This year’s student council election had four teams vying for the position of St Paul’s Student Council President and Vice President. First and foremost, one must give a deserved congratulations to the winners of this election: Mark Nashed and Israel Samuel, under team name BIG MAC. The team made it through two rounds of voting with a combined total of 358 votes cast in their favour, sweeping the second round with more than two-thirds of the vote. Their campaign resonated especially with the younger St. Paul’s students, evidenced by the fact that three quarters of their votes came from students in grades nine and ten. Their many promises included allowing grade nine and ten students to leave the school during lunch, ping pong tournaments, and food trucks outside the school on special occasions. 

The runner up team of Evan Peters and Aidan Kuo performed consistently in both rounds, but failure to attract PD and MOG voters on the second ballot led to their falling short of victory. Only 23 voters changed their ballot to PEAK in the runoff, compared to the additional 104 votes towards Big Mac. Neither team lost votes in the second ballot, indicating that St. Paul’s students had a strong loyalty to their original candidates. PEAK focused on a variety of promises, including new & improved events, unblocking social media on the school Wi-Fi, quality of life changes (such as a student feedback foru, and more ping-pong balls in the student link, hoping that small, realistic promises would win the day. Though quite diverse, the lack of one big promise and target focus may have hurt their chances of imprinting their message on students’ brains. PEAK finished second in both rounds, racking in 100 and 123 votes in the first and second ballot respectively.

The two remaining teams, PD and MOG, by no means lagged behind. Both teams were within 30 votes of the PEAK and barely missed the cutoff. In third place was PD with 92 votes in the first round. They especially succeeded with grade nine and eleven voters, though fell behind on their grade ten vote (an area dominated by BIG MAC). Candidates Payne Wood and Drew Russell made larger promises, including a team bus (which many grade elevens and above may remember was previously promised by another student council). However, this did not dissuade the grade elevens, as PD tied with PEAK as the main option chosen by their own grade. PD also promised various school spirit events such as grade wars and more intramurals. 

Finally, MOG, led by Sam Asabil and Kidus Michael, finished in a close fourth place. They succeeded in the grade nine vote with 37 votes, but floundered in attracting their fellow grade, only achieving 22 grade eleven votes. Their platform consisted of a hockey rink on the football fields during the winter, early summer dress code, and student of the month. Unfortunately, their promises were ill-timed as summer dress code had already come early that year. The hockey rink also ran into questions about maintenance and funding, as well as issues over whether admin would approve this in the first place. They finished the first round with 88 votes.

All teams were worthy candidates, providing fierce competition to the eventual victors. BIG MAC eventually brought it home with their domination of the grades nine and ten vote. If you see Mark Nashed and Issy Samuel, congratulate them on their victory, and make sure to remind them to follow through on their promises.