UMSU elections underway

Three slates compete for votes in March 5-7 election

Tessa Vanderhart, staff

The current tuition-fee freeze needs to be re-evaluated, all three UMSU presidential candidates said in interviews with the Manitoban.

Three slates have been filed for this year’s UMSU election, with a total of 12 candidates for five executive positions.

Clean Slate was originally comprised of Christine Brine, Ben Singer, Serena Heska and Jackson Duong, all members of the Arts Student Body Council. After the nomination period, previously unaffiliated presidential candidate Troy Unrau joined their slate.

In an interview with the Manitoban, Unrau discussed how he joined the slate. “I am not an Arts student. I have no real connection to them, other than the fact that they were running without a president, and I was running without a slate.

“And after talking to them for about five minutes, I realized that we have a lot of the same policies and the same ideas. It was a match, basically, made by accident. But one that I’m very happy with.” 

Students United slate includes presidential candidate Jonny Sopotiuk and vice-president candidates Mitch Tripple, Leanne Rajotte, Sid Rashid and Rita Bruce-Nonakewin.

“The goal of Students United, I believe, is summed up best by three words: ‘we have a vision.’ We, I think, touch the campus community,” vice-president (advocacy) candidate Tripple said.

The Regressive Conservative slate encompasses Pierce Cairns, presidential candidate, and Shawn Dingwall, vice-president (student services) candidate.

“The Regressive Conservative slate — doesn’t the name speak for itself? We’re trying to go back to, I don’t want to say, a better time? Every good car is built with reverse. UMSU has kept going forward and forward and forward. But some of the steps that they’ve taken, we don’t agree with, we want to go back — regress, if you will,” Cairns said.

Also during the general election, students who self-identify with one of five “communities” can vote for one of five student community representatives, who sit as councillors on UMSU council.

Two candidates are contesting the position of LGBTT rep, incumbent Daniel Draper and Denis Courcelles. The sole candidate for aboriginal students’ rep is Jordan Wilson, and incumbent Larry Baillie is seeking re-acclimation as the representative for students with disabilities.

There are no candidates for women’s rep or international students rep. According to the chief returning officer (CRO), Stephanie Fera, those positions will be elected in October.

As in past years, complaints of pre-campaigning, a violation of UMSU election bylaws, have been filed. At press time, Fera had issued rulings on two complaints. The first complaint was filed by United Students candidate Jonny Sopotiuk against Clean Slate candidates Serena Heska and Christina Brine. The complaint alleged that Heska engaged in pre-campaigning when she notified the 46-member Arts Student Body Council Facebook.com group that she and four members of Clean Slate would be taking a temporary leave of absence from council, as required by UMSU election bylaws. The complaint went on to allege that Clean Slate candidate Christine Brine engaged in pre-campaigning by creating a public Facebook event called “Slate meeting,” which showed up in Brine and Singer’s newsfeeds.

Fera issued warnings to Heska and Brine, in part because the complaint was filed more than 48 hours after the complainant noticed the error.

Fera stated in her ruling: “Regarding the event, the only real infraction was that the event was public, as private pre-campaign planning meetings are not against the rules. The actual impact was minor or even negligible, and mistakes such as this are common occurrences on Facebook.

“In addition, both the message and public event did not include specific mention of the UMSU Election, now pending. . . . The minor impact of their actions has been mostly mitigated by the context of the infractions.”

The second complaint was filed by Students United candidate Leanne Rajotte against Regressive Conservative candidate Pierce Cairns. The complaint alleged that Cairns engaged in pre-campaigning when he told his Pharmaceutics class that he was a presidential nominee in asking for his classmates’ signatures on his nomination form. Fera ruled that Cairns violated the bylaws and his campaign start was delayed by 24 hours, to Feb. 26 at 6 p.m.

These and all future complaints and rulings will be posted on the UMSU office door and the CRO office door.

Campaigning in the election will continue through voting days on March 5, 6, and 7. Polling stations will be located at 11 locations across the Fort Garry campus, in the Brodie Centre at the Bannatyne campus, and on March 6, voting will occur at the Inner City campus.

All candidates will participate in forums on Feb. 27, 28, and March 1. For more information, visit the CRO website at Umsu.ca/elections.

All current UMSU executives failed to return inquiries about their support of any slate or their reasons for not seeking re-election.