MOOSE JAW — Encouraging young adults to vote in elections can be a tough challenge, but one Moose Jaw high school gave students the chance to cast ballots and experience what voting is like.
A.E. Peacock Collegiate held a Student Vote election on April 28, with the aim of creating informed, engaged and lifelong voters. Students in the Social Studies 10 and 30 classes organized the election and filled every role one might find in a typical voting location.
Grade 12 students Chloe Martin and Madison McFarlane were central poll supervisors and instructed student voters about the process.
Martin said the role was stressful but also a good way to be involved in school politics, while McFarlane said she enjoyed volunteering, organizing the room and encouraging fellow students to learn more about politics.
“It’s been a lot of work (and) hard to organize, but there’s the (overall) reward for it,” said McFarlane.
Both students said they were “very interested” in politics, which is why they stepped forward to help.
Martin said she paid close attention to this year’s federal election since it was the first time she could vote. Moreover, “the current political climate is pretty intense” between Canada and the United States, so she felt it was important to vote.
Her top electoral issues were the environment, human rights and equality.
McFarlane — who couldn’t vote since she was 17 — said her top election issues were the economy, trade and the environment.
“It’s nice to encourage people to get out there and have more focus on politics,” she added. “I feel like everyone should care about it a little bit. So it’s nice to introduce people to that aspect early on before they actually start voting.”
Teacher Carrie Kiefer explained that the social studies classes studied political ideologies and the main parties in the federal election. The students also investigated the factors affecting the election, from U.S. President Donald Trump’s influence to Canadians’ fatigue with the Liberal government.
Peacock has been participating in the Student Vote event since 2007, and in that first year, students voted for the Green Party.
“Things have changed a lot,” laughed Kiefer. “(The Greens are) not even on the radar right now.”
In class, many students gravitated toward the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), likely because Moose Jaw is a “very conservative area,” she said. However, not every student supported the CPC, nor did every Conservative-leaning youth support leader Pierre Poilievre.
Furthermore, all social studies students took assessments to learn which party’s ideology was closest to their own. Kiefer noted that many students were centrist in ideology, with “a touch to the left.” However, the assessments also revealed that there is polarization among youths, similar to the rest of society.
Meanwhile, for the first time, Elections Canada sent information asking students to work at an actual poll location, with many youths doing so since they could acquire experience and earn cash, the social studies teacher said.
“Democracy is so important. It’s easy for us to take it for granted because it’s something we’ve always had,” Kiefer continued. “It is our job as educators to teach kids about the importance of voting and to take that seriously. But it’s also important to help inform them of every party and not just what they want to hear.”
Kiefer added that she hoped 60 per cent of the 790-strong student body voted. However, data from Student Vote Canada showed that 408 students — or 52 per cent — participated.
The results also showed that 56.85 per cent voted for the CPC incumbent, 16.18 per cent voted for the Liberal candidate, 10.54 per cent voted for the NDP candidate, 9.56 per cent voted for the Green candidate and 6.86 per cent voted for the People’s Party of Canada candidate.
These results aligned almost exactly with the election outcome in the Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan constituency on April 28, except the PPC candidate placed fourth and the Green candidate placed fifth.
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