A10 FOLIO O THEGLOBEANDMAIL | MONDAY,OCTOBER21,
ElaineSu,ateacher-
librarianatSecondStreet
helpsAdrian,8,left,
casthisballotinthe
simulatedelection.The
resultswon’tofficially
count,butthestudents
–andteachers–take
thisveryseriously.A
long line of fidgety kids pours out of an
elementary school library in the heart of
British Columbia’s New Westminster-Bur-
naby riding. Each student holds either a
custom-made ID card or their school planner in
hand, eager to present valid identification and vote
in this year’s federal election.
The results at Second Street Community School
won’t officially count, but the students, many of
whom insist on keeping their vote private, take
this very seriously. Their teachers do, too.
“Voter turnout among young people is always
low,” said Elaine Su, teacher-librarian at Second
Street. By prioritizing civic education and familiar-
izing students with the voting process early on, she
hopes that can change. In only two election cycles,
many of her students will be eligible to cast a bal-
lot.
More than 1.1 million elementary and secondary
students in more than 7,000 schools from all 338
ridings participated in Student Vote Canada 2019, a
joint initiative between Elections Canada and Ci-
vix, a non-partisan charity dedicated to promoting
civic engagement. Organizers say this likely makes
the countrywide poll the world’s largest simulated
election. It’s also the most successful Canadian
campaign by the organization to date.
Results will be available at the close of official
polls at studentvote.ca/canada.
In 2015, more than 900,000 students across Can-
ada took part, a marked increase from past under-
age elections. The results largely mirrored the out-
come of the real poll. The Liberal Party secured a
majoritygovernment, garnering approximately
37.5 per cent of the popular vote with the Conser-
vatives coming in second place. However, the re-
sults diverged somewhat. For instance, Liberal
Leader Justin Trudeau failed to win his own riding
of Papineau, Que.
In the weeks leading up to this year’s election,students at Second Street received a crash course
on Canadian politics. Ms. Su figures most of what
her students know about politics they learn from
social media, which worries her.
“We, as adults, are supposed to be taking care of
how they process information and how they learn
about the world,” she said. In her lesson plan, she
emphasizes media literacy, teaching students to re-
main critical of what they see on the internet.
Despite any online disinformation they may en-
counter, Second Street’s teacher-librarian joked
that many of her young students appear to know
more about Canadian politics than her colleagues.
And she might be right.
In conversation with The Globe and Mail, an
opinionated group of sixth and seventh graders
referenced a laundry list of contemporary political
issues, from Quebec’s controversial Bill 21 to the
lack of clean drinking water on some Indigenous
reservations.
But it’s the overly divisive state of Canada’s poli-
tics that seems to capture most of their attention –
and for which they place blame squarely on the
country’s feuding political leaders.
Most of the students interviewed by The Globe
said their families tend to avoid the topic of poli-
tics to steer clear of any unnecessary conflict. For
Neera, an 11-year-old sixth-grader, today’s polar-
ization makes her reluctant even to vote.
“What if you tell your sibling, ‘Oh, I’m going to
vote for this person!’ And they’re like, ‘Bleh,’ ” she
explained. “Then you get in a big fight and you
don’t talk for a while.”
But a precocious sixth-grader named Samara is
excited to cast her ballot. She spoke passionately
about how she would like to see more diversity in
Canadian politics. All four of the leading candi-
dates running in New Westminster-Burnaby are
white, Samara pointed out.
Like several of the students The Globe met, she’sChildrenacrossCanada
casttheirballotsin
mockfederalelection
StudentVoteCanada2019sawmorethan1.1millionelementary
andsecondary-schoolstudentsfromthousandsofclassroomsvote
inasimulatedcontesttofamiliarizethemwiththeelectoralprocessBENMUSSETTVANCOUVER PHOTOSBYRAFALGERSZAK/THEGLOBEANDMAIL