The West Coast got a taste of Toronto politics, as Rob Ford was elected to the student government at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
The joke candidate running as “Rob Ford” was chosen to serve as one of five Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) representatives on the Alma Mater Society (AMS), the student union at UBC. Eight candidates ran for the AUS positions.
“Ford” finished fourth in the election with 240 votes out of 1,970, with 262 abstentions.
Harsev Oshan, the student behind the campaign, said he didn’t have malicious intent, but ran under Ford’s name to “prove a point” that joke candidates take votes away from real candidates.
Oshan said he “fundamentally disagrees” with joke candidates running for elections.
“Yes, it builds a lot of traffic, it creates buzz around elections, people think it’s funny,” he said. “That’s all fine, we need to create more attention for elections, but at the end of the day, there are students out there who are actually more serious—they want the position and they work harder for the position.”
Oshan said UBC students don’t normally expect joke candidates to win, and are more accustomed to joke candidates stepping down if they do, leaving the runner-up to take their place.
“Rob Ford got 240 votes . . . how do we decide how to distribute the 240 votes? If Rob Ford was not there, the 240 votes could have gone to any of the three losing candidates,” he said.
Oshan said this election also proved that students are “very disconnected” from the election process.
“When they go vote and they see Rob Ford, they think, ‘Hahaha, that’s so funny, I’m just going to vote for him and not vote for anyone else,’” Oshan said. “I think it’s both the system’s fault and students lacking the responsibility to actually do their research before voting.”
Elections co-ordinator Courtney Lee said UBC has a policy allowing joke candidates, which is why “Rob Ford” could not be disqualified.
“He wanted to show that he could take the spot away from someone that did want it, and that it was unfair,” Lee said.
She said everybody knew he was a fake candidate because of his platform, having run on promises such as free alcohol at meetings. Lee said she and some others knew the Rob Ford candidate was actually Oshan. Lee said she agreed with the point Oshan was making, but didn’t think the method should be allowed.
“In terms of joke candidates in general, I don’t think they should be allowed and I don’t agree with them nominating themselves and running,” she said.
Oshan said he will keep the position he won as Rob Ford.
“Everyone thinks joke candidates are funny,” he said. “Nobody wants to do anything about them, so by resigning, I would be doing exactly what previous joke candidates have done, and that would give zero incentive to students to do something about it.”
Oshan said his main goal as an AMS representative would be to close the loopholes that allow joke candidates to run in elections, which happens almost every year.
But Lee said Oshan actually keeping the position is “unfair to people who actually wanted the position.”
“Nothing can be done as the results have already been approved, plus joke candidates are allowed so there are no grounds to do a re-election,” Lee said. “What should be done is the AMS should amend the policies on joke candidates.”
