provincial election: SFU students eye provincial legislature
Dan Pinese, News Editor
Some familiar names will be present on the ballots of three Lower Mainland ridings in the upcoming provincial election. Simon Fraser University students Michael Hejazi, Graham Fox, and Daniel Igali will all be hoping to be on the minds of voters May 17, 2005.
Michael Hejazi, Green party Candidate for Coquitlam-Mailllardville:
Former Yellow Canary slate candidate for Simon Fraser Student Society Internal Relations Officer, Michael Hejazi is a candidate for the B.C. Green Party in the riding of Coquitlam-Maillardville. For Hejazi, the Green Party offers a viable alternative to the often polarised parties of B.C.
"I think the Green Party really does represent change . . . I think the Green Party represents a free alternative, an alternative not vested in the eyes of the corporate spheres or into the large unions. Sort of a free advocate," he said.
As a self-proclaimed starving student at SFU, Hejazi also champions the Green Party's stance on education, stating that the Green Party "is the only party talking about lowering tuition. It's fine and dandy if you want to cap a tuition rate but the real investment should be in eventually lowering it to the final realisation of free tuition as we have in many countries in Europe . . . B.C. has the economic capacity to do so and I think such an investment would really be positive for the long-term."
Graham Fox, Rhinoceros Party candidate for Burquitlam:
In a similar vein to his humour-orientated candidacy for SFSS president as a DoublePlusGood slate member, Graham Fox hopes to be present on the Burquitlam ballot as Graham "Evil Genius" Fox. Fox hopes that running in the B.C. election will hopefully encourage the voting public to get more involved in election campaigning.
"I want the elections to be more interesting for people and I think humour is a good way of doing that and it is also a good way to break the monotony because the debates and a lot of the candidate profiles and so on can be really boring," he said.
Fox hopes that his Rhinoceros Party will be able to influence dominant B.C. parties by putting forward some alternative ideas on how B.C. could be run. Though some of his ideas are not meant to be practical, Fox's humour is meant to criticise current government policy, like the training wage, which he hopes to reduce even further if elected.
"I hope to reduce the training wage in the province from six dollars an hour to zero dollars an hour and have everyone employed by the province, thus ending unemployment. Some people say zero dollars isn't that much money but its only six dollars less than the existing training wage," he said.
Daniel Igali, B.C. Liberal Party Candidate for Surrey-Newton:
Olympic gold medallist and current student in SFU's criminology Master's program, Daniel Igali is hoping to be elected in the riding of Surrey-Newton, a constituency he has called home for the past 10 years.
Igali, who has been socially active throughout his time in B.C., sees his candidacy as a way to reach a greater number of people. Igali hopes that if elected he will be able to continue working on his social programs, like ACT NOW, a government initiative to make B.C. the healthiest place ever to host an Olympic Games.
"I think I am going to promote ACT NOW [if elected]. I think it is very important we encourage everybody, and not just kids, to get very involved athletically . . . These are things I want to promote so we can cut about $500 million from our health budget that is due to inactivity," he said.
However, though Igali sees his candidacy as a way to promote social causes, he also sees his link to SFU as a way to promote student involvement in the political process and something SFU students can be proud of.
"It's always good to know that one of your people is elected to political office because then you can better address the situation of students, the situation of young people. You can better address issues that lead to school fees, issues that lead to higher education. But also, it's a matter of pride. It's a matter of accomplishment. It just shows that SFU is a very incredible organisation that is able to produce some of the best minds in the country and the province," he said.