Policy studies student Travis McIntosh stood in awe as the final vote tallies in the Students’ Association byelection were read off and he was elected the new president.
McIntosh, who was initially disqualified in last spring’s executive election but was awarded another shot by an arbitrator after a nine month appeal process, pulled in a total of 640 votes, more than 300 votes ahead of second-place finisher Jeff Agnew.
“I think there’s a timing for everything and this is my time, this is where I should be,” McIntosh said after the results were announced. “I didn’t know what to expect in terms of (voting) numbers. You’re trying to do the math in your head based on online and ballot voting for the other two candidates.”
After a few congratulatory handshakes, McIntosh made a point to phone his wife Rita, who was at home taking care of their four-month-old son Liam.
“She was pretty excited but Liam was sleeping so she couldn’t really scream,” McIntosh said.
The newly elected president explained that he built up a great deal of momentum with online voting during the first week of the campaign and that carried over to the two in-person voting days. He credited campaign manager Michael Simms and volunteer co-ordinator Robert Jones, as well as other volunteers who campaigned for him.
“We designed our campaign to get out and talk with people and we got an incredibly positive response from the fact that we didn’t try to place a lot of ideas down on paper,” McIntosh said. “I would say that a lot of people are very distracted but I would attribute the high (voter turnout) to my campaign team pushing me and my own personal drive to get out and talk with students.”
Agnew, who has served as SA president for the past seven months, acknowledged that McIntosh and his campaign team worked very hard.
“I was pretty shocked there was such a wide margin. I won't make any excuses why I lost. I'll say that they ran a really good campaign,” Agnew said. “I'm proud to have gone against a good candidate and I look forward to the next few months of figuring out what the hell I want to do.”
Agnew urged MRC students to rally behind McIntosh and newly elected VP student life Liz McKeown.
“There's going to be a little bit of bad blood like there is every year. Get out and support them and help them in their transition because it's going to be very difficult for them,” he said. “Hopefully we can unify the student movement again here on campus.
“Hopefully we can continue and be the strongest students' association in the entire province.”
Agnew thanked his campaign team and supporters and mentioned he is looking into possibly running for VP external or VP academic in the March election. If Agnew chooses to do so, it would be his seventh SA executive campaign.
Dylan Clarkson, the lone newcomer from last spring’s election, wound up third with 184 total votes.
“I have never had any experience in student politics so I kind of sat back and waited to see what the other campaigns would do and got behind some of their ideas,” Clarkson said. “I don’t think I want to president anymore now that I know what they are supposed to do. I would say I was a little out of it by the end.”
Clarkson said both his competitors ran solid campaigns but believes McIntosh will have a tough time living up to his campaign promises.
“I think (Travis) needs to focus on not promising things he can’t deliver. He ran a great campaign and had a lot of good ideas, but a lot of what he plans to do he can’t accomplish in the time he’s been given,” Clarkson said. “If he can that’s awesome and would far exceed my expectations but a lot of what he promised was a bit unrealistic.
“He’s either going to be brilliant or he is going to fall flat on his face and I wish him the best of luck.”
Clarkson also reiterated his thoughts on the process leading up to the byelection.
“Again I would say that suing the SA and then running for president is ridiculous regardless of who the person is, because Travis is a nice guy,” he said.
Like Agnew, Clarkson is looking into a bid for the VP external job in March.
McIntosh commended his fellow presidential candidates.
“I thought it was a worthy campaign. Both Jeff and Dylan would do a good job within this office as well; both of their campaign platforms were noble and we all operated well,” McIntosh said. “There were no disqualifications this time, there were no attempts to try and take anybody down. It was about getting out and talking with students and that’s kind of the nature of what student politics should be.”
The new president now plans to hit the ground running.
“We have got three months until the next election and we have the winter break so technically I have 58 days to go from here,” McIntosh said. “It’s basically trying to ensure that the two mandates I was trying to ensure — which were to increase transit to the campus and talking to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada to make sure that were are accredited here on campus.”
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