The position of president of the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) was decided by just 23 votes in the winter referendum, announced on March 14 in Gerts. With 40.9 per cent of the vote, Engineering Undergraduate Society President Josh Redel defeated Shyam Patel, current SSMU VP Finance and Operations, who received 40.5 per cent of the vote.
“I feel very happy. It was an extremely close race and I think that speaks [volumes],” Redel said. “I have a lot of work to do but I’m really excited that I had a big support group out and a really awesome campaign team, and obviously it made the difference.”
Voter turnout was 29.1 per cent, eight per cent higher than last year.
“I’m glad we had a good turnout, it’s better than last year … and better than even two years ago which was the last time it was more contentious,” current SSMU President Maggie Knight said. “It’s good that we had so many candidates [and] no uncontested positions.”
“I thought it would be close, I didn’t think it would be that close,” she commented on the race between Redel and Patel.
The position of VP Internal had the most candidates, with seven in the competition. Michael Spzejda won the position with 18 per cent of the vote. Christina Sfeir came in a close second, with 15 per cent of the vote.
Robin Reid-Fraser was elected VP External with 37.8 per cent of the vote and Haley Dinel won the position of VP University Affairs with 33.8 per cent of the vote. JP Briggs won VP Finance and Operations with 37 per cent of the vote, and with 46.5 per cent of the vote, VP Clubs and Services went to Allison Cooper.
Winning candidates seemed overjoyed and the crowd cheered with each winner. Cooper appeared overwhelmed by the results. When asked how she felt, she only said, “That’s a good question.”
“I’m feeling pretty rotten about it because throughout this campaign [to] which we gave everything there was not a single articulated voice of opposition,” Niko Block, chair of the ‘Yes’ committee and undergraduate representative to the Board of Directors of CKUT, said of the result.
“It means that we’re going to have to continue struggling with deficits, we’re going to have to struggle continuing to pay our employees a fair living wage at CKUT, [and] we’re going to struggle to meet our basic expenses for the next little while,” he said.
The option to run a referendum question in the next fall semester is a possibility; however CKUT has yet to discuss what its next step will be.
