School kids choose NDP

Students across B.C. chose to send Premier David Eby back to the front of the class.

Nearly 180,000 elementary, middle and secondary students participated in Student Vote BC, casting 177,961 votes across 1,034 schools. The program helps teach students who are not old enough to vote about the voting process.

In this student-based election, the BC NDP took 36.7 per cent of the popular vote and won 44 seats, forming a minority government; the BC Conservative Party will form the official opposition with 40 seats and 36.2 per cent of the popular vote; and the BC Green Party received 19.2 per cent of the popular vote and won nine seats.

All party leaders were elected in their respective ridings.

Just like their adult counterparts, however, students in B.C.'s Southern Interior took a more conservative perspective on the election at hand, though there were some orange breakthroughs.

In the Central Okanagan, students voted in Conservatives Kristina Loewen in Kelowna Centre, Gavin Dew in Kelowna Mission, Macklin McCall in West Kelowna-Peachland and Tara Armstrong in Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream.

Vernon-Lumby NDP MLA Harwinder Sandhu earned support of the student body, who voted her back into office.

In the Shuswap, students chose Conservative David L. Williams to represent the Salmon Arm-Shuswap riding

Kamloops students also painted the town blue, voting in Conservatives Peter Milobar for Kamloops Centre and Ward Stamer for Kamloops-North Thompson.

The South Okanagan painted the region orange, choosing NDP candidates Tina Lee for Penticton-Summerland and Roly Russell for Boundary-Similkameen.

Students in the Kootenays voted for Brittny Anderson in Kootenay Central, Steven Morisette for Kootenay-Monashee and Pete Davis for Kootenay-Rockies.

Student Vote is a program of CIVIX, a non-partisan registered Canadian charity dedicated to strengthening democracy through civic education for school-aged youth. CIVIX programming focuses on elections, government budgets, elected representatives, digital media literacy and constructive discourse.

Student Vote BC 2024 was presented in collaboration with Elections BC and supported by the Government of Canada.