48 per cent of British Columbians took to the polls on Oct. 24, voting in a historic Conservative government. It has been nearly a century since British Columbia has seen a conservative government, with the last one being in 1928. 

The Conservatives, led by Lorne Doerkson, not only won over David Eby and the New Democratic Party (NDP) – a party that had been in power since 2017 – but also won a majority government. Of British Columbia’s 93 seats, the Conservative Party won 63 of them compared to the NDP’s 28 and the Green Party’s two, according to CBC News. 

Eby announced the whiplash election on Sept. 22, which took place approximately a month later, on Oct. 24. It had been just two years since the last election, which the NDP won, leaving critics to question why Eby called it. 

According to Newsweek, Eby said he called this election because the NDP needed more seats in the legislature. Last election the NDP just narrowly beat the Conservatives, and needed these seats to respond to United States President Donald Trump’s tariffs and prepare for the upcoming United States midterms. The election happened with such speed so voting could take place before these midterms. 

 This whiplash of an election was reflected in the voter turnout, with only 48.06 per cent of eligible voters submitting their ballots, according to CBC News. This turnout is low compared to past elections, with the previous election in 2024 having a voter turnout of 58.45 per cent. It was even lower than the election during COVID-19, which saw a turnout of 53.86 per cent, according to Elections BC. 

The drop in voter turnout seen in this election is in contrast to the municipal elections that took place in British Columbia. a week prior, on Oct. 17. The municipal election saw a jump in voter turnout. British Columbia’s metropolitan city, Vancouver, saw an increase from 36.3 per cent to 43 per cent of eligible voters taking to the polls, the city’s largest turnout since 2002, according to CBC News. Vancouver was not the only city to see a jump in municipal elections. Fellow cities such as Burnaby, Delta, and Surrey also saw an increase in voter turnout. 

In interviews conducted outside the polls, Global News highlighted the drop in voter turnout could be from voter fatigue due to back-to-back elections, as well as possible confusion in the contents of the election with the overlapping of campaigners. 

The result of the election sent shockwaves through B.C. politics. The majority of provincial parties, aside from the NDP, have been in disarray for years, according to CBC News, with the Conservative Party among them. Historically, the Conservative Party had not gained much traction, with the Liberals and NDP dominating the B.C. political scene for most of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. According to CBC News, the Conservative Party faced “political wilderness” for many years, meaning they were not able to win any seats. They rebranded a multitude of times, with the current party only being fully formed in 2023 by John Rustad after being kicked out of the Liberal Party. 

Despite winning seats, becoming the official opposition, and narrowly losing to the NDP in the 2024 election, the Conservative Party continued to face turmoil. According to CBC News, multiple Conservative Party members “crossed the floor,” essentially leaving the party to join another or become independent. As more members crossed the floor, Rustad stepped down, and questions arose over who would take over the party. Even after Rustad stepped down, members continued to leave or be kicked out of the party well into September 2026. Their current leader, Doerkson, was not announced until Sept. 21, evoking questions about whether they could even pull together a party in such a short time, making Doerkson’s win monumental. 

Brazilian-Canadians travelled to the polls in Montreal, where the Brazilian embassy is located, to vote in the Brazilian 2026 general elections, which was a tight race between  incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) and Flavio Bolsonaro. Lula, leader of the center-left Workers’ Party, won against Flavio Bolsonaro, the leader of the far-right Liberal Party, and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro,  on Oct. 25. 

In an interview with The Argosy, technical support specialist Pedro Da Fonte said he drove to Montreal with his wife, daughter, and two friends to be able to vote. “We were concerned about the possibility of a government we viewed as fascist coming to power. We felt it was important to make the trip and cast our votes to help protect democracy and the rights of all Brazilians,” Da Fonte said. When asked about the outcome of the election, Da Fonte stated, “I was very pleased with the outcome because the candidate we supported won.” 

Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency was founded in right-wing populism with the slogan of “Brazil above everything, God above everyone” for both his 2018 and 2022 campaigns. According to the BBC is currently serving 27 years under house arrest after being convicted of “armed criminal conspiracy, attempted abolition of the democratic rule of law, attempted coup d’état, violent destruction of public property, and damage to protected national heritage sites” by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court. 

Edgar Franco-Vivanco, assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan, stated in a blog post on the Center for Political Studies that “Lula’s campaign expanded its digital outreach and intensified its efforts to bring voters to the polls.” He argued labor unions and college campuses were dominated by the left, whereas the right dominated in the church, suggesting that the internet remains “open to political competition, even where the right has built a strong presence.” 

There was a large student movement online and in the streets with over one million people rallying on the election including many tens of thousands of students, all under the “Lula’s  Army” movement. According to Franco-Vivanco, “these numbers reveal an electorate more open to mobilization than the first-round result suggested.” while referring to the voter turnout for the second round of the election, increasing by three million people, this included Da Fonte and many others who voted internationally. According to Franco-Vivanco, this was one of the main factors in overturning the results between the first and second rounds of the election, allowing Lula to win the vote by 4.4 million votes compared to having lost by 2.2 million in the first round. 

Lula’s record-breaking fourth term goes against the global trend toward right-wing populous governments. According to the European Policy Information Centre (EPICenter), 32 per cent of European voters “now back a populist, authoritarian or extremist party.” Flavio Bolsonaro and the Liberal Party continue to be the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, forcing Lula’s presidency into negotiations to be able to pass policies. Moreover, Flavio Bolsonaro has not conceded the election and said in a press statement after the release of the results that they will request the annulment of the results. Flavio Bolsonaro is currently in Miami. A Supreme Court judge requested he turn in his passports, and he is under investigation for corruption for money laundering and tax evasion. With the polarization of the world growing, Da Fonta says, “I hope the government continues to support minority communities and protect their rights. I also hope Brazilians can come together and work toward what is best for the country.” 

Now you might be asking yourself, why Hart Hall?

Well, for anyone who hasn’t met Hart Hall’s resident ghost, the story goes back to the building’s days as part of the Mount Allison Ladies’ College. You see, Hart Hall had a head start on the whole haunting business. The red sandstone building opened in March of 1910. Students lived upstairs, and a 1920 expansion added a swimming pool in the basement. But somewhere along the way, it picked up a ghost story: local legend says Ethel Peake, a former Mt.A voice teacher, still haunts the halls after mysteriously losing her life in 1954.

So, if you ever hear someone warming up their scales when you are pretty sure you are the last one in the building, maybe let them finish.

If Ethel was around on Thursday, then she had plenty of company; however, unlike her scares, Thursday’s scares were done by people who are very much alive.

The Mt.An Chem/Biochem Society put students to the test with its mad scientist escape rooms. For anyone whose idea of a good scare involves being able to watch it from a seat, Mt.A Jack.Org, part of a Canadian movement for youth mental health, hosted Movies and Mocktails in Crabtree. The mocktails sold out.

From the first scare to the last mocktail, a lot of students helped pull the night together. A special thank you goes out to Ava Horwood, director of entertainment and activities, and Ella Matheson, assistant entertainment director. Shoutout to Tovah McGrath and Will Stott for guiding students through the house and getting in on the scares, and to the MASU executives, student senators, and volunteers who decorated the rooms and dressed up to haunt them.

As for Ethel? We’ll leave her off the volunteer list until she confirms.

Ducky’s Pub plans to move into the former Vogue Cinema building across from its current home on Bridge Street by September 2027. This comes after a redesign to make the building more accessible delayed the original plan for a January 2027 opening.  

“The plan right now is, by the time everybody comes back for September, we’ll be into the new space,” said Luc Poirier, owner of Ducky’s Pub, in an interview with The Argosy. He had hoped for a soft opening on Jan. 1, but renovations have only just begun, and demolition has not started. “If it’s not January 1, then it has to be after convocation,” Poirier said. Before then, he said, Sackville has “too much going on.”

“The original plan that had us opening on January 1 was with an architect that didn’t have as much experience with heritage buildings,” Poirier said. The previous plan kept Vogue Cinema’s seven concrete steps between the lobby and the seating area, which he said would have meant installing ramps. Built in 1946, the Vogue sits within the town’s Municipal Heritage Conservation Area, and the new design had to remove the steps without losing the character of the building. 

The landlords found a new architect whose plan removes the steps. “We’ll have a level, smooth walk-in all the way to the stage,” Poirier said. He also believes the sloped floor is a problem for dancing. “My customers sometimes struggle dancing on a level plane,” he said. “They are not going to be able to dance on an incline.”

The building itself is in good shape, despite rumors of a damaged roof. “The roof is in really good condition,” Poirier said. “We’ve been in during the worst rainstorms over the past year and a half, and the place is still bone dry.” 

The new space will have roughly double the square footage and, with a private event area, “triple the capacity,” Poirier said. “One of the things that we’re going to be able to do with our design is have an upstairs bookable space,” he said. 

“A society night doesn’t have to be from 11 till 2 [a.m.] as a fundraiser,” Poirier said. “You could book out [Ducky’s] on a Tuesday afternoon or a Tuesday evening and have a space all to yourself with a dedicated bartender.” Poirier said a society party held in the space “could watch a sports game or play Mario Kart.” 

The pub also plans to draw on the building’s past as a cinema. “We won’t be turning the space back into a new film location,” Poirier said, but the large screen will remain a part of the design. He said the pub has “already had some talks about showing student films.” This sentiment emerged after Mt.A announced an interdisciplinary minor in Screen Studies and Pop Culture, and is in a discussion with the Sackville Film Society about bringing back film nights, which have been relocated to Amherst since the closing of Vogue Cinema. 

The larger building would also give the pub more room for live music. “We’re committed to bringing back live music to Sackville,” He sees the town’s location as an advantage for touring acts. “We’re on the way to Halifax,” Poirier said. A bigger stage could draw those acts to Sackville, and visitors who come downtown for a show would spend money at other businesses which, “will bring some more needed money into our little town,” Poirier noted. 

The move also means taking over a building many people in Sackville have a connection to. “The challenge of Vogue Cinema is that everybody has an idea of what it could be or what it should be,” Poirier said. The pub told the landlords that it wants to preserve as much of the building’s history as possible. The stage facing will be rebuilt in the same style, a section of the original seats will go on display, and the pub’s photographer “documented it before any hammers were swung.” 

Poirier hopes the move does not change what the pub means to students, noting, “I want [Ducky’s] to be spoken of the same way it is now.” “This is the safe space that I know I can go with my friends, whether I want to go dancing or I want to sit around and chat with my prof, or I want to take in an amazing live show.” 

On Oct. 16, EverWind Fuels, a Canadian energy and infrastructure company, announced that it is constructing an 18,600-square-metre artificial intelligence (AI) data centre in Point Tupper, N.S. EverWind also announced that Anthropic, an American AI company, had signed a 20-year lease for the facility. These announcements have received significant public pushback, with one petition on Change.org reaching more than 24,000 signatures.

The petition’s main concerns about the data centre relate to the impact it may have on the environment, the power grid, and the community at large. In an email to The Argosy, Chris Benjamin, the associate director of energy programs at the Ecology Action Centre (EAC), said he is most concerned about “increasing energy rates, strain on the power grid, emissions (from our grid and from diesel), [and] significant freshwater waste.” Benjamin said there is “no demonstrable social benefit, just promises from dubious sources.” 

In a statement released on Oct. 22, EAC cited possible instances of data centres hiking energy prices in Canada, saying, “Meta’s new data centre [in Alberta] is projected to increase power bills by as much as 25 per cent.” EAC continued, saying the proposed data centre has “an energy use equal to nearly one-sixth of our current electricity generating capacity.” According to Bioenergy Business, the proposed data centre is set to increase its energy usage to 420 megawatts, about a quarter of Nova Scotia’s current usage. Benjamin said this is “an incredible increase for one project that gives no benefits to Nova Scotia’s ratepayers.” 

Facing criticism for its predicted energy usage, EverWind maintains it is “advancing with commitments to protect existing electricity ratepayers, safeguard local water resources, and deliver lasting community benefits.” Part of EverWind’s plan to protect electricity ratepayers involves a commitment where “EverWind will fund the electricity infrastructure costs attributable to the project.”

Benjamin also focused his concerns on possible power rate increases for Nova Scotians, saying increased rates could be especially dangerous given the elevated energy poverty rates in Nova Scotia. “Nova Scotia already has an energy poverty rate (where people are paying more than six per cent of income on energy costs) of 40 per cent, the highest in Canada. In Cape Breton, that rate is an astounding 54 per cent. We can’t afford to have rates go up a further 25 per cent due to one giant energy pig.”

Brenda Chisholm-Beaton, mayor of Port Hawkesbury, a town near Point Tupper in Richmond County, has a more optimistic view. In an email to The Argosy, Chisholm-Beaton said, “It is a potentially significant economic opportunity for the Strait area, and I believe it deserves serious consideration to fully understand the pros and cons.” However, while Chisholm-Beaton is willing to support the development, she emphasizes the need to understand the project’s implications. “An announcement of this magnitude is the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one,” Chisholm-Beaton said.

Chisholm-Beaton said the Town Council’s main concern is securing water supply for the data centre from Landrie Lake. “The Town has a responsibility with Richmond County –  as joint owners and operators of Landrie Lake Water Utility –  to protect the long-term security and sustainability of our water resource, and any significant new demand needs to be assessed in that context,” Chisholm-Beaton said. “The assessments and monitoring of wastewater, stormwater, noise, emissions, land disturbance, and other environmental impacts are also important. I’m not suggesting these issues are insurmountable. However, they must be demonstrated to be manageable, with enforceable safeguards in place.”

Chisholm-Beaton said the proposed data centre has the potential to benefit local businesses, saying “restaurants, hotels, retailers, service providers, transportation companies, tradespeople, and professional firms could all experience increased demand.” While this potential exists, Chisholm-Beaton said whether the benefits materialize depends on how transparent and cooperative EverWind is with local businesses. “There should be a commitment to local employment, skills development, apprenticeships, and opportunities for local and Indigenous businesses.” Chisholm-Beaton said EverWind’s commitments need to be “measurable, transparent, and enforceable.”

On the other hand, Benjamin has a different view on the proposed data centre’s effects on the local economy. “[EverWind] promise[s] 215 permanent jobs (at a cost of $10 billion, which is $46.5 million per job – seems like we should aim higher than 1 job per $46.5 million invested),” Benjamin said. Benjamin compared this impact to how EAC has determined a greenhouse gas reduction project would contribute to the economy, saying that its project “would create 15,000 jobs annually, most of them unionized jobs in the trades.”

Chisholm-Beaton said, “the question isn’t simply whether a $10 billion project can be built in our region. The real question is can this proposed data centre be built here to operate responsibly, and sustainably in accordance with Canada’s established principles for responsible data centre development, and ultimately, bring lasting benefits to the people of this region?”

“Serbia is free,” students declared in a social media post after a political opposition movement secured a parliamentary majority in a recent snap election. The election – which brought out a record number of voters domestically and abroad – ousted the 12-year rule of former president Aleksander Vučić and the right-wing Serbian Progressive party. 

According to independent news outlet Democracy Now! the results of the election are a product of a two-year ‘leaderless movement’ spearheaded by the “Student List-Student Win” movement, which originated on university campuses and has mobilized much of Serbia with aims of countering systemic corruption. The Student List of democratically nominated experts and professional candidates won 141 of the parliament’s 250 seats. 

Over the course of the movement, nationwide protests have been organized by students, based on a horizontal model with no singular leader. Further solidarity from other educational and professional sectors produced robust opposition.

 The Journal of Democracy outlines how mobilization came in response to the Nov. 1, 2024 collapse of a newly renovated concrete and glass canopy at a railway station in the town of Novi Sad, which killed 16 people. 

According to the Business and Human Rights Centre, the tragedy precipitated widespread discussion on governmental corruption as “Critics argue that the collapse was not merely an accident.” Instead, it was argued to be “the consequence of a deeply flawed process in which public transparency was sidelined, international agreements were leveraged to bypass national regulations, and political interests were prioritized over safety.” It prompted students to organize candlelight vigils and moments of silence for the dead. 

The Journal of Democracy noted how protests spread from university campuses to the rest of Belgrade and wider Serbia. The phrase “we are all under the canopy” emerged. It served as a slogan for the movement, “capturing the widely shared frustrations with systemic corruption of the government and solidarity in opposition to current institutions.” By Dec. 22. 100,000 nonviolent protesters gathered in the Belgrade city center to block bridges and roads demanding transparency and justice. Moreover, 2025 saw student road blockades and sit-ins that employed symbolic timing to align with the minute when the Novi Sad canopy collapsed.

According to the Journal of Democracy, protesters reported forceful arrests, being held without clear charges, and mistreatment in custody by police. However, protesting proved effective: it produced a “[prisoner’s] dilemma action” for the Serbian government. Responses to protests represented a “lose-lose” choice between conceding to protestors, or negative publicity for repression; both of which “eroded public legitimacy.” The protests furthered pre-existing negative publicity for the Vučić government, already under fire by the European Commission for corruption.

The Commission’s 2026 report, which came out after the Novi Sad tragedy, outlined the failures of the government in achieving most of the activities outlined in its previous Anti-Corruption Action Plan. The report further summarized the presence of attempts of undue influence impacting the investigations of the Serbia’s Prosecutors Office for Organized Crime (POOC), and concerns over strategic appointment in various levels of law enforcement in aims of political control. The commission reported the Novi Sad “[railway] investigations are yet to be completed. The POOC reported a lack of cooperation by the police regarding the full provisions of evidence collected.”

The snap election represents a major change in regional diplomacy. Serbia’s candidacy for European Union (EU) membership has been ongoing since 2012; however, according to the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, “Serbia and Kosovo’s deficits in the rule of law and challenges in normalization talks have hindered the countries’ pursuits of EU membership.”

EU commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos took to social media platform X in support of the election results, saying, “a new chapter can begin for Serbia. The door to the EU is open, and we are ready to move forward together.” 

According to news outlet Balkan Insight, expression of support for the Student List from neighboring political leaders in Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina symbolizes a step forward from the difficult relations they previously had with Vučić.

The functions of the new government will be based on the Student Plan, democratically devised by the Student List movement. The plan is organized into three sections titled Serbia or the Mafia, Knowledge is power, and Serbia Grows with Us, which will target 11 points of nationwide reforms. The lead candidate on the list is cardiologist Ilija Srdanović, who said in a public statement that the most important goal will be “creating the conditions for the rule of law, equality, freedom, media and personal freedoms, as well as respect for democratic principles.”

Every semester, the Mt.A Fine Arts Society (FAS) hosts a Show and Sale in the Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts (PCCA) atrium. This is the biggest event the society puts on per semester and is an opportunity for Fine Arts students to show off their work to the greater student body while earning money at the same time. 

The Show and Sale is taking place in the PCCA atrium on Nov. 13 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Nov. 14 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

The event allows students to gain experience selling their artwork, but does not require everyone who signs up to sell anything; students are also allowed to display their artwork if they would like. In an interview with The Argosy, social chair for FAS, Frances Rowe, said, “A Show and Sale is a chance for Fine Art students to both show off the work, maybe that they’ve been doing throughout the years or the semester, and then also a chance for them to get to sell their work.”

The Show and Sale presents a good opportunity for students to gain experience with the business side of making art. “It can be really hard to know the value of your work and both not undersell yourself but not oversell yourself,” Rowe said. The Show and Sale lets students become familiar with pricing their work in a lower-stakes environment and with support from their fellow students. 

There is no table fee for students to display and sell their work. “It’s an opportunity for them to get to sell their work without having to pay someone else,” Rowe said.  In return for no fee, students selling their work must take a shift working the cash box. 

Before the event, there are two mandatory meetings students wishing to present their art must attend. These meetings detail the rules for the event and the delegation of tables around the space. During the meeting they gave out forms where the organizers can find out how many tables they need, as some people may require different amounts of space to display their art. Additionally, the meetings focused on figuring out what artwork is being put up on the walls, and who is willing to sell or just display. 

The rules for the Show and Sale are limited; “there is not too much censoring,” Rowe said. The general rule for the event is 30 per cent of the artwork displayed must be coursework. This can be paintings, drawings, prints, or photography – anything as long as the required portion of it comes from their courses. 

In Rowe’s first experience with the Show and Sale, she chose to only show off her work. “I wanted to show it off, but the first couple pieces you can make can be quite special, and you don’t want to part with them,” Rowe said “It’s a great opportunity to get shown off to a wider community without having to part ways.” The society mainly advertises to students, but the families of the artists, and sometimes members of the wider community also come to see the event. 

El Niño is a climate pattern that the Canadian government website states “can affect weather worldwide.” The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says, “El Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific.” This phenomenon happens due to easterly trade winds weakening. In an interview with The Argosy, Brad Walters, a geography and environment professor and coordinator of the environmental studies program at Mt.A, said, “The way to think of it is essentially [as] a period where the tropical Pacific Ocean burps up additional heat.”

The 2026-27 El Niño is anticipated to be a super El Niño. “It is considered by many to be one of the most severe El Niños likely to have ever occurred since we’ve been measuring these things,” Walters said.

Walters said the impact of  El Niño cannot be predicted with “hard and fast certainty…in a particular place at a particular time.” Estimations – done through buoys measuring factors such as temperature and salinity – become harder to calculate the further away a country is from the tropical Pacific region. However, Walters noted that, due to the estimated severity of this year’s super El Niño, there are expected to be significant changes in rainfall and drought patterns. Walters gave South Asia and Brazil as areas to expect drought and the west coast of the United States as an area anticipating heavier rainfall. 

As warm waters are pushed closer, the west coast of South America – Chile, Ecuador, and Peru – is impacted by the “reduction in the upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich waters.” Walters explained, “That [this] upwelling is responsible for some of the most productive ocean waters in terms of fisheries, seabirds, and marine mammals in the world.” The Peruvian anchoveta fishery, the largest fishery in the world, has already been shut down due to the reduction in the number of anchovies. ”You’re going to see probably massive mortality of seabirds and marine mammals along that coastline in the coming three to nine months because of the sharp reduction in productivity,” Walters said. “You are going to see global temperature records probably broken significantly again this year.” 

Walters said, ”You see that [average temperature and average surface temperature] tend to spike whenever we have significant El Niño events.” This will be exacerbated by the strength of the upcoming El Niño. 

Walters also focused on Canada, saying it will most likely have a milder winter. Walters noted Canadians will see “weather weirding.” This is weather out of the norm: dry conditions in some places and wetter conditions in others, although it is hard to pinpoint exactly where. However, as highlighted, there will be effects. 

“There is still a lot of dispute in the scientific community about whether the recent increase in the strength of El Niños is due to climate warming,” Walters said. “It’s been happening a little more frequently, every two to three years, but generally it’s three to five [or] six years.” 

Finally, Walters highlighted the recent surge in El Niño research. Walters said that until fairly recently, the scientific community was puzzled by the fact that global warming trends were not a continuous, smooth line. There would, instead, be jumps “like a saw blade.” Walters noted it was only recently figured out “El Niño is largely responsible for the staggered increase in temperature over time globally.” 

Pianists Katherine Dowling and Clark Schaufele performed a piano duo recital on Friday, Oct. 30, at the Brunton Auditorium. Dowling, an assistant professor of piano at Mt.A, and Schaufele, a collaborative pianist in Mt.A’s music department, presented a program of three pieces from the early 20th century: Maurice Ravel’s “La valse,” George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” and Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” 

“If you love the piano, you will love four-hands and two pianos, because there’s just more piano!” Dowling said in an interview with The Argosy, prior to the performance. 

At the beginning of the program, two pianos faced each other on the stage. During their first selections, Dowling and Schaufele occasionally glanced at each other across their instruments. For the last piece, Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” the performers sat side by side, hands crossing over one another’s on the same instrument. 

In addition to being musical collaborators, Dowling and Schaufele are married. They brought their two-year-old along to their interview with The Argosy. “We don’t play together very often,” Dowling said. “Usually one of us is with our son, and the other one is playing a concert, so to have both of us play is kind of unusual.” 

“It’s wonderful, playing together,” Schaufele said. “I think there’s so much mutual respect in terms of music.” He described the experience of rehearsing and performing as a duo as both fun and meaningful. “We both get to engage with music so deeply as a pair, which is really cool.”    

Schaufele explained that he and Dowling had performed two of their selections together in the past, but had never before collaborated on their opening number, Ravel’s La valse. The piece, completed in 1921, was meant by Ravel to bring to mind waltzing couples in an increasingly frenzied dance. Dowling noted during the concert that “La valse” has often been interpreted as a representation of birth, life, and death during the First World War.

Following “La valse,” Dowling and Schaufele played “An American in Paris” by Gershwin. The version they performed was their own adaptation of an arrangement for four-hands piano. “We’ve tried to take as many of the orchestral sounds that we can and put them in the piano,” Dowling said to The Argosy. Jazz-inspired and often bouncy, the piece imagines the feelings of a New Yorker walking through the streets of Paris. 

Finally, sitting side by side, the performers played Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Schaufele introduced the piece as telling the story of an “almost druidic rite” in pagan Russia. Dowling, on the lower part, played the intense percussion part of the piece. “Trying to recreate that sound on the piano is just incredibly powerful and dramatic,” Dowling told The Argosy. Illustrating the sound was the choreography of Dowling and Schaufele’s hands crossing, leaping, and “getting in each other’s way.”

Dowling described the early 20th century as a time in Western art music where “people were being so experimental, trying so many new things.” The artists and composers of the three pieces would have come into contact, particularly in Paris: a hub for artistic creation. (A story of Gershwin asking to study with Ravel has become legend). 

“It’s also interesting to think, all of this is very much in the shadow of World War One, right? And there’s all of this destruction, but there’s still all of this incredible creative energy at the same time,” Dowling said. 

“I thought it was phenomenal,” said first-year music student and pianist Anna Lynnes to The Argosy after the performance. “Whenever there were loud parts, just how they were able to use the full force of their body to just produce the sound. And then even just like, the choreography of the silences, when they would just, like, fling their arms up into the air.” 

Dowling will be performing a solo program of Modern and Romantic pieces titled Awake and Dreaming on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Brunton Auditorium. Admission is free for current Mt.A students. The program includes selections from her album of the same name, which received a JUNO nomination last year. 

“You know the feeling when you first wake up?” she asked. “Hopefully it will leave everyone in this very dreamlike state.”    

As the weather gets colder and flu season approaches, it is important to take steps to protect 

yourself and those around you. Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is a contagious respiratory infection that affects the nose, throat, and lungs. While many people recover without complications, the flu can cause serious illness, particularly for individuals at higher risk. 

Getting your annual flu vaccine is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself and help keep our campus community healthy.

How does the flu spread?

The flu spreads easily from person to person through infectious particles released when someone breathes, talks, coughs, or sneezes. It can also spread when someone touches a contaminated surface and then touches their eyes, nose, or mouth. People can spread the flu before they even notice symptoms, making prevention especially important in shared spaces. This includes classrooms, residences, and dining halls.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, influenza causes approximately 15,000 hospitalizations and 3,500 deaths in Canada each year. Although anyone can become seriously ill, older adults, young children, pregnant individuals, and people with certain health conditions are at greater risk of complications.

Why should you get vaccinated?

The flu vaccine is the best way to prevent influenza and its complications. Health Canada recommends annual flu vaccination for almost everyone aged six months and older. Getting vaccinated every year is important because flu viruses change over time, and protection from previous vaccinations decreases. The flu vaccine cannot give you influenza, and most people experience few side effects beyond temporary soreness in their arm.

For university students, vaccination is particularly important because of the amount of time spent in shared living and learning environments. Getting vaccinated can help reduce your risk of illness while also helping protect others in the Mt.A community. 

In addition to vaccination, washing your hands regularly, staying home when sick, covering coughs and sneezes, and wearing a mask when appropriate can help reduce the spread of influenza.

On-Campus Flu Vaccination Clinic

Mt.A is partnering with Dr. S. LeBlanc and her team to offer an on-campus flu vaccination clinic for students, faculty, and staff on Saturday, Nov. 7,  from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. atTweedie Hall, which is located in the Wallace McCain Student Centre. Students, faculty, and staff can book their flu vaccination appointment online.

Before arriving, please bring your provincial health card and a completed, signed consent form. Wear clothing that allows easy access to your upper arm and plan to remain in the after-care area for 15 minutes following your vaccination.

Please note that COVID-19 vaccinations will not be available at this clinic. Both flu and 

COVID-19 vaccinations are available at local pharmacies. For further details about the on-campus flu vaccination clinic, please visit What’s On MtA or the Mount Allison Wellness  Centre’s Instagram page.

Help keep our campus healthy

Getting your flu shot is a simple way to protect yourself and support the health of our campus community. Whether you live in residence, attend classes, or work on campus, taking preventive measures can help reduce the spread of influenza throughout the fall and winter.