Voters in Manitoba elected the Progressive Conservatives to a majority government last night, and so did the youth.
More than 21,000 students in 243 schools across the province took part in the Student Vote mock election on Monday.
In addition to the election, Student Vote, which is run by the CIVIX group, puts on school workshops to teach children about voting, democracy, elections, and why all of it matters.
Research and Communications Manager for CIVIX Daniel Allan, says a lot of students loved getting to learn about something so important in a meaningful way.
"They're actually getting to run this vote in their school. They get to vote on ballots that looked exactly the same as the ballots the adults used. Then at the end, they get to count up the ballots and see who won, so it gives them that experience with a vote."
The results of the student vote were fairly similar to the official election. Allan says the kids did elect the Progressive Conservatives to a majority government, but it was not by as a wide a margin as the adults did.
"Elementary and high school students across Manitoba gave them 30 seats, which is a few less than they won overall. The NDP vote was more in line with the adult results. The big change that we saw between the students and adults is they gave the Liberals way more seats than the adults did."
Henderson Elementary and Barker School in Dauphin were among those who took part. Barker students elected the NDP's Darcy Scheller by a five point margin, while the kids at Henderson gave Brad Michaleski of the PCs twice as many votes as any other candidate.
Much of the election elsewhere in the Parkland went similarly to the general election. Students elected the Progressive Conservative candidates in Agassiz, Interlake, and Swan River. The only Parkland constituency that was different was in Riding Mountain, where the Liberals' Jordan Fleury was chosen.
