Queen’s Model Parliament (QMP) is taking a page from the House of Commons by electing its next generation of leaders.
From March 30 to April 3, QMP will cast ballots to vote in their next two co-chairs, following an investigation by the AMS Clubs Commission which found the club’s hiring process didn’t adhere to the club’s constitution. The election is the first in recent memory.
The AMS investigation followed a complaint by Julia Luong, ArtSci ’24, which claimed the hiring for the next QMP Co-Chairs was conducted independently by former Co-Chair Trevor Withers, CompSci ’24, contrary to the club’s constitution. Luong interviewed for the co-chair position and wasn’t selected by Withers.
According to the club’s policy “a general meeting shall be held before the last week of March for to elect two of the ten Executive officers for the following year” with the vote being held by the two co-chairs.
AMS Clubs Commissioner Dreyden George announced QMP would hold “a proper executive election” with its 120 delegates and 14 executive casting votes. The two co-chairs are meant to oversee the election, George said in an email obtained by The Journal.
Withers said he interpreted the policy differently, claiming hiring was dependent on a vote between the co-chairs. Following the precedent set over the past five years, he interviewed applicants and selected the two candidates he thought stood out.
Withers said his counterpart Ashleigh Arnold, ArtSci ’25, didn’t participate in the selection process because she was on exchange in Australia.
“I acted upon what I thought was supposed to be done to the best of my ability regarding constitution and my five years with the club,” Withers said in an interview with The Journal.
Withers resigned from his position with QMP following the investigation, citing the workload involved in an election was too much alongside completing the final year of his degree.
Arnold, QMP co-chair, said she intended to fulfill her remaining duties despite the time difference, waking up at 5 a.m. to do hiring for other clubs she was involved with. After creating the co-chair application form, she didn’t hear anything from Withers until seeing an email offering the position to Sami Kerr, ArtSci ’25, and Roark Paschin, ArtSci ’24, on March 11.
“I wasn’t a part of the interview, I asked her for the interview notes, and my co-chair told me he lost them, so I didn’t have anything to base off who these people are, what their interview was like, or what their intentions are for the club,” Arnold said in an interview with The Journal.
Arnold ed the team in September after her predecessor resigned. She said her late start to the club, coupled with her exchange, made her “less prominent” than Withers. An election is an exciting move for QMP, Arnold said.
“QMP is unique and different in the sense that we’re a very political club. Seeing how politics works in the real world, leaders are chosen by the people, not just the people at the top. This is a really exciting opportunity for QMP,” Arnold said.
With Withers stepping down and Arnold in Australia, George is facilitating the election as an interim Co-Chair for QMP.
For Luong, an election is the ideal outcome.
“This is all based on legitimacy and the constitution,” Luong said. “Because we’re in a club where we were literally in Ottawa [in January] talking about transparency.”
Luong is one of the candidates running in the QMP co-chair election. She said filing a complaint wasn’t meant to be malicious, it was about making the hiring process constitutional and “equal for everyone” through a fair process.
“’I’m going to be advocating for it [to] be a democratic process. All our delegates should have a say in [how] they want their club to be. I think it’s supposed to be fun in that way too,” Luong said.
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