We studied our Grade 5 Social Studies unit about government in September and the first half of October, during the run up to the federal election. As part of the unit, students learned about the campaign platforms of the four main federal parties, and decided what party's ideals most closely aligned with their own.
On October 14th, Grade 5-7 students at our school were given an opportunity to participate in a nation-wide student vote. Our polling station was run by Mr. Volgmann and several Grade 8 students. The ballots we used closely resembled the ones parents would be given, and listed all of our local candidates and their party affilations.
After our student poll had closed, Mr. Volgmann and the Grade 8 students counted the votes for each local candidate:
We then submitted our school results, so they could be tallied along with over 900,000 other student votes from across the country.
These are our school results (Grades 5-7 voting):
Bruce Stanton — Conservative Party of Canada = 21 (30%)
Liz Riley — Liberal Party of Canada = 18 (25%)
Peter Stubbins — Green Party of Canada = 17 (24%)
Richard Banigan — New Democratic Party = 13 (18%)
Other = 2 (3%)
And these are the adult voting results for our riding:
Bruce Stanton — Conservative Party of Canada = 24,810 (44%)
Liz Riley — Liberal Party of Canada = 22,714 (40%)
Richard Banigan — New Democratic Party = 6,030 (11%)
Peter Stubbins — Green Party of Canada = 2,537 (4%)
Other = 944 (1%)
Click on the photo below to see Peter Mansbridge's comparison of nationwide results from Student Vote 2015 and the 2015 General Election:
We want to thank our librarian, Mr. Volgmann, and the Grade 8 students for running our school's polling station. Student Vote added a fun and exciting element to our study of government.
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November 4, 2015: Today we invited the Grade 4 class to join us, as we watched a live stream of the our new Prime MInister's swearing in ceremony.
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