Before Alberta's election day, several students at Holy Trinity Catholic School had the opportunity to participate in their own student vote on Monday April 15.
Student Vote is a program put on by Civix, which is a education charity focusing on promoting active and informed citizenship among students.
About 170,000 students across the province were said to have participated in the voting process.
Holy Trinity teacher Laura McDonald is excited by the Student Vote and thinks it’s a good opportunity.
“I think the student vote in middle school is very important,” said McDonald. “It teaches them and gets them ready for when they have the right to vote. It’s exciting for them to get involved and go home and tell their parents ‘this is what we did today’ and then encourages the parent to go vote.”
The students had been learning about elections on a provincial level and federal level. According to McDonald the issues that mattered most to students were health care, education, the carbon tax and the environment.
McDonald has found the support from Civix to be a great asset because they provide videos to help educate the young voters.
“We’ve been using a lot of the Civix videos in our classroom. I find them quite teacher and student friendly,” McDonald said.
Among the young voters was Max Ginter who was excited to have the opportunity to vote and have his voice heard.
“Usually the government doesn’t let you vote until you’re 18 so this is a big opportunity,” Ginter said.
Also at the polls was Tyson Prevost who has enjoyed learning about how elections work and thinks this is an important way to have younger voices heard.
“It helps the government know what students want for the future,” said Prevost.
