The Canora Composite School is one of many schools across the country that is participating in the Student Vote Campaign.
Building up to voting day on October 15 at the school, the students are learning about the election process, said Ronda O’Dell, one of the three teachers overseeing the program. Cindy Sznerch and Colin Knight are the other two teachers helping students become involved in the election process.
O’Dell said people forever ask: “What is it?” A good way to explain it is that it is a parallel election for students coinciding with federal, provincial, territorial and municipal elections.
“The purpose is to provide young Canadians with an opportunity to experience the voting process firsthand and build the habits of informed and engaged citizen-ship,” she said.
Information from the national pro-gram, shows that since 2003, 26 Student Vote programs have been conducted across Canada. In the last federal election, 563,000 students cast ballots from 3,750 schools, O’Dell said.
The role of the teacher is to keep the students engaged in the electoral process, accomplished through activities such as con-ducting research into the parties, candidates and issues, and fostering dialogue among each other and their families, she said.
The program is gaining importance because voter turnout in Canada has been declining for decades at all government levels, particularly among young people, O’Dell said.
Studies have also shown that habits of voting and non-voting persist over time, so if young people don’t vote now, there is good reason to believe that they won’t become voters later in life, she said.
“By practicing the habits of informed and engaged citizenship at an early age, students will be more inclined and pre-pared to participate in our democracy when they graduate high school.”
Voting is this program will take place on October 15 while national election will take place October 19.
