While students in the school system might not be able to vote in the recent B.C. election, they did get to cast ballots, as kind of a what-if scenario.
As part of the Student Vote British Columbia 2020 initiative, many students in the Comox Valley and around the province registered a vote last month for the candidates they would support if they could vote.
Like registered voters in Courtenay-Comox, the biggest percentage of students voted for the NDP’s Ronna-Rae-Leonard, as she attracted about 805 votes, or about 43 per cent.
Among students though, the Liberals and Greens flipped, with the Greens’ Gillian Anderson attracting the second-most with 688, or almost 37 per cent, while Brennan Day of the Liberals was third with 379 votes, or just over 20 per cent.
The schools that submitted the most ballots were Georges P. Vanier Secondary (583), Mark R. Isfeld Secondary (463), Lake Trail Secondary (232), École Puntledge Park Elementary (187) and Queneesh Elementary (109).
Students from a few local schools in the Mid Island-Pacific Rim electoral district also took part. Overall, Green candidate Evan Jolicoeur attracted almost 44 per cent of the vote, beating the actual winner Josie Osborne from the NDP, who won almost 36 per cent of students’ voter. Liberal candidate Helen Poon won 13 per cent, while Libertarian Robert Alexander Clarke and independent Graham Hughes each won between three and four per cent.
School District 71 schools Cumberland Community and Royston Elementary each sent in ballots, with Cumberland sending in the most ballots of any school in Mid Island-Pacific Rim.
As part of the project, teachers had access to resources and tools to work with students on issues pertaining to the electoral process, and on Oct. 21 and 22, students in districts around B.C. cast their ballots.
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Province-wide, among students, the NDP won the most seats, with 58. The Greens won 17 and the Liberals won 12.
As far as the percentage of the vote, the New Democrats attracted almost 40 per cent of the voters, the Greens had almost 28 per cent, the Liberals had more than 25 per cent, with the remainder going to Conservatives, independents, Libertarians, the Christian Heritage Party, Communist Party, B.C. Vision, Wexit BC and Rural BC Party.
mike.chouinard@comoxvalleyrecord.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
