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Simons wins the student vote

B.C. Election
student vote
Students in divisions 1, 2 and 3 at West Sechelt Elementary School participated in Student Vote on May 8. Students had to learn about the electoral process and about each of the candidates running for election in the Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding before taking part in the mock election.

If students in the Powell River-Sunshine Coast electoral district had their way, the NDP would have taken 43.46 per cent of the Coast’s popular vote, reinstating incumbent Nicholas Simons for another term.

A total of 1,675 ballots were cast by kids in the Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding during Student Vote, held on May 8. Student Vote is a program run by the civic education charity CIVIX, where students learn about the electoral process and take part in it by way of a mock-election.

Students involved in the Powell River-Sunshine Coast area gave 38.33 per cent of their vote to the Green party’s Kim Darwin – about five points below the NDP –  while Liberal Mathew Wilson took 13.73 per cent of the student vote and the Cascadia Party’s Reuben Richards garnered 4.48 per cent.

Breaking the riding farther down into just School District No. 46, it appears that Sunshine Coast students were thinking green when they marked their ballots.

Results released by CIVIX on election night show that Cedar Grove Elementary gave the Greens 55.56 per cent of votes cast, Gibsons Elementary went 44.03 per cent Green, West Sechelt Elementary students voted 52.63 per cent Green, the Sunshine Coast Alternative School voted 47.92 per cent Green and Chatelech Secondary School gave 50 per cent of the student vote to the Green party.

Elphinstone Secondary students were split, giving both the Green party and the NDP 40.29 per cent of their votes, and at Davis Bay Elementary School the Greens came in a close second with 42.33 per cent, compared to the NDP, who won the popular vote in that school with 48.47 per cent.

On a province-wide level, more than 170,000 elementary and high school students took part in Student Vote, representing all 87 electoral districts in B.C.

Kids across the province elected the NDP to lead with 60 of 87 seats and 39 per cent of the total vote. The Greens took 14 seats with 28.5 per cent of the vote. The Liberals won 12 seats with 25.4 per cent of the vote and students also elected independent candidate Nicholas Wong in Delta South.

See the full results at www.studentvote.ca