Students from Flin Flon, Cranberry Portage and Creighton got to take part in a national simulated election - similar to this week's federal election - with some interesting results.
Three schools in Flin Flon, as well as Creighton Community School, Frontier Collegiate and dozens of other schools across Canada, took part in the Student Vote campaign, a protect designed to teach kids about voting, elections and how to exercise what will eventually become their right as Canadians.
"Student Vote uses the election as a teachable moment and enables teachers to bring democracy alive in the classroom. This hands-on learning program empowers students to experience the voting process firsthand and cast ballots for the official candidates running in the election," reads the Student Vote website.
Nationwide, the student ballot would have ended with a Liberal lead and a plurality government, with the Liberals winning 118 seats. The NDP would form the opposition with 106 seats, while the Conservatives would be third with 88 seats. The remaining seats would have been doled out to the Bloc Quebecois (21 seats) and the Green Party (three seats).
Much like the real-life election, the Liberals would not have won the popular vote, finishing third in the overall percentage with 24 per cent, below both the NDP (popular vote winners with 28.5 per cent of votes cast) and the Conservatives (25.1 per cent of the vote).
Within Manitoba, the NDP would have won eight of 14 available seats, including Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, the riding that covers northern Manitoba – the students voted overwhelmingly in favour of Niki Ashton, who got more than half the votes sent in. Out of 1,332 votes, Ashton got 694, 52.1 per cent of the votes the kids cast. Liberal nominee Shirley Robinson, like the real election, finished second with 14.6 per cent of the ballot (194 votes), while Ralph McLean of the Green Party finished third with 169 votes, 12.69 per cent of the ballot. Conservative Charlotte Larocque was fourth place with 157 votes (11.8 of all votes cast), while People’s Party of Canada entrant Dylan Young finished last with 118 votes and 8.9 per cent.
Three of Flin Flon’s four schools turned in votes – 58 from Hapnot Collegiate, 52 from Ecole McIsaac School and 30 from Ruth Betts Community School. Ashton got 33 votes at Hapnot, ahead of Larocque’s 10, Robinson’s seven and McLean and Young with four each. Ashton also got 36 votes at McIsaac, with all other candidates in the single digits, while Ashton finished first with 13 votes at Ruth Betts, ahead of Young with seven, McLean and Robinson with four each and Larocque’s two.
Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage also took part in the voting, with Ashton winning there as well with 90 of 182 votes. Robinson took second with 38, McLean third with 19, Young fourth with 18 and Larocque finished last with 16 votes.
While the Conservatives swept Saskatchewan in the federal election, the NDP were able to grab four seats in the student vote. Little changed in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River, where Conservative Gary Vidal won the student vote with 41.1 per cent of all votes cast. The rest of the vote was split between the remaining five candidates – Buckley Belanger with the Liberals finished second with 128 votes (18.3 per cent) and Green Party candidate Nasser Dean Chalifoux finished third with 106 votes, 15.1 per cent. Harmonie King and the NDP went into fourth place with 13.4 per cent of the vote and 94 votes total, while People’s Party nominee Dezirae Reddekopp got 47 votes, good enough for 6.7 per cent. Last place went to independent candidate Stephen King, who got 37 votes – enough for 5.3 per cent.
Only 22 votes came from Creighton Community School, which narrowly went to Belanger, who got six votes to the NDP King’s five, Chalifoux and Vidal’s four and Reddekopp’s three. The independent King was totally shut out.
