Christopher Hynes wins vp university affairs
Darren Sharp | Fulcrum Staff
IN ONE OF the closest races of the night, the Student Action coalition scored another victory as Christopher Hynes beat out Together Ensemble candidate Marilyn Tourangeau and independent candidate Chris Clarke for the vp university affairs position.
According to preliminary results, Hynes beat Tourangeau by 219 votes, receiving 1,729 to her 1,510. Clarke garnered 475 votes.
After the results were announced, a visibly excited Hynes spoke about his plans for the upcoming year.
“I definitely want to go ahead and take all of the plans and make all of our platforms happen together as a team,” he said. “I think we have huge potential to work together to make those things happen for students. I want to get to work.”
Hynes said he believes the results weren’t about affiliations, but rather about getting personal with the student body.
“It’s not always the class talks and the posters that are everywhere,” he said. “It’s the one-on-ones, so being able to connect with students on a face-to-face, one-on-one level and just really to hear from them, what their needs are, and what they have to say. Now I’m ready to do my best to try to represent that.”
While Tourangeau acknowledged that affiliations are helpful in allowing candidates to share resources, she felt they hurt the electoral process overall. According to Tourangeau, Student Action knew before the other candidates that affiliations would be included on the ballot and “branded accordingly.”
“We really went on our philosophy that we do believe that students should vote for whoever’s the best candidate for each position,” she said.
This is the first year that affiliation titles were included on the election ballot, which some believed would help encourage voter turnout.
“They’re just voting for a name,” said Tourangeau. “It’s like voting for Nike. Why do you want Nike to be your president?”
Clarke was also highly critical of the coalitions that appeared this year.
“It just opens the door for outside organizations to organize these unofficial ‘clubs’— these are almost clubs,” he said. “Student Action didn’t start Jan. 11 when the campaign started, it started months in advance.”
Clarke said he thinks the decision to include affiliations on the ballot put the independent candidates at a disadvantage.
“It just drowns out our voices,” he said. “That’s what we saw, with all independents losing.
“I really hope that these independent ideas that came forward in the campaign, even though they weren’t part of political bodies, are still given serious consideration.”
