It appears the future of voting in the Tri-Cities may include a splash of orange.
Student Vote Canada hosted a mock election in schools across the country in an effort to encourage kids to get active or introduce them to politics whenever a federal or provincial election takes place.
In total, students cast 6,899 ballots in boxes at 38 schools in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody and Anmore.
The winners: the NDP candidates.
If this is how the federal election was decided, Bonita Zarrillo and Laura Dupont would be representing the Port Moody-Coquitlam and Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam ridings respectively as MPs in Ottawa.
The mock election matched one of the two ridings as Zarrillo is currently projected to win for the orange party in her electoral district as of this publication (Sept. 21).
Mail-in ballots are being verified and counted over the next two days.
PORT MOODY-COQUITLAM
In 24 schools, there were 4,181 ballots tallied with Zarrillo winning 38.77 per cent of the vote.
The student vote standings resulted as follows:
- Bonita Zarrillo (NDP) = 1,621 votes
- Will Davis (Liberal) = 1,248 votes
- Nelly Shin (Conservative) = 964 votes
- Desta McPherson (PPC) = 205 votes
- Roland Verrier (Marxist-Leninist) = 143 votes
As of this publication, Zarrillo, a councilor with the City of Coquitlam, holds 17,521 official ballots in her favour — nearly 2,100 ahead of Conservative incumbent Nelly Shin.
There have been 205 of 206 polling stations reported to Elections Canada in Port Moody-Coquitlam with a voter turnout of 56.9 per cent or 47,708 eligible votes cast. The most-up-to-date results are as follows:
- Bonita Zarrillo (NDP) = 36.7 per cent
- Nelly Shin (Conservative) = 32.3 per cent
- Will Davis (Liberal) = 27.2 per cent
- Desta McPherson (PPC) = 3.5 per cent
- Roland Verrier (Marxist-Leninist) = 0.2 per cent
COQUITLAM-PORT COQUITLAM
In this riding, 14 schools cast 2,718 ballots with Port Coquitlam City Coun. Dupont earning 41.57 per cent of the vote.
The student vote standings resulted as follows:
- Laura Dupont (NDP) = 1,130 votes
- Ron McKinnon (Liberal) = 793 votes
- Katerina Anastasiadis (Conservative) = 548 votes
- Kimberly Brundell (PPC) = 247 votes
Incumbent McKinnon is currently projected to win a third term as MP for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam and holds 19,724 votes in his favour — more than 4,000 votes ahead of Conservative candidate Katerina Anastasiadis.
There have been 219 of 220 polling stations reported to Elections Canada with a voter turnout of 54.99 per cent or 51,383 votes. The current standings are as follows:
- Ron McKinnon (Liberal) = 38.4 per cent
- Katerina Anastasiadis (Conservative) = 30.5 per cent
- Laura Dupont (NDP) = 26.8 per cent
- Kimberly Brundell (PPC) = 4.3 per cent
Nationally, 740,515 students from 5,478 schools cast their ballots in all 338 federal electoral districts.
The results from the national Student Vote program showed the Liberals winning a minority government with 117 seats and 24 per cent of the vote.
Meanwhile, the NDP won 107 seats and received 29 per cent of the vote, the Conservatives won 91 seats and 25 per cent of the vote, the Bloc Québécois won 20 seats and took two per cent of the vote, while the Greens won three seats and 10 per cent of the popular vote.
“When we started the campaign, we were unsure how many schools would participate given the limited time," said Taylor Gunn, president and CEO of CIVIX Canada.
"Teachers have exceeded our expectations. We would like to thank teachers for dedicating time to the program and for helping educate future voters. Our democracy will be stronger because of you."
For more information visit Student Vote Canada's website.
Participating Tri-City schools and the number of votes tallied per institution are as follows:
This includes (in alphabetical order):
ANMORE
- Anmore Elementary = 35 votes
- Eagle Mountain Middle School = 390 votes
COQUITLAM
- Banting Middle = 104 votes
- Centennial Secondary = 471 votes
- Children of Integrity Montessori Academy = 18 votes
- Coquitlam Continuing Education - LINC Program - Vanier Centre = 38 votes
- Eagle Ridge Elementary = 73 votes
- Glen Elementary = 19 votes
- Gleneagle Secondary = 132 votes
- Hillcrest Middle = 371 votes
- Harbour View Elementary = 71 votes
- Leigh Elementary = 115 votes
- Maillard Middle = 294 votes
- Meadowbrook Elementary = 42 votes
- Miller Park Elementary = 26 votes
- Montgomery Centre = 51 votes
- Montgomery Middle = 184 votes
- Mountain View Elementary = 17 votes
- Nestor Elementary = 146 votes
- Our Lady of Fatima = 49 votes
- Queen of All Saints Elementary = 27 votes
- Rochester Elementary = 78 votes
- Scott Creek Middle = 380 votes
- Summit Middle = 181 votes
- Suwa'lkh School = 18 votes
PORT COQUITLAM
- Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary = 506 votes
- Ecole des Pionniers de Maillardville = 203 votes
- Irvine Elementary = 114 votes
- Kilmer Elementary = 58 votes
- Our Lady of the Assumption = 30 votes
- Terry Fox Secondary = 760 votes
PORT MOODY
- Aspenwood Elementary = 128 votes
- Ecole Moody Middle School of the Arts = 346 votes
- Heritage Woods Secondary = 448 votes
- Moody Elementary = 63 votes
- Mountain Meadows Elementary = 41 votes
- Port Moody Secondary = 871 votes
- with a file from Jason G. Antonio, Moose Jaw Today
