The Candidates – It Begins!

Here are the candidates. We’ve included their web pages, since the AMS site doesn’t have them.

President
Maxwell Maxwell (http://www.maxwellmaxwell.com/)
Jeff Friedrich (http://www.jefffriedrich.com/)

Vice-President, Academic and University Affairs
Bruce Krayenhoff
Brendon Goodmurphy (http://www.votebrendon.com/)
Jerry Fan Fan (http://www.jerryfanfan.com/)

VP Administration
Sarah Naiman (http://www.votenaiman.com/)
Lougheed the Barbarian
Suvina To

VP External
Joel Kozwarski (http://voteforakoz.blogspot.com)
Chris Brush
Matt Naylor (http://www.votenaylor.com)
Thomas Masterson

VP Finance
Peter Rizov (http://www.pdrizov.com/elect)
Brittany Tyson (http://www.votebty.com)

Senate (5 seats)
Tariq Ahmed (http://www.engr.uvic.ca/~tahmed/senate/)
Raymond Pan
Jaspreet Khangura (http://www.VoteJas.com)
Daniel Lin
Hillson Tse
Alfie Lee (http://www.Alfie-Lee.blogspot.com)
Lawrence Song (http://www.LawrenceForSenate.com)

Board of Governors (2 seats)
Hillson Tse
Jeff Friedrich (http://www.jefffriedrich.com)
Melody Ma (http://www.votemelodyforbog.blogspot.com/)
Aidha Shaikh (http://www.aidhashaikh.com/campaign.htm)
Chris Marincat
Darren Peets (http://www.geocities.com/DCPeets/)
Robert McLean
Tristan Markle

Elections Administrator Chris Anderson and VFM Coordinator Tiffany Glover
What this corner observed:

1) There’s no shortage of candidates. A cynic might say that there’s no “good” candidates. In fact, based on the whispers, one would be forgiven for assuming that the AMS is a room full of cynics. Nevertheless, there is a solid race in every position except President which, if nothing else, ought to be fun.

Candidates look on as Tiffany Glover speaks

2) There are very few AMS veterans throwing their hats into the ring. Only five candidates have campus-wide election experience: Jeff Friedrich (current VP, running for President/BoG), Matt Naylor (running for VPX after last year’s unsuccessful Senate campaign), and incumbent Senator Jaspreet Khangura (sounds like kangaroo!) are the boring ones.
Two recent legends, however, are making an appearance. Jerry Fan Fan holds the distinction of having run for three positions (unsuccessfully) at once before his victorious Senate run last year. And Darren Peets is taking a run at a BoG seat. This is particularly notable, as he is the old brains behind the Fire Hydrant. This corner has been mixed on the Hydrant: one on hand, Darren knows his stuff, but, on the other, electing a fire hydrant would have seriously undermined any credibility that he otherwise would have had. We’re glad to see this new development.

Jeff Friedrich and current VP Admin David Yuen review the Elections Guidelines

3) It appeared that VFM participants (and observers, usually AMS Statler and Waldorf types) outnumbered those running for campaigns. What dynamic will this bring to the VFM, and the election? Will more people care, or just be drawn in by how pretty “The Thunderbird” looks?

4) The elections meeting was marred by some not insignificant glitches. Primarily some problems with nominations. Many ostensible nominees were not on the list, which seems to indicate a communications breakdown between the Registrar (who handles BoG/Senate nominations), the AMS Offices, and Elections. Those affected included Thomas Masterson (VpX Candidate) who swears he submitted his nomination forms to the AMS Offices, Tristan Markle (BoG), and incumbent Senator Tariq Ahmed.