by John Thompson

Less placard-waving and more cheap pizza appears to be on the agenda for the upcoming school year.

Conservative candidates grabbed two of the four UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) executive seats, as well as four of 11 director at large positions.

As the largest conservative victory at UVic in recent memory, the election results provide an interesting turn of events on a campus traditionally dominated by left-leaning candidates.

Mike Tan and Agita Lis from the Students for Change slate beat out their Putting Students First counterparts, Mary Thibodeau and Jamie Strachan. Chairperson-elect Joanna Groves said she wasn’t happy with the results, but conceded it was good for democracy.

“We were hoping to take the executive. Mary and Jamie worked harder than anyone. If anyone deserved to win it was them. But my opposition was worthy and I wish them the best.”

Incoming Director of Finance Agata Lis said she was relieved by the results and hoped to bring greater balance to student politics. She said she expects the student union will practice more lobbying and less protesting next year.

Candidates tossed their remaining handbills into recycling bins as polling stations closed on Friday afternoon, then headed to Felicita’s pub to swill beer and wait for the outcome. Next door, ballots were counted well into the night inside Vertigo, the now-defunct Student Union Building nightclub.

As numbers from each polling station were announced, it became clear it would be a tight race for several candidates. It also became clear that Neil Evans wasn’t one of them. The fourth-year history student and only director at large candidate to make a speech entirely in rhyming couplets had already faced two past electoral defeats, and he was on a collision course with another. That night he found himself regretting not putting more time into his platform, but less distressed than last year.

“I feel fine because I’m leaving. I’m not obliged to be coming back,” he later said, referring to his upcoming graduation this spring. “It would have felt nice to be a winner, but whatever.”

Not everyone was worried. Hari Alluri could be seen dancing in Felicita’s while the final ballots were being counted and needed to be told he had won the race for director of academics.

“I think it’ll be a really wild and fearsome time,” he said of the upcoming year. “We have a really diverse group.”

Adam Carver, one of the directors at large elected from the Students for Change slate, said the shift in voting patterns this year illustrates discontent among students with the current political strategies of the student union.

“They want some fresh faces and some fresh voices,” he said.