On the night of Jan. 30, 2020, Giancarlo Da-Ré was in the basement of Togo Salmon Hall with a few members of his core campaign team when he learned that he was the new president-elect of the McMaster Students Union. As per tradition, the news was delivered to him by the current MSU president Josh Marando via phone call.
The ranked voting system requires over 50 per cent of the votes to elect a candidate. With 4810 students voting and 666 students abstaining, the threshold this year sat at 2073 votes. Da-Ré received 2504 votes, 431 votes over this requirement and approximately 52 per cent of the total votes that were cast.
The 2020 elections also saw a new low for the voter turnout, with only 19.1 per cent of eligible McMaster students voting this year. This marked a sharp decline from last year, especially when compared to 2014 to 2017, when voter turnout did not once dip below 40 per cent. This downward trend began in 2018, when voter turnout dropped to 28.8 per cent, and continued to 2019, when it dropped even further to 26.8 per cent.
“I was disappointed to see that the voter turnout this year had dropped again. I think this was the product of a few different factors, one of which being the low number of candidates, which would contribute to overall promotion of the election across our community of voting members,” said Da-Ré.
“I was disappointed to see that the voter turnout this year had dropped again. I think this was the product of a few different factors, one of which being the low number of candidates, which would contribute to overall promotion of the election across our community of voting members,” said Da-Ré.
Since all candidates are given five business days to contest any results and to appeal any fines, Da-Ré’s new position is still unofficial. Nevertheless, he is continuing conversations related to his platform, which highlighted accessibility, climate action and student experience.
One critique of Da-Ré’s platform is that while he claims that it was informed by 100 consultations, there were several key groups that he had not contacted by the time the campaign period began. Now, Da-Ré asserts that he has set up consultations with Maccess and the Academic Sustainability Programs Office in order to work towards accessibility and sustainability.
He also voices his desire to consult with people whose perspectives might differ from his own.
“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from the campaign period, it is that there are many groups on campus trying to tackle different parts of the same puzzle, and that there is a lot of work I have to do to better understand those different pieces,” he says.
“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from the campaign period, it is that there are many groups on campus trying to tackle different parts of the same puzzle, and that there is a lot of work I have to do to better understand those different pieces,” he says.
While he does not elaborate on any specific details, Da-Ré states that his consultations have helped him understand how offices and departments within McMaster interact with each other. He states that he has gained a sense of the work that has been done recently in this community, and, by extension, an idea of the work that still needs to be done.
With this in mind, Da-Ré wants to remind students at McMaster that they are foundational to the university’s community.
“Students are incredibly passionate and hard-working, and while some changes won’t be seen overnight, they have more power than they think in influencing change within our community,” he says.
Regarding what his first plans would be when he takes office, Da-Ré says, “It’s hard to say what my first plans will be a few months from now, but I look forward to getting up to speed on current initiatives and projects so that I can hit the ground running in May.”
For now, Da-Ré looks forward to the election results becoming official and to starting the transition process with Josh Marando.
He welcomes anyone interested in consulting to send an email to giancarlodare2020@gmail.com.
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By: Ajit Singh & Mike Van Arragon
We are certainly the odd ones out at clubs fest. Sitting in front of a big red banner, the words “Communist” and “Socialism” loom over our little table. A force field of political distrust seems to glow in this corner of the Student Center; and we’re wondering what does it mean to be a Communist at McMaster? Somebody approaches us with the question: “What are you guys? Like, Hitler?”
For the record, we aren’t anything “like Hitler”, however, we continue to hear the word “Communist” used as a pejorative on campus. One example was during the MSU Presidential election, making it clear that many still see Communists as mysterious boogeymen. Unfortunately, this is not surprising given the long history of anti-Communist hysteria, including the recent proposal for a monument to the “Victims of Communism,” envisioned in a particularly frightful moment of opportunism by former PM Stephen Harper. Due to the confused and, at times, hostile, buzz about our presence on campus, we think we owe our peers a proper introduction.
Communism is an ideology and movement that seeks to establish an egalitarian society without classes, “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” Generally, Communists see capitalist society as a global system with a key feature: separate classes with conflicting interests. This results in a class struggle between the few, the propertied or “bourgeoisie” (think: CEOs and bankers), and the many, the property-less workers or “proletariat” (think: teachers, nurses and retail workers). Since the proletariat control no property (technology, machinery, and materials) of their own with which to meet their basic needs, they are forced to sell their labour to the bourgeoisie in order to survive. Communism seeks to establish a society where there is a collective ownership of property in order to direct the economy towards common interests. Ensuring clean air, housing, healthcare, food, and education for all, before thinking about more frivolous things. We believe that such a society can only come about through a complete transformation.
While it is true that Communist societies have not been without their problems, they have continuously faced persistent aggression from Capitalist regimes (including the invasions of the Soviet Union, Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba). This must be accounted for when evaluating the development of Communist states. In spite of this aggression, Communism has raised the living conditions of millions of people worldwide. While facing an illegal blockade since 1960 and a militarily occupation since 1898, Cuba has achieved an average life expectancy which exceeds that of the United States.
Corporate profit margins in Canada were at a 27-year high, yet we are inundated by talk of recession, balanced budgets and the need for “belt-tightening.”
Influenced by Karl Marx, modern Communists believe that various oppressions, including gender-based violence, sexism, transphobia, racism, colonization, criminalization of the poor, ableism, religious bigotry and stigma surrounding mental health are actually relationships of exploitation, which emanate from and cannot be done away with in class-based, capitalist economies. Built upon colonialism, slavery, and other forms of labour and resource exploitation, capitalism creates inequality, accumulating wealth in the hands of a few. According to Oxfam, 62 individuals are as wealthy as half the world’s population). To ensure this constant accumulation, military and economic wars are waged to open up and control the “free market” and bring into submission any societies which resist. Factories and mines rise up on lands stolen from indigenous peoples. Their sovereignty and dignity seen as an intolerable extravagance. The surviving working class lives precariously, as Capitalist governments privatize and cut social services and environmental protections to accommodate big business. Last year the CBC reported that corporate profit margins in Canada were at a 27-year high, yet we are inundated by talk of recession, balanced budgets and the need for “belt-tightening.” Why is it always the working class that has to pay the price?
When Communists are told to be patient, to wait for the “right actors” to come into parliament and change things for the better, we point them towards the recurring crises of Capitalist democracies. For some reason, whether Liberal, Conservative, Democrat, or Republican, no Capitalist government is able to ensure that the environment is protected and that the entire population has adequate housing, food, education, and health care.
Confusing conversations aside, our experience at clubs fest demonstrated that people do care about the big issues. As the past month’s election campaign has shown, students care about politics and are seeking to create change. Fortunately, if history tells us anything it is that things are always changing, but it’s up to us to choose the right way forward.
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