October 2024
Freshmen, Fresh Year, Fresh Leadership: The Grade 9 Representative Election (Part 1)
How does the Grade 9 student body at Victoria Park view the election for their grade representative, and what do they want?
With the Grade 9 representative election on October 16, Panther Press is joining the excitement to provide readers with insight. We interviewed the Grade 9 community at Victoria Park to better understand their thoughts on the election and future grade representative, to which we received numerous responses:
What do you expect in a Grade 9 representative?
Voters want their representative to be a good representation of the entire grade, with responsibility and intelligence. They stated a representative should “[have] good marks,” be “genuine with good communication skills,” and “[be] willing to go above and beyond.”
What events, hosted by your Grade 9 representative, are you looking forward to?
9th grade voters expect “fun academic events” and “sports events.” They also want more community-based events like “food fairs, fun fairs, [and] scavenger hunts.” Finally, they anticipate potential performances like Grade 9 musicals and talent shows.
What do you think of the equity of this year’s election?
For this question, we conducted interviews with candidates Muhammad Ali, Alina Chen, and Terry Chen, in addition to the 9th grade community.
According to Alina Chen, "...as of now, the election and campaigning processes have been fairly equitable, but that could change in the future.” Many voters agree, claiming the election is “fair and well-organised.”
Muhammad Ali states “I don’t think popularity is a factor in this election… I feel like every candidate had a fair chance to campaign.”
Conversely, some voters believe there may be equity issues, citing bandwagoning, potential gender bias, and voting based on popularity. Alina Chen adds that “popularity might end up being more influential than the plans of each candidate.”
Terry Chen believes that there’s a “50/50 in the influence of the candidates' popularity versus their qualifications” and also adds that the IB population has more influence than the non-IB population.
Some voters feel that not everyone “understands what a Grade 9 representative does” or cares about the election. Muhammad Ali knows “not all students are following the updates” and felt more emphasis should’ve been put on “where voting was taking place, which was outside the cafeteria.” Some voters lacked access to Instagram (which is blocked on TDSB Wi-Fi), where most campaigning occurs.
Proper representation is something all students deserve, ensuring that everyone is heard. Fortunately, Victoria Park freshmen have high expectations of their future representative and intriguing perspectives on the equity, factors, and process of this election.Thank you to all the Grade 9s who gave their thoughts, and Panther Press wishes good luck to all the candidates!
Thanks to Raymond Ning and Justin Su for helping with the interviews.