campus newspaper with a left-leaning editorial board. He argued that the issue at stake was one of financial accountability, although his opponents suggested he was trying to infringe on the paper's autonomy. Funding was restored when the newspaper staff agreed to accept an Ombudsman Board. Fletcher was elected as a director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations during his first term. He was re-elected student body president in 2000, and presided over the elimination of the UMSU's debt in May 2000. He credited a partnership with Starbucks for much of the council's $43,000 surplus. In late 2000, Fletcher announced that he would seek the Progressive Conservative nomination for a provincial by-election in Tuxedo. Some of his opponents later tried to remove him as student president, arguing that such partisan activity was inappropriate for someone elected to represent the interests of all students. Fletcher argued that the university's constitution did not prevent him from participating in provincial politics, and described his opponents as "far left extremists". He lost the provincial nomination to Heather Stefanson. His opponents in the Graduate Students Association later voted to separate from the UMSU, although the University of Manitoba refused to sanction the separation. Near the end of 2000, Fletcher endorsed a report from the right-wing Fraser Institute which suggested that Canada would have to end university union contracts and professorial tenure to retain bright young academics. He was quoted as saying: "There is merit. You'd have to break the union, I would guess." During the 2001 student election campaign, Fletcher, with the assistance of Colleen Bready, then UMSU vice-president, and a Security Services officer, performed an unannounced search of several student group offices. The affected groups included the Graduate Students' Association, the Womyn's Centre, Amnesty International, the U of M Recycling Group (UMREG), the Rainbow Pride Mosaic, and the Manitoban. Fletcher and Bready said they had been "made aware of a suspicion" that campaign materials were being stored in the student group offices in violation of UMSU election bylaws. The search was condemned by other campus groups, with UMREG coordinator Rob Altemeyer describing Fletcher's actions as "completely inappropriate". Fletcher defended his actions, saying: "It's UMSU space. We have the authority and the right to check [student organization] space at any time." Bready said they felt warranted since a slate of candidates had already been found guilty earlier in the week of using the Graduate Students'