Student Vote

Wildrose Candidate Bruce Rowe Defeats PC Party Candidate Darcy Davis in Student Vote Election

By Benito Sanchez and James Krukowski

Grade Six THS

pdfVote Results

On April 20, 2012, the students of Three Hills School voted for local candidates in the Student Vote Election. The votes were counted and the Wildrose party became the victor, almost doubling the PC votes. "I think that Bruce Rowe will be an excellent MLA because he has supported the Guzoo. Bruce Rowe will help support people in our area," explained Dyllan Gustafson, Three Hills School student.  

Most people in the school like that Wildrose candidate won but there are still few who dislike the fact. "Wildrose has too many supporters in this area," says PC supporter Zach Hall, "the PC party has better policies and a better leader. The Wildrose party wouldn't be a good choice of a party to be the leader of Alberta."  This has been one of the most heated elections in Alberta.   The PC's have been governing for over 40 years.   The adults as well as the students, must have felt that they didn't want change.  However, some of the students did disagree. "I was very disappointed that the PC party won," says Bailey Hamm, a sixth grade student at THS, "because I thought that the Wildrose would have made a better government."

There were 250 student votes in total at Three Hills School and 45% of them were for the Wildrose candidate Bruce Rowe. The PC candidate Darcy Davis had 27% of the votes. Therefore the Wildrose almost doubled the PCs. "They were similar," Rory VanDoren explained, "We compared the outcome of the student vote and the provincial election and they were very close."   

The Student Vote is a program where students can take part in government by expressing their opinions about who they want as an MLA in an unofficial vote. This takes place in many schools all around Alberta where polling stations are set up and ballots are printed with all the local candidates' names. The students clearly mark which local candidate they want as an MLA and place it in a ballot box where the ballots are later counted.

The classes prepared for the vote by doing various studies such as watching news videos, reading newspaper articles, and even attending a debate. At the debate the students met the Wildrose candidate, Bruce Rowe, and the Progressive Conservative candidate, Darcy Davis. Each of these candidates explained their views and polices and what they would do if they were elected.  At the end of the debate the students were able to ask the candidates questions on things that they were concerned about as well as what they thought about the election. "It is exciting to see students involved in provincial government. As teachers, we hope that students will become actively involved citizens," says grade six teacher Mrs. Hoover.