High school students across the province made their mark in this year's provincial election.
Results were posted Wednesday for the public to see how British Columbian youth voted in a mock provincial election that was held on Monday. Students at Pender Harbour, Chatelech and Elphinstone secondary schools all took part in the exercise.
More than 59,000 students in the province took part in Student Vote B.C. 2009. The non-partisan program aims to educate teens about the political process, political parties and why voting is an important civic responsibility.
If teens had been the ones choosing the next government, the B.C. NDP Party would have taken power as 37 per cent of the vote went their way. The B.C. Liberal Party was second with 29 per cent with the Green Party of B.C. in third with 27 per cent.
Students also voted in a mock referendum as to whether B.C. should change from a first past the post system (FPTP) to the single transferable vote (STV). Fifty-five per cent of B.C. youth voted to keep FPTP while 44 per cent thought STV would be a better way to elect public officials.
At Chatelech, students voted in favour of NDP incumbent Nicholas Simons, giving him 94 votes to Green Party Jeff Chilton's 82 votes and Liberal candidate Dawn Miller's 40. One hundred and twenty teens voted to keep FPTP while only 40 opted for STV.
At Elphinstone, the numbers were similar. Simons received 89 votes, Chilton 57 and Miller 28. The referendum was a closer call though with 98 voting for STV while 84 voted to maintain FPTP.
The vote was a landslide victory for Simons in Pender Harbour. Simons took 84 votes, Chilton 17 and Miller eight. The referendum was close there too with FPTP taking 60 and STV garnering 55 votes.
To see the full results by school or riding visit www.studentvote.ca/bc/results2009.
