Students across the province had the opportunity to vote in a mock election May 16. The 58,738 ballots cast declared the NDP party the winner.
Although the student votes are not to be counted in the provincial election, the mission of Student Vote B.C. is to "build students into citizens" through learning about the democratic process, developing critical thinking skills and casting a mock ballot for a political party.
More than 425 schools took part in Student Vote B.C., the first program of its kind in our province. The decision to implement Student Vote on the Coast comes after successful mock elections for the 2004 federal election and provincial elections in Ontario and Alberta.
On the Coast three schools took part in Student Vote: Roberts Creek Elementary, Sechelt Elementary and Chatelech Secondary School.
Students had the chance to cast a ballot for or against the Single Transferable Vote system proposed by the Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform, as well as the opportunity to vote for their chosen political party.
At Roberts Creek and Sechelt, the NDP party came out ahead, while at Chat the Green Party took the lead with 181 votes.
However, after all the ballots were counted, the NDP party had the most votes Coast-wide with 218 votes from the three schools.
The Sunshine Coast electoral district also includes Powell River. Three schools from that area took part in Student Vote B.C. with the majority of votes going to the NDP.
In the end, the mock election for students in the Powell River-Sunshine Coast electoral district showed the NDP party as a marginal winner, with 366 votes compared to 358 votes for the Green Party.
However, when all the student votes in the province were tabulated, the NDP came out as the clear winner with the Liberal Party in second place.
The NDP party won 20,366 votes in their favour from students across B.C. That's 34.7 per cent of the vote going to the NDP party.
The runner up was the Liberal Party with 28.1 per cent of the vote, and the Green Party took a solid third place with 22.8 per cent.
As for the single transferable vote, students in our electoral district gave a big thumbs up to the change with 83 students in favour and 50 against.
Province-wide, the mock STV vote passed with 61.9 per cent of students in favour of the change.
For a full breakdown of student vote results in the province, go to www.studentvote.ca/bc.
