Students at St. Angela Merici School participated in Student Vote Day on Friday, as part of National Student Vote Week, where more than 1 million elementary and secondary school students across Canada cast ballots for their local candidates.
St. Angela Merici had their polling station set up in David Bolsby's grade 7 classroom where students in grades 5-8 came by throughout the day to vote.
"We try to simulate the real thing as much as possible," said Bolsby.
Each student in Bolsby's class had a role to play on voting day, with some responsible for checking voters in and providing ballots, while others were left in charge of tallying the votes and showcasing results on bar graphs and charts.
Throughout the hallways, signs and diagrams were posted highlighting the platforms of each party.
The idea of the program is to inspire youth by familiarizing them with Canadian politics; engaging them in conversations about the country's future and having them learn about the voting process.
St. Angela Merici is one of the 9,500 schools in Canada who participated in the Student Vote program this year.
The program from CIVIX, a non-partisan, national registered charity dedicated to helping young Canadians learn about their rights and responsibilities as citizens, is free to any school who wishes to participate and funded by Elections Canada.
It starts at the beginning of the school year and runs until election week. CIVIX provide all resources for teachers and schools, including several weeks of instruction material on voting policies, electoral parties and relevant issues as well as all supplies for a mock election, including ballots, voting screens, and ballet boxes.
"They're pretty knowledgeable about what's going on," he said of the students.
"We talk about the news in class so they know a lot."
Although their ballots won't be counted in the actual election, Elections Canada still records all the students' votes which are then shared with the public after the polls close on Monday Oct. 21.
