Sunshine Coast students are getting involved in the election through Student Vote set to run May 13, the day before general voting for the provincial election takes place.
Student Vote is a chance for young voters to mark a ballot similar to the official one adults use, and thousands of students from across B.C. are taking part.
On the Coast, students from Kinni-kinnick Elementary School, Pender Harbour Elementary-Secondary, Chatelech Secondary, Elphinstone Secondary and the Sunshine Coast Alternative School will mark a ballot.
While schools are encouraged to vote and given packages to help facilitate the process, one class in Gibsons decided to go the extra mile to ensure students knew about the candidates they might vote for.
The alternative school's Social Justice 12 class put on an all candidates meeting just for teens on May 2 at the Gibsons heritage building.
MCs Riley Mackenzie and Dayna Verhulst said their class had about three days to pull the event off, but they were pleasantly surprised that all the candidates agreed to attend.
Incumbent New Democrat Nicholas Simons, Liberal Patrick Muncaster and Green Richard Till were on hand to answer questions from the teens gathered.
Students posed questions about improving transit, lowering ferry prices, setting up a walk-on only ferry, legalizing marijuana, job retention and attraction, temporary foreign workers, school budget cuts and roadway improvements.
After the hour-long forum, students socialized over a pizza lunch with the candidates before posing for pictures.
Verhulst was pleased with the outcome of their first all candidates meeting held for teens on the Coast, noting her class felt the effort was necessary to educate students.
"As we started going more and more into Student Vote we started realizing a lot of kids don't know about even the parties or anything like that, and I think that's what really inspired us to go the route of the all candidates debate," she said. "As we talked to the kids and started figuring out what they did know, there were just huge gaps."
Many of those gaps were filled after the all candidates meeting.
"This was an opportunity to prepare kids to get them to want to vote when they turn 18, to have the awareness and involve themselves more so that we have enough voters to get the right party into power," Mackenzie said.
Teacher Cindy MacInnes was impressed with the effort her students put in to make the all candidates meeting a reality.
"It's so amazing when kids take their learning into their own hands because there's no stopping them," MacInnes said. "It's amazing what a small group of committed people can do. They can change the world."
Results from the province-wide Student Vote will be released publicly on election night, May 14.
