David Scrivener
Slate: Your Team

The lowdown: David Scrivener is a fourth-year Victoria College student who has been active in LGBTOUT and a former chair of U of T’s NDP club. He is currently SAC’s associate VP external. Last fall, he covered the municipal election for Spacing magazine’s blog.

The platform: Scrivener will fight to extend the UPass program to the St. George campus, as well as looking into the feasibility of expanding the program to encompass GO Transit, as many U of T students commute from afar. He is aware that UPass may prove pricey. “If students who don’t use TTC want an opt-out, we’ll fight for one,” he said. Scrivener will also work to establish a landlord licensing program, which was one of Mayor David Miller’s campaign planks last fall.

The pitch: “I’m going to focus on the tuition fee issue, especially going into a provincial election. A lot of the time our issues aren’t front and centre with the government because we don’t vote at the same rate that our parents and grandparents do. I also want to make sure there’s some place for student dialogue about landlords.”
-Mike Ghenu

Joanna Murrel
Slate: New Deal

The lowdown: Joanna Murrel is a third-year student in political science and sociology at Woodsworth College. Her past political stints include being an executive member for Ontario Young Liberals. In order to get her message out, Murrel “actually likes speaking to individuals and not just handing out flyers.”
The platform: Murrel believes that OSAP reform will go a long way. “Although we’ve had some dialogue on it, we haven’t achieved much,” she said. While some of her opponents believe that tuition should be fully funded, Murrel believes that this approach is “unrealistic.” She would rather see people get OSAP loans in larger amounts. “Upon graduation, students should be allotted a longer time for repayment.”

The pitch: “I’m trying to lobby for quality education by cutting down on unnecessary expenses such as administrative costs. We can make a difference by redirecting funds, as high as $25,000, to student bursaries, which at present go towards SAC executives. Although students feel disenfranchised about OSAP-related issues currently, when I’ve talked to them, they’ve realized how my pitch can help them.”
-Sana Ahmed