2025 general election: Vice-President External
Sheroog Kubur
Sheroog Kubur, a fourth-year political science and communications student, presents herself as a fighter, an advocate and an outsider willing to shake up the SU’s approach to student lobbying.
Kubur’s candidacy is defined by an unrelenting drive.
“You kind of have to have a lot of audacity,” she said in her interview with the Gauntlet. “You need someone inside willing to stick up for students no matter what happens in the institutions.”
She argues that recent years have seen the SU become more passive in its approach, and she intends to reignite the kind of direct action that made waves during the 2023 tuition protests.
While she lacks experience on the SLC, Kubur counters this with a strong track record of advocacy. As a high school student, she co-authored a report critiquing Alberta’s K-9 curriculum and directly lobbied the Minister of Education. At the university level, she played a key role in organizing Alberta’s largest student strike against tuition hikes, successfully rallying 1,200 students.
“What I lack in SLC experience, I make up for in real-world experience,” she said. “From day one, I’ve been acting.”
Kubur’s platform is extensive, but it remains grounded in the actual scope of the VP External role.
At the federal level, she believes success comes from persistence and framing student issues as economic concerns. She proposes a Canada Post-Secondary Education Transfer to replace the existing Canada Social Transfer, ensuring dedicated federal funding for universities. She wants to push for international students’ work experience to count toward permanent residency points.
“You need to make them see students as an investment, not a cost,” she said. “If we push for a Canada Post-Secondary Education Transfer, we have to show the long-term return — higher wages, more innovation and a stronger economy.”
At the provincial level, she plans to strengthen coalitions between student unions, business groups, and municipalities to advocate for funding and restore the Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP).
“The provincial government responds to organized industry and business concerns more than student concerns,” she said. “So, we build coalitions with chambers of commerce and municipal leaders to make sure they hear about student issues from voices they already trust.”
Municipally, she is focused on securing polling stations on campus, increasing transit accessibility and ensuring the city follows through on landlord licensing.
“City Hall is where we have the most direct influence,” she said. “If we show up in large numbers and push for things like transit and tenant protections, councilors listen because they know students are a growing voting bloc.”
She also recognizes that advocacy is most effective when done collectively. She credits the SU’s recent coalition-building efforts and hopes to strengthen them.
Kubur knows how to wield the scope of VP External effectively. Her platform is ambitious, her experience is deeply rooted in activism, and, crucially, she understands the balance between grassroots mobilization and institutional lobbying.
Julia Law
Julia Law is running for the position of VP External with a platform focused on advocating for improvements in student life and quality of education.
As the first-ever SAPL representative, her past experience qualifies her as a prepared and organized candidate.
“I want to motivate change in the right direction,” she said.
Recognizing the major challenge of affordable tuition, Law said she would fight against budget cuts by pushing for the provincial government to slowly restore funding, starting with 10 per cent and eventually reaching where it was pre-2019. Law encourages focus on small changes that are reoccurring.
To fight suggestions of further cuts, she would talk to students, work with the SU and mobilize protests, though for protests she believes they should be kept reasonably managed and under control.
She will also advocate for making the $4200 Canadian Student Grant increase permanent.
“Students are the future. Supporting them now allows for long-term success and it will help to ensure that our economy remains stable,” Law said.
In public city planning meetings, she would push to establish landlord licensing through landlord incentives like compensation and advertising.
Important to Law’s platform is a goal to re-establish the Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP) to ensure both domestic and international students are employed, assist practicum students and allow local businesses to thrive. The latter she notes governments are starting to push in the wake of American tariffs.
Law is well aware of students’ frustration around Wi-Fi issues, pointing out the need for money transparency and student testimony. Her platform also discusses student experience, but this falls under the role of VP Internal, not External.
Some of Law’s platform strategies are vague and lack understanding regarding the responsibilities of VP External specifically. However, her goals show she has student interests and involvement at heart.
All undergraduate students may vote for one of the two candidates for VP EXTERNAL or ABSTAIN from voting.