Students and faculty around the Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo campus have spent the last few weeks preparing to watch the 2016 American Presidential Election.
The Laurier Association of Political Science Students hosted an election results party in the Laurier Turret Tuesday night in preparation.
Students were welcome to come and view the results with appetizers, drinks and activities.
Games such as “Pie the President,” were played, which gave students the opportunity to pie either Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton in the face. All money raised from the event went to a charitable fund.
After the results were announced, there was an after party with a DJ.
“It is important for Laurier as a whole because we have a lot of ties with America and the future president will impact the way that Canada functions as a country,” said Aqua Naveed, vice-president of marketing and communications of the Laurier Association of Political Science Students.
“The American government is the most significant economically, politically and militarily in the world. As a result, people from all around the world are following it,” said Barry Kay, associate professor in Laurier’s department of political science and expert on American politics.
Before the results were released, Kay said that whoever the president may be, Clinton or Trump, they will both be quite constrained in their ability to make large changes.
Kay explained that most Americans, including Trump, do not understand the American constitution; therefore, they don’t fully comprehend how limited the power of the president is.
Trump’s plan to build a wall on the Mexican border, deport various individuals and block Muslims from entering the country will likely never come close to being accomplished as they go against the American constitution.
“He can’t unilaterally do all that much to domestic policy. He can do a lot more to foreign policy. But domestic policy, anything that involves spending money, he’s got to go through Congress. And that＊s extremely challenging these days,” he said.
Additionally, Kay explained that Trump has very few ongoing principles aside from economic nationalism and his opinions on nativism.
“He doesn’t really believe in anything other than self-promotion [sic]. I personally think he has a personality disorder, this obsession with always being in the middle of everything and his narcissistic personality isn’t normal,” he said.
“I feel like this election is definitely going to go down in history and we are just a part of it and it’s essential to know about it,” said Naveed.
