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westerngazette.ca TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2015 • WESTERN UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER • VOLUME 109 ISSUE 12 all hail trudeau since 1906
Ascent to power
JENNY JAY GAZETTE
Sophie’s rapid and tumultuous rise to the top AMY O’KRUK NEWS EDITOR @AMYATGAZETTE
S
ophie Helpard is smiling. She stays seated, surrounded by a red-tinted campaign team and close to 300 spectators inside the cavernous Mustang Lounge. Across the room, rival candidate Jack Litchfield is in the eye of a student-fueled storm, saying, “I cannot believe how close it was, I can’t believe it.” Helpard just lost the 2015 University Students’ Council presidential election. She doesn’t get up. Team Sophie supporters flock to Helpard and her adjacent slate members, Lindsee Perkins and Alex Benac. The group huddles together as Perkins and Benac crumble while Helpard begins to express her gratitude to campaign volunteers and reassure crestfallen friends and followers, one-byone. They remark it was a shockingly close race, with 32 votes solidifying Team Litchfield’s win. “A lot of people were surprised and I think it was tough because I was also very surprised,” said Helpard, thinking back to the February 2015 election night. “I don’t like when people feel sorry for me. I don’t like that reaction from anybody, so I didn’t want to
show any emotion that would inspire that. But, it was sad.” Observing Helpard now, her unprecedented and turbulent ascension to the presidency feels half-imagined. A stack of Nancy Drew novels crown her office’s coffee table (a reminder of her mom back in Welland, Ontario) and a picture of Jackie Kennedy Onassis adorns a wall. In the spacious office, there are no clues revealing Helpard fought harder than any other USC president in recent memory for a fair opportunity to lead Western’s undergraduate students. Before the elections saga, Helpard’s rise through the USC’s echelons was swift. Helpard was only a third-year student when she partnered with Perkins and Benac to hopefully helm the next generation of USC student executives. “I was very intent on running after third year — which is not necessarily customary — just because I felt, at that time, I had the best grasp on student opinion that I would ever have,” Helpard said. Helpard’s knack for challenging tradition, though, had earlier roots. She was hired as Huron’s head soph during her second year, despite never sophing before. After a year as the affiliate’s head soph, Helpard set her sights even higher and caught slate
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mate Benac’s attention. “I actually applied to be orientation coordinator, the same year that Sophie applied to be orientation coordinator,” Benac said, referring to the USC’s position responsible for planning and overseeing O-Week. “I felt my interview went really well … and then I got the call that said, ‘You didn’t get it,’ “ Benac explained. “I remember going on the USC’s Facebook page … a few days later, and it being like, ‘Congratulations to our new orientation coordinator Sophie Helpard!’ ” Despite this rapid rise, during a storm-filled 2014 O-Week, Helpard’s leadership came under fire. Several orientation staff members challenged her style, stating, “Sophie lacked willingness to trust coworkers and subordinates … orientation staff was not included in or delegated tasks,” and that, “She has a lot of ambition, but limited follow-through to enact real change,” in a scathing letter to The Gazette. Helpard maintains that when people work on teams, they have to realize they work for a common goal.
SEE SOPHIE ON PAGE 7
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