Thousands of Manitoba students vote in mock provincial election
CBC News | Posted: April 18, 2016 9:41 PM | Last Updated: April 18, 2016
20K students vote in effort to encourage participation in democratic process
Thousands of Manitoba students cast a ballot Monday for candidates in the province's election.
While the votes won't actually count in Tuesday's election, they will have an impact in the future.
At least, that's the hope behind the Student Vote program which aims to engage young people at an early age to get involved in the democratic process.
Eddi Swampy, a Grade 9 student at Kildonan-East Collegiate, said until today, she never paid much attention to politics. Now, she can't wait.
"It didn't occur to me how important it was," she said. "The majority of my friends want to vote and are going to exercise their right to vote. I think every vote counts. Every single person has an impact on someone's campaign."
The program is run by CIVIX, a charity aimed at cultivating political awareness among young Canadians.
"We want to get the youth interested in getting out and interested in the democratic process," said John Thompson, who teaches social studies. "Quite often we hear that 18 to 25 year olds are that part of the vote that don't come out. So let's start them young. Let's get them interested."
By the end of the day, up to 20,000 ballots could be cast from both elementary and high school students in 287 schools from each of Manitoba's 57 electoral divisions. Kildonan-East Collegiate alone counts some 1,300 students participating.
Thompson said that's a good start.
"There's a little bit of apathy I guess in the sense that some would say, 'Why? Why should I cast a vote? Why should I take the time?' But a number of adults are probably saying the exact same thing, right? So if we can get a few more interested now and that carries on until later, why not?"
Grade 12 student Zachary Serbin, 17, said he didn't know his school would be involved in the project, but he did know there was an election going on.
"I've seen the commercial about cutting paper with [NDP Leader] Greg Selinger," he said.
Serbin said he gets it now that he has to be involved, too and vote.
"Maybe. Probably. If it's the cool thing to do. My friends will be like, 'Oh we're all voting?' I'll vote too, yeah. I'll probably do it because I'll be 18. So it will be a responsibility. Once you're an adult, you have to be a part of stuff for your community."
Thompson said this election has provided the students with lots of material to cover in class.
"We've been talking about the news. We've been watching the news in class. We talk about some of the issues that have been going on," he said. "It's all about democracy. It's not who you vote for. It's the process."
The mock election results will be released Tuesday, after the polls close, of course.