As part of our Social Studies unit, our students will be taking part in “Student Vote 2014”. We will be following the provincial election and all TPPS Grade 5 students will vote in our own election on June 10. Over 1300 schools across in Ontario will also be holding elections, and all the results will be combined to see which party the students would choose, if they were allowed to vote.
To help students make informed decisions, we submitted questions for the party leaders. The organization CIVIX, which is coordinating the event, compiled the questions and chose 5 questions for each party leader.
Here are their answers:
http://www.studentvote.ca/on2014/the-leaders/
*please note that these are the responses they have received thus far, and more may be added as parties contribute their answers
I have also asked students to pay attention to the news and identify some of the party platforms and campaign promises. They can watch the news on TV, listen to it on the radio, read newspapers (print and online), read campaign materials. We will be constructing a bulletin board at school to compare and contrast the different parties.
As they say, practice makes perfect! I hope that through our discussions and activities, all our students will claim their right to vote, and fulfill that responsibility, when they turn 18 one day.
