Are you mad about the election?

Following the provincial election results, maybe it is time to get more involved with and volunteer with the MSU

If the 2025 Ontario provincial election was your first time voting, you may have woken up disappointed last Friday morning. I am told you get used to this feeling and admittedly, three elections in, it feels, if not less disappointing, less catastrophic.

It’s hard not to feel like a lost election is a catastrophe though, especially when a flawed electoral system and low turnout contributed to a party that received votes from less than 20 per cent of the province’s population holding on to power. It is even harder when one of the election’s few local highlights is Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, the riding that is home to McMaster, where only 55 per cent of registered voters casted their ballots.

When we promote voting and elections as the most important element of politics, it's difficult to see past these disappointments. But, if we treat voting as the bare minimum of political engagement, we can recognize the opportunities for political action that are all around us, especially as students.

In Jan. 2019, the first of Doug Ford's provincial governments in Ontario announced the Student Choice Initiative, a directive designed to categorize student fees into two categories: essential and ancillary. What at first may look like an effort to save students money was challenged in court by the Canadian Federation of Students as a brazen attack on student organizing.

Far from just an opportunistic move to gain the support of students who may not have been informed about the services their student union fees make possible, Doug Ford’s move was an attack on the principles of student unionism. This attack demonstrates the conservative, individualistic value system that fuels his party.

Regardless of their flaws, student unions are valuable mechanisms for students to engage in politics. Students can get involved in politics through their university unions not just through municipal, provincial, or federal lobbying, but by participating and volunteering for services, clubs, community centres, and media.

While many of us stew over our collective frustration at another conservative government whose election platform promises no meaningful alleviation to the difficulties of student life, we should be thoughtful about where we direct our energy. You may see calls to donate to local charities, or feel pressure to put your co-op or internships to good use at an NGO doing good work in the community.

While working with or donating to charities and NGOs can help people, student unions are vehicles of collective and community power in a way that charities can't always be.

Far from just a service provider, our student union is a vehicle to pool our collective resources. It is a way by which to develop, through an admittedly imperfect democratic process, ways to support one another and to implement these supports by engaging community members and giving them the skills they need to provide them.

The McMaster Students Union allows students to express meaningful solidarity with one another, whether through voting in a referendum to provide hundreds of free meals a day or working in the union-owned restaurant that is going to make those meals.

This solidarity is inherently political and building a stronger MSU is a way, maybe the best way, for students to express their opposition to a political project that has attempted to crush solidarity in favour of an obsession with individualism.

While the Student Choice Initiative was defeated, student unions still need students to work to strengthen them. Students need to engage themselves and other students in the collective effort of union life; only our engagement can strengthen the MSU's foundation in the principle of solidarity.

When I woke up last Friday Morning, I was disappointed at the results of the provincial election. But, I know the work that I do along with my colleagues at the Silhouette and the MSU is a more impactful form of community work and action than voting once every four years.

If you are one of the many students upset by the results of the provincial election, don’t just accept defeat. Don’t just promise to vote next time. Do something tangible and politically meaningful with your short time as a student and get involved with the MSU.