic class for Grade 12 students in High School. Not bad of a case but it wasn't that good either. Whatever! They're good speakers though.

Debate 2: UNB A vs. St. FX A

My teammate and I ran a case that Turkey should be approved by European Union to be part of it. And we won (not because there was a Bulgarian judge who was one of the adjudicator)!

Debate 3: UNB A vs. Dalhousie B

I was so pissed that we lost in this round. Thanks to Myles whose judging at the round was irrelevant. Very irrelevant that he called my team 'socialist'. Shame! I just hope he listened to our set-up more and not stare on the chair in front of him during my speech.

Debate 4: St. FX C vs. UNB A

Since I was so pissed during the previous round, I exhausted all those anger in this round. I commend St. FX for having resolutions that are easy to understand and very general unlike Dalhousie. St FX C girls were hot but very cocky. It was so obvious that the adjudicators were hitting on them. The legend of Auyon, Dan, and Neil that is! Btw, they said that rap music is detrimental to the society but they lack the mechanism to prove the degree of detriment on the society. And yes, we won!

Debate 5: Dalhousie B vs. UNB A

Nevermind. They won the Novices!


The whole tournament wasn't outstanding but it's good enough to be a learning experience. And yes, I think my team should have been part of semifinals only if they didn't make us face Dalhousie B again.