Jude Crasta was elected into the VP external position tonight, beating out opponent Janzen Lee.
“I’m definitely very happy about it," said Crasta. “I really appreciate the support from UBC students, and it’s definitely going to be a great year ahead.”
Crasta, who served as the associate VP external this year under Bahareh Jokar, credits sticking to his platform as a key factor in his success.
“I was really confident in what I was saying to people," said Crasta. "I knew that I could accomplish that, and I definitely feel that UBC students felt the same as well.”
To celebrate, he’s looking forward to a good night of partying with friends and new members of the executive team.
“I have a lot of invitations to a lot of parties. I’m guessing I’m going to have to make 10 to 15 minute appearances at each, and we’ll see how the night goes,” said Crasta.
Lee, who is the current president of the Student Legal Fund Society, is confident that Crasta will perform well in his new role.
“I know that Jude is going to do an amazing job,” said Lee. “He’s going to continue doing amazing things.”
Lee credits his defeat to a lack of endorsements and a series of criticisms from election forums that interpreted his platform as disrespectful towards the AMS. However, he said that these criticisms hurt him and that they did not represent his platform.
“I’ve been dubbed by some of the election forums as an 'anti-AMS', 'anti-establishment' person, and that’s very much not who I am. I believe strongly in the work that the AMS is doing; I would not have run for a position otherwise.”
Still, Crasta said that Lee ran a good campaign.
“I would just like to congratulate him on the amazing campaign that he ran," said Crasta. "I definitely think there were a lot of interesting points that he brought up that I’ll definitely take into consideration during my term."
In the upcoming year, Lee plans to focus on graduating and remaining involved with the Student Legal Fund Society despite not being re-elected.
Crasta will transition into the office over April. When his term begins, his first priorities will be to work for a more equitable U-Pass and get students involved with the federal elections.
With the exception of a joke candidate last year, this year’s VP external election also marks the first time in two years that the VP external election was contested.
“It’s really great to see that a lot of people are now taking the external lobbying effort at the AMS a lot more seriously," said Crasta.
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