Tuesday, January 20, 2009

AMS Elections: Candidates

A long-awaited list of all candidates!

President
Blake Frederick
Paul Korczyk
Alex Monegro

VP Academic
David Nogas
Sonia Purewal
Johannes Rebane
Jeremy Wood

VP External
Timothy Chu
Fire
The King's Head
Iggy Rodriguez

VP Administration
Crystal Hon
Tristan Markle
Water Fountain
Jeremy “Kommander Keg” McElroy

VP Finance
Ale Coates
Tom Dvorak

Board of Governors
Bijan Ahmadian
Andrew Carne
Michael Duncan
Blake Frederick
Tristan Markle

There are a few new names, but lots of people are also returning. I'm still undecided whether it's a good idea to let people run for 2 positions. When you have the same students involved in multiple positions talk about how more people should be interested in student government, it seems odd to then run for, and more importantly- hold- 2 positions, as it means that there is then less involvement, less "new blood", so to speak, and a smaller representation of opinions. There is a flip side, however- it is a good idea for the president, for instance, to know what's going on in the BoG, and people running twice often have more experience with UBC politics. Nonetheless, I feel like getting more students involved is a better way to go than to leave university governance to a small circle of people who are already operating within the system.

Another note: it seems like there are a few students running for re-election- Tristan for VP Academic and Bijan for BoG. I'm still a bit surprised that Tristan was elected in the first place, particularly when, as a member of SUS, I had never seen him at a Council meeting, but I suppose those sorts of things don't matter.

In any case, there will be more election debates:
Wednesday from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Gallery Lounge
* Board of Governors
* VP Finance
* VP External

Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the SUB Conversation Pit
* VP External
* VP Administration
* VP Academic

Tuesday (next week) from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m in the SUB Conversation Pit.

* Board of Governors
* President

Thursday (next week) from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Ike Barber, main floor

* All Candidate’s Forum

A reminder also that online voting begins on Thursday, January 29 (which means they've fixed the problem! Hopefully, in any case...)while campus poll stations will be open on Wednesday, February 4.