If students had been the ones to vote for Campbell River’s city council and mayor, things would be looking a lot different than they do in real life.
The results from the Student Vote, which takes place during every election as a way to teach kids about the democratic process, would have Larry Samson as mayor. Council would have been Ken Blackburn, Doug Chapman, Mike Davies, Gwen Donaldson, Tanille Johnston and Ben Lanyon.
However, the mayoral race would have probably gone to a recount, as Samson came in with only two votes more than Kermit Dahl (320, and 318 respectively). Charlie Cornfield was third in the Student Vote mayoral race, with 97 votes. Next was Saron Gebresallassi with 69 and Michael Calhoun with 43.
Gwen Donaldson reached the most young voters, with 328 voting for her. In the council race, she was followed by Ben Lanyon and Ken Blackburn with 291 votes each. Mike Davies had 266, Doug Chapman - 264, Tanille Johnston - 235, Colleen Evans - 216, Ron Kerr - 215, Sean Smyth - 213, Sandra Milligan - 189, Sue Moen - 175, Susan Sinnott - 167, Claire Moglove and Ferris Stirling both had 158.
For School District 72, the students would have elected Craig Gillis with 393 votes, Kat Eddy with 375, Dave Harper with 294, Joyce McMann with 281, and Kim Yaciuk with 257. Daryl Hagen would not have been elected, bringing in 244 votes, nor would Alaina Kelly have, with 217 votes.
Most student voters attended Carihi Secondary School, where 1902 municipal votes and 1012 school board votes were counted. Ecole Phoenix Middle School had 550 municipal and 242 school board, Elm Alternate School had 165 and 89 respectively, Georgia Park Elementary had 226 and 212, Ocean Grove Elementary had 426 and 166, Pinecrest Elementary had 330 and 195, and Sandowne Elementary had 277 and 145.
The student vote program is administered by CIVIX, which has been running it across Canada since 2003.
”We believe that the best way to support students in developing citizenship skills is for them to experience their democracy first-hand,” a CIVIX release says. “By reaching students throughout their school career, during and between election periods, we hope to prepare them to be active citizens before they reach official voting age.”
In the 2019 federal election, more than 62 per cent of schools in the country registered, and 1.2 million students cast ballots.
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Campbell River voter turn out up 10 per cent over 2018 – City
marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com
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