As students prepare to vote, two candidates are making the case that the AMS can—and should—do better.
Dreyden George and Alex Mcarthur, both ArtSci ’27, are running to be the next president of the AMS. The president is responsible for external representation of the AMS, representing student opinion to the administration, overseeing AMS governance and offices, and ultimately ensuring the fulfillment of Society’s mandate and mission.
Both candidates sat down with The Journal to discuss their plans for the society if elected.
Dreyden George
Having worked in the AMS as the Commissioner of External Affairs, Clubs, and Social Issues, along with being the current Chair of the Board of Directors, George now feels ready to take on the role o fAMS President.
“I’ve a very good knack for finances,” George said. “And I can bring perspectives from a mix of roles, from financial interests to being able to do negotiations, like what I was able to do with Bus-It contract sitting on that negotiation table, and governance experience from the Commissions, combined with board-level experience.”
George’s centering his campaign around three main pillars: affordability, transparency, and engagement.
He plans to make Queen’s more affordable by seeking external partnerships and programs that could benefit students—such as discounts at frequently used services and partnerships with Kingston student housing co-ops—and looking internally to determine ways to better reward students for use of student-run services.
He also hopes to increase transparency within the AMS through better investment in student research and student experiences surveys, and ensuring there is proper funding for elections, Assembly, and judicial affairs.
“Assembly and elections are crucial because our transparency heavily relies on that office being able to function as they’re the ones that really do the governance-focused ground feedback methods, especially within our faculty societies,” George said.
To bolster engagement, George plans to expand events that collaborate with clubs and foster community building, and to make AMS websites more accessible in terms of both interface and content.
“I think ideally you should be able to know everything about the AMS from the website alone, or find the links or documents to it,” he said. “I think better resources explaining what the AMS’ mission is, its history, its finances and what its actual operations are, so that it’s more transparent on what our supports are for students, is very important.”
Alex McArthur
Over the past three years, McArthur has served as a student director on the AMS Board of Directors, the Chair of the Personnel Committee, and an Orientation Coordinator for the Faculty of Arts and Science. Now, he’s vying for the role of AMS President.
“I’m a very supportive person, and I think that’s a uniqueness of the role that the President needs to have,” McArthur said. “They need to be able to support a wide variety of different students and different opinions here on campus. […] Students should be able to trust that they’re able to come with you and tell you what’s going on, and that you’re able to be that support system for them.”
McArthur is running a campaign centred around pillars of representation, collaboration, and transparency.
In regard to student representation, McArthur wants to host regular office hours and implement quarterly student questionnaires to get a sense of what concerns students have and how they’ve felt about recent AMS actions and advocacy efforts.
“We want to make sure that we’re advocating for [students] and representing [their] opinion,” he said. “Making sure we’re it’s not the Alex McArthur Society, it’s the Alma Mater Society.”
To increase transparency, McArthur’s planning a marketing campaign called ‘meeting minutes,’ in which the president quickly summarizes what has happened at AMS meetings, such as Senate, Assembly, or Board of Trustees meetings. He also plans on furthering the AMS’s financial transparency to ensure all students know exactly where their AMS student fee is going.
McArthur also hopes to bolster collaboration by interacting more with faculty societies, whether it be engaging in further discussions with them or supporting them in setting up and running their events.
“If we can do that more and provide more of that support, it’s going to be easier for us to find common ground and agree on some of the big, hard topics that we’re going to have to talk about at some Assemblies,” he said.
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The AMS executive debate is scheduled for Jan. 23 at 6 p.m., with voting taking place from Jan. 28 to 30.
Tags
AMS elections, AMS president, Elections 2026
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