NDP wins 'Student Vote'

Photo: studentvote.ca

If students of the South Okanagan had their way, we would have two new NDP MLA’s in Penticton and the Boundary - Similkameen.

Over 3,000 elementary and high school students cast mock ballots across the two ridings, part of a province-wide "Student Vote."

In Penticton, students elected NDP candidate Tarik Sayeed with 42 per cent of the vote. That was followed by Liberal Dan Ashton with 30 per cent and Green candidate Connie Sahlmark with 28 per cent.

That’s drastically different from the real-world results that saw Ashton win by a landslide (53 per cent), followed by Sayeed (28 per cent) and Sahlmark (18 per cent).

In the Boundary-Similkameen it was a similar story. NDP candidate Colleen Ross won the student vote with 43 per cent, followed by Vonnie Lavers of the Green party (27 per cent), Liberal Linda Larson (22 per cent) and Independent candidate Dr. Peter Entwistle (7 per cent).

In the general election, Larson took the riding with 43 per cent, followed by Ross (33 per cent), Entwistle (14 per cent) and Lavers (10 per cent).

Across the province, the student vote delivered the NDP a large majority government with 60 seats. The opposition would be formed by the Green Party with 14 seats while the Liberal grabbed 12. A lone independent candidate was selected by students.

In total, 170,238 ballots were cast by students in B.C.