The B.C. NDP swept all four Burnaby ridings among kids as well as adults this week.
One day ahead of the provincial election Tuesday, students cast ballots in a Student Vote parallel election put on by CIVIX, a national registered charity dedicated to building citizenship skills among young Canadians.
Nearly 8,600 students at more than 50 local public schools, private schools and alternate education sites cast ballots and returned NDP candidates in all four ridings.
The tightest race in the student vote – as with the adult election – was in Burnaby North, where students elected NDP candidate Janet Routledge by a nine percent margin over incumbent B.C. Liberal Richard Lee.
On the other end of the spectrum, school board trustee and NDP candidate Katrina Chen got the nod from students by a 31 per cent margin over former Global morning show host Steve Darling.
Only in Burnaby-Deer Lake did the student vote depart at all from the results of the official election, with kids choosing a Green candidate instead of a Liberal as runner-up.
In that riding, students picked city councillor and NDP candidate Anne Kang over Rick McGowan of the Green Party.
Students at Lyndhurst Elementary in Burnaby-Lougheed prepared for the vote by studying party platforms and then forming their own parties.
Some of the parties not on the grownup ballot Tuesday included the Namaste Liberals, the Leafy Greens and the Maroctiv Pats, a hard-right party.
“I let them go with it,” said teacher-librarian Kae Solomon, who organized the mock election at Lyndhurst. “The only thing I said was, ‘Well, you’re going to have to be accountable at the end, when the other groups challenge you and ask you questions. You have to be able to say how this is going to impact the future of B.C.”
Solomon initially thought Grade 4 and 5 students might be too young for the vote, but she’s since changed her mind.
“They really seemed to understand the platform issues and why they’re important and just the fact that they’re going to grow up and inherit what we’ve got here in B.C.,” she said.
For complete riding-by-riding results, visit studentvote.ca/bc2017.
