INNISFAIL – Canada’s future citizens are learning first hand how the democratic process works.
About 130 students from grades 6 to 9 at Innisfail's St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School will participate in National Student Vote Week from Oct. 15 to 18. They will go through the democratic process in a mock election vote on Oct. 15.
“St. Marguerite’s has had a history of doing a student vote,” said David Griffin, vice-principal. “It’s a very positive thing because it gets students informed and engaged. When you talk about things that are important to adults, a lot of those things are important to students too, (like) the environment, the economy, healthcare, and our resources.”
Student Vote is a program of CIVIX, a non-partisan, national registered charity dedicated to building the skills and habits of active and engaged citizenship among young Canadians.
It bills itself as an authentic learning program that provides students with the opportunity to experience the voting process firsthand and practice the habits of active and informed citizenship.
“In grades 6 and 9, democracy and government are part of the curriculum, so those two classes will be presenting the platforms of the parties before they vote,” said Griffin. “Each small group is going to take a political party and they’re going to talk about their stance on the environment, the economy, healthcare and all the various election issues out there.”
In addition, students also learn about the election process and everything that is involved in holding a democratic election, said Griffin.
“They’re voting for a person that’s running (to be) our member of parliament in our riding, just like somebody that’s really voting would vote,” said Griffin. “We have election officers, we have polling stations, there’s a ballot box and rules about the election officers, so we try to make it as authentic as possible for our students,” he added.
Griffin said participating in such an event helps teach students about what to expect from an election campaign and on election day when they reach voting age.
“Our goal is when they are of voting age it’s not going to be something foreign to them,” said Griffin. “They will have run through it numerous times and have that experience voting.”
All ballots cast will be counted and sent into CIVIX, noted Griffin, adding student voting results will be posted after the 2019 election results are announced.
“It’s really exciting for students because they get to see all the results (from) all students in Canada,” said Griffin. “It’s really interesting to see how the students vote and how opinions match up to the voting age population. Sometimes there are some pretty big differences but then in other ways there’s a lot of similarities, so it’s good for students to see.”
Griffin said participating in the Student Vote helps create global citizens who can help make Canada a better place to live.
“We want students to know that they have a voice - not only in the voting process because democracy is (about) more than just your vote,” said Griffin. “It’s the idea of getting out there, having a voice and making sure that you’re participating in our society and this is just one way that students can participate in a democracy,” Griffin concluded.
