Andrea Armborst
Slate: Your Team

The lowdown: Armborst, the current VP services and finance of the Students’ Administrative Council, is heading a slate of candidates called Your Team. Armborst is touting her “record of success” in balancing SAC’s budget and shortening the monthly TTC Metropass line-ups to 15 minutes at peak times.

The platform: Your Team supports the tuition freeze campaign and claims they will fight for student space and will strive to add eye exams to the Health and Dental plan. Next week, Your Team will unveil a series of “guarantees” they would seek to fulfill in office. If these are not met, VPs promise they will refund five per cent of their salaries.

The pitch: “Our name sums up our team: we’re your team. We have the experience and dedication and commitment to improve the student experience at U of T. A vote for Your Team is a vote for effective student representation. It’s not the status quo-changes need to be implemented and Your Team has the skills to do it.”

Analysis: Armborst is running on her robust record at SAC this year, but her team will have to convince voters they are not the status quo.

Andrew Mackay
Independent

The lowdown: Mackay is a fourth-year student in economics and history at Woodworth College. He has played on the Varsity Blues football team for four years, written for The Newspaper for three, and was a VP of the History Students’ Association. Mackay is relying on web network Facebook to promote his campaign.

The platform: Mackay vowed to fight to lower the ancillary fees students must pay. He would back efforts to allow students to opt out of the proposed UPass program for St. George campus. Mackay is promising to improve student life by organizing regular barbecues and other “small, relatively inexpensive activities that create a friendly environment.”

The pitch: “I think [SAC] needs a change. We’ve had the same group of friends year after year. I’m in economics as well as history, and I understand it’s an expensive time to be a student. I’ve been able to associate with many groups of people, and my views have been shaped by many groups. My end goal is to save students as much money as possible.”

Analysis: An independent, Mackay could attract apathetic non-voters and those seeking a “third way,”-his online campaigning could help.

Senai Iman
Slate: New Deal

The lowdown: Iman is a fourth-year economics studies student, a contributor to a CIUT radio show, and former chairman of the Eritrean Students’ Association’s national organization. Iman’s New Deal slate contains several young Liberals and one conservative, but Iman says they will check their ideologies at the door. New Deal is also backed by Sam Rahimi, a controversial SAC executive who served in 2004-05.

The platform: New Deal promises better advocacy, improvements in college life, and fiscal accountability. “We can cut $100,000 in administrative costs,” said Iman, promising to invest it in clubs. He also promised VPs would shave $5,000 off their salaries to fund needs-based grants.

The pitch: “We’re offering a fresh alternative to the status quo. We want a new deal for students, a new deal for commuters, and a new deal for clubs. We want to strike a balance between advocacy and activism. UTM is a big problem: every dollar sent from UTM to UTSU [SAC] will be paid back in initiatives and programs for UTM.”

Analysis: Iman’s Liberal-leaning slate offers change, but Rahimi’s backing could polarize the vote.