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Pre-teens pick NDP in pre-election vote
Brooke Larsen
Now Contributor
The Marijuana party got more votes than the Liberals, and the NDP won by a landslide.
That's how the B.C. election played out at Surrey's Kirkbride elementary, where students in grades 4 to 7 voted for their favourite candidates in the Surrey-Green Timbers riding.
"The kids really enjoyed it," said Kirkbride Grade 6 teacher Mel Jorgensen. "It's a chance to give kids an idea of party politics and the whole election process."
The Monday vote was part of Elections BC's Student Vote program, which aims to teach students how elections work. Kirkbride was one of about 20 Surrey schools to take part, according to Student Vote spokesperson Stephanie Christophe.
Jorgensen's class ran the election, with some students checking names off the voters list and others handing out or counting the ballots.
In past weeks several students also made speeches over the school's P.A. system endorsing one party or another.
Sixth-grader Taylor Lowe said she favours the NDP's stance on health care.
"They did mess up in the past, but I think they're going to keep their promises," Lowe said.
But Jordan Padda, also a Grade 6 student, disagreed.
"When the NDP was in charge, taxes went up and it slowed everything down."
Gurneet Rana said she supports the Green party.
"It's better for the environment. Other parties don't think about how we're supposed to live our daily lives."
In the end, Sue Hammell of the NDP got 130 votes, or 71 per cent of the 183 ballots cast.
Jorgensen said he wasn't surprised the NDP won by such a landslide. When students were asked to choose their parties at the beginning of the project, almost all of them wanted to be in the NDP.
"I had to put several students in the Liberal party to make things more fair," he said, adding that the students may have been influenced by their parents' political views.
Student Vote also gave schools the option of holding their own referenda on the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, something Jorgensen decided against.
"Some of the teachers found it too difficult to understand, so we didn't think it was a good idea," said Jorgensen, laughing.
posted on 05/18/2005
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