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Local student election taps Green Party’s Bellay for MP seat

Student Vote Day turns up different results for different schools
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Green Party candidate Nicole Bellay won the student vote in Agassiz-Harrison and the neighbouring First Nations, narrowly defeating NDP candidate Lynn Perrin in Student Vote Day 2021. (Graphic/Adam Louis)

If the voters of tomorrow had their way, the government might look a bit different after this past election.

As Canada gets used to the new and old aspects of the post-election federal government, the results from the Student Vote Day project were released.

Kent Elementary cast the most votes of any school in the Agassiz-Harrison portion of the riding with 112 ballots cast. Re-elected MP Brad Vis won the student election with 37 votes (33 per cent), but that’s where the similarities between the student election and the official election end. Green Party candidate Nicole Bellay was not far behind with 26 votes , followed by NDP’s Lynn Perrin with 22, PPC candidate Tyler Niles with 16 and Liberal Geet Grewal with 11.

RELATED: B.C. students choose NDP majority in mock election

At Agassiz Elementary Secondary School, Perrin came away with a commanding 40 per cent of the vote (22 of 54 votes) with Bellay coming in second with 14 votes. Vis would’ve come in third with nine votes, followed by Grewal with five votes and Niles with four.

Boston Bar Elementary Secondary School – considered part of the Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon riding – also would’ve voted in Perrin with six of 10 votes, followed by Grewal with 2, Bellay and Niles with one each and Vis with zero.

Harrison Hot Springs Elementary School would’ve put the Green Party in the MP seat for the riding as 14 votes (36 per cent) went to Bellay. Nine of the 28 votes went to Niles, who, aside from door-to-door campaigns from a few candidates, was the only candidate who announced a meet and greet in the Agassiz-Harrison area. There was a three-way tie between Grewal, Perrin and Vis, with five votes each.

Seabird Island Community Secondary cast 32 ballots, 11 of which would’ve put Perrin in the MP seat, followed by Grewal and Niles with six votes each. Bellay and Vis brought up the rear with five and four votes, respectively.

RELATED: Mock Election: Amid orange wave, Agassiz-Harrison goes Green

At Sts’ailes Community School, Bellay just won over Grewal 23 votes to 22. Perrin was close behind with 18 votes, followed by Niles with nine and Vis with six.

When all the Agassiz-Harrison and neighbouring First Nations 314 votes are combined, Bellay would’ve won with 82 votes with Perrin very close behind at 78 votes. Vis would’ve been third with 61 votes, followed by Grewal at 49 votes and Niles with 44.

The results were similar to the MLA Student Vote Day conducted last year in that the Green Party (then with Chilliwack-Kent Green candidate Jeff Hammersmark) received a majority of the votes.

Student Vote Day is a CIVIX initiative. CIVIX is a non-partisan organization dedicated to building youth civic engagement.


@adamEditor18
adam.louis@ ahobserver.com

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