Thompson constituency students at Westwood, Juniper, Riverside and Wapanohk elementary schools in Thompson and Julie Lindal School in Ilford were less interested in change than the adult voters in the riding, re-electing incumbent NDP MLA Steve Ashton by a 76-vote margin in the Student Vote Manitoba mock election held April 18.
Ashton received 178 votes (54.94 per cent of the total) compared to Progressive Conservative candidate Kelly Bindle, the real-life winner, who got 102 votes from students (31.48 per cent). Liberal candidate Inez Vystrcil-Spence got 44 votes (13.58 per cent of the total.)
Wapanohk had the most voters, with students there casting 174 ballots. Sixty-five Juniper students voted, while there were 56 ballots at Westwood and 16 at École Riverside. Thirteen students cast votes at Julie Lindal School.
Province-wide, the results could bode well down the line for the Liberals and Green Party, who saw 11 and two MLAs, respectively, elected by students, much better totals than the three Liberal and zero Green candidates who were voted into office in the April 19 election. Apart from that, the results were fairly similar to the real election, with the PC party winning 30 seats (they won 40 April 19) and the NDP 13 (one fewer than in the actual election.)
The PCs took 35.4 per cent of student votes, the NDP 27.3 per cent, the Liberals 23.8 per cent and the Greens 9.6 per cent.
As of 4 p.m. April 18, 21,159 students at 243 schools spread across all of Manitoba’s 57 electoral districts had cast ballots in the mock election. There were 801 rejected votes and 258 declined ballots among that total.
Students in the Flin Flon riding elected Tom Lindsey of the NDP while the Liberals’ Judy Klassen was elected in Keewatinook and NDP candidate Amanda Lathlin in The Pas. Those results were that same as in the actual election.
“CIVIX would like to thank all of the dedicated teachers for leading Student Vote in their schools, many for a second time this school year,” said Taylor Gunn, president and chief election officer of CIVIX, which has organized 30 Student Vote programs since 2003 at various levels of government. “This impressive Student Vote participation is a reflection of the incredible effort put forth by Manitoba educators to ensure that students build the habits of active and informed citizenship at an early age.”
Student Vote Manitoba was also supported by the federal government’s Youth Take Charge program and the Winnipeg Foundation.
