Local high school students had an opportunity to put local federal election candidates in the hot seat on Tuesday during a Student Vote event hosted at Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School.
About 600 students filled the gymnasium at the south end high school to ask questions and hear from seven of the eight local candidates vying to become Guelph’s next member of parliament.
Christian Heritage Party candidate Gordon Truscott was the only candidate not in attendance.
Much of the crowd consisted of Grade 10 students from Bishop Mac, Our Lady of Lourdes and St. James high schools.
Although many in the audience are not old enough to vote, Grade 10 student Christina Alexander noted they will be old enough by the next scheduled election in 2023.
Student Vote Canada is a nation-wide initiative that seeks to raise awareness in students as to how the electoral system in Canada works.
“Most of the people here will be able to vote in the next election,” said Alexander.
“(Students) get more informed and they find their views so they know who they are voting for and have a rough idea of what they want,” she said.
Alexander asked the candidates about how they would ensure Canada is an inclusive society.
Independednt candidate Kornelis Klevering said discussions about inclusivity also have to involve the Indigenous peoples of Canada, not just newcomers to the country. Juanita Burnett of the Communist Party of Canada said her party would scrap the temporary worker program and give those workers a path to citizenship. Aisha Jahangir for the NDP said she would end a cap on immigration applications for parents and grandparents.
Candidates were also asked about what they would do in terms of student debt.
Green Party candidate Steve Dyck and Aisha Jahangir for the NDP both promised free tuition if their respective parties are elected. Mark Paralovos of the People’s Party of Canada noted that education is a provincial responsibility and said he would respect their decisions when it comes to setting tuition prices. Incumbent Liberal candidate Lloyd Longfield noted that his party supports an increase in federal grants for students up to $4,200. Conservative candidate Ashish Sachan said his party would put more money in the pockets of Canadians.
Isabella Cain is a Grade 12 student at Bishop Mac and one of the student organizers of the event.
She has been helping to organize Student Vote events through her high school career and said she has seen a raising of awareness in the student body when it comes to politics.
“I think the most important thing is to get people involved at a young age,” said Cain. “Having events like this starts to form habits and gets them thinking about things like this, so when they are at voting age it isn’t a foreign concept to them.”
Cathy Doucette teaches Grade 10 civics at Bishop Mac. It is a compulsory course for all students.
The course begins as a primer on the structure of government and the roles played at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.
Doucette said it doesn’t take long for the students to get more involved in democracy and what it means in her class.
“Once they see how it affects them, they come up with lots of conversation,” she said.
On Oct. 16, students at Bishop Mac will cast their ballots in the Canada Vote mock election. The results will not count toward the general election, but the results will be shared after the actual election.
Last month Grade 10 student Olivia Howse learned about different voting systems, including first past the post and proportional representation, in her civics class.
She said the class helped her navigate the different things the candidates were saying during the all-candidates meeting.
“It is interesting that we can further understand what they were talking about, not just about first past the post, but other topics,” said Howse.
She believes the Student Vote initiative will help her be more informed when the next federal election comes along in 2023 — the first one she will be able to participate in as a voter.
