Student Vote Day in Manitoba
April 18 is Student Vote day in Manitoba! Elementary and high schools across the province will cast ballots for the official candidates running in the 2016 provincial election.
The Student Vote program provides students with the opportunity to cast ballots for the official candidates after learning about the democratic process, researching candidates and party platforms and debating the future of Manitoba.
As many as 20,000 elementary and secondary students are expected to participate from 287 schools representing all 57 electoral divisions. You can view all participating schools on our interactive map.
In addition to election materials, a wide variety of online tools have been made available to participating schools. The Student Vote Manitoba website includes an online resource library with lesson plans, handouts and worksheets, as well as other educational tools like videos and PowerPoints.
Students were invited to submit questions to the party leaders and their submissions were shared with the provincial political parties. The questions focused on issues like education, healthcare and taxes. Responses were received from Greg Selinger (NDP), Brian Pallister (PC), Rana Bokhari (Liberal) and James Beddome (Green). The questions and answers can all be viewed here.
Students also took part in the Celebrating our Right to Vote multimedia contest to commemorate the anniversary of women’s right to vote and the pathway to universal suffrage. We received many great submissions, including videos, photos, drawings and essays. You can view the winning entries here.
With support from the Government of Canada and The Winnipeg Foundation, CIVIX is offering the Student Vote program to elementary and secondary schools across the province for the 2016 provincial election.
This will be the seventh Student Vote program conducted in Manitoba. During the 2011 provincial Student Vote, more than 17,560 students cast ballots from 234 schools.
Like the results of the official election, students elected an NDP majority government with a PC opposition. The complete results are available here.
The 2016 Student Vote Manitoba results will be released at the close of polls on Tuesday, April 19 (8:00 p.m. CDT).