Everything is skewed in high school.
While the NDP’s Gord Johns claimed the Courtenay-Alberni riding Monday night, high school students in Parksville Qualicum Beach elected a different MP — theoretically, of course.
In the Courtenay-Alberni riding, the participating schools including Kwalikum and Ballenas Secondary schools, elected Liberal candidate and former two-term Parksville city councillor Carrie Powell-Davidson to represent them.
Powell-Davidson received 1,521 votes (31.3 per cent) from students in the riding — most of which are not yet of voting age.
A close runner up, Johns had 28.5 per cent of the vote with Green Party candidate Glenn Sollitt tailing behind with 24 per cent.
Conservative incumbent John Duncan had 13.7 per cent of the student vote, while Marxist-Leninist candidate Barbara Biley had just 2.5 per cent.
The mock-election was part of a national initiative called Student Vote. It parallels elections for students under the voting age coinciding with federal, provincial, territorial and municipal elections.
The purpose is to provide young Canadians with an opportunity to experience the voting process firsthand and build the habits of informed and engaged citizenship.
Both Kwalikum and Ballenas Secondary schools hosted election forums prior to Monday’s vote.
Since 2003, 26 Student Vote programs have been conducted across the country. In the last federal election, more than 500,000 students cast a ballot from 3,750 schools.
Errington Elementary, Nanoose Bay Elementary, Oceanside Middle School, PASS/Woodswinds Alternative School and Qualicum Beach Elementary also took part in the national student vote.
Student Vote is a flagship program of Civix and Elections Canada.
For more results visit www.studentvote.ca.
