Skip to content

Student Vote comes close to real thing in Port Alberni’s municipal election

Students at ADSS vote for five of seven candidates who won seats in 2022 election
30714777_web1_211012-AVN-All-candidates-ADSS-ADSS_1
A panel of City of Port Alberni mayoral and council candidates take up the stage at Alberni District Secondary School on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Students in the Social Justice 12 class arranged an all-candidates meeting for students and members of the public. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

They may not be old enough to vote, but students at Alberni District Secondary School pegged five of seven winners in the City of Port Alberni municipal election.

Approximately 1,100 students were given the opportunity to vote in a mock election, even though they are under the voting age in British Columbia. They achieved this through a program called Student Vote, an experiential learning program that enables teachers to bring democracy alive in the classroom, and empowers students to practice the habits of active and engaged citizenship.

Participating schools received a variety of non-partisan educational materials to teach about government and the election process, and encourage research into the issues and candidates. At Alberni District Secondary School, the Social Justice 12 class organized an all-candidates meeting for Port Alberni mayoral and city council candidates.

READ: Students at ADSS ask hard-hitting questions at all-candidates meeting

More than 50,000 students cast a ballot from 435 schools, from 97 municipalities and regional districts throughout the province using the Civix program. Results were made public just after the polls closed for the general election at 8 p.m.

In the Alberni Valley, students voted in favour of incumbent mayor Sharie Minions, and councillors Todd Patola, Dustin Dame, John Douglas, Charles Mealey, Wendy Kerr and Graham Hughes. In the actual civic election, Minions, Patola, Dame, Douglas and Mealey were all voted in, while council incumbents Debbie Haggard and Cindy Solda were also re-elected. City results are considered preliminary until the official count is signed off by electoral officers.

Teacher Anne Ostwald had two classes working on the municipal election this year: one in charge of the all-candidates meeting and the other tasked with writing biographies of all the mayoral and council members, then planning and carrying out the student vote.

“As always, I was completely impressed with the effort of my students as they all arose wholeheartedly to fulfill their chosen tasks, with the intent to create the best event they could,” Ostwald said.

“They worked tirelessly and with good humour, often coming in before school and at lunch to work on their tasks, rehearse and give full support to any group who needed ideas and/ or assistance.”

She said classes had brainstorming sessions as they learned about municipal politics while creating “a professional, memorable, and fun all-candidates meeting.”

What was different this year was the addition of a digital media class, run by Rajan Gill. “He and his students brainstormed ways to record and livestream the all-candidates meeting,” Ostwald said. “They truly brought a lot more exposure to the public than we have ever been able to do previously.”

Ostwald said the students running the vote were “pleasantly surprised” at the enthusiasm they encountered with most classes at ADSS. “As they were going through the school to set up the polling stations, they were approached by a lot of students asking when they could vote.”

In addition to the all-candidates meeting, candidate bios were emailed to students’ families, the entire staff and made public on the digital media class’ Instagram account, @adsspress.

Student votes were as follows (number of votes in brackets):

Mayoral race:

Sharie Minions (334)

Tom Verbrugge (195)

Council race (6 elected):

Todd Patola (224)

• Dustin Dame (218)

• John Douglas (189)

• Charles Mealey (166)

• Wendy Kerr (162)

• Graham Hughes (158)

Jim Del Rio (147)

Debbie Haggard (144)

Michelle Bisaro (132)

Joshua Dahling (120)

Cindy Solda (104)

Carol-Anne Zanette (104)

Dan Washington (100)

Charlene Patterson (96)

Richard Huneault (86)

Terry Deakin (85)

Seva Dhaliwal (84)

Sandy McRuer (84)

Sukhdev Krishan (73)

Peter Rueschmann (62)

Ron Paulson (58)



Susie Quinn

About the Author: Susie Quinn

A journalist since 1987, I proudly serve as the Alberni Valley News editor.
Read more