Students from across the province voted in favour of an NDP majority government too.
More than 85,000 students at more than 700 elementary, middle and high schools throughout all 87 ridings across British Columbia participated in mock voting for the 2020 provincial general election.
The mock vote was delivered by CIVIX, a non-partisan and nationally registered charity, in partnership with Elections BC.
“After learning about government and the election process, researching the parties and platforms, and debating the future of British Columbia, students cast ballots for the official candidates running in their school’s electoral district,” a CIVIX press release said.
Based on those results, students elected an NDP majority government that took home 59 seats and 40 per cent of the vote.
The Green Party came second with 16 seats and 28 per cent of the vote, becoming the official opposition, and the B.C. Liberals captured 12 seats and 25 per cent of the vote.
The Conservative Party and the Christian Heritage Party of B.C. also managed to pick up a single seat each in the student vote.
When it came to ridings on Vancouver Island, the studenCIVIXt results were generally reflective of the preliminary voting results in the general election.
However, there were five ridings where the student vote differed from the preliminary results, with students electing Green candidates instead of NDP candidates.
In the Mid Island-Pacific Rim riding, students voted for Evan Jolicoeur instead of NDP candidate and Tofino mayor Josie Osborne.
Students in the Nanaimo-North Cowichan riding voted for Chris Istace over longtime NDP incumbent Doug Routley.
Nicole Duncan won the student vote in the Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding, beating NDP candidate Murray Rankin by nearly 200 votes.
In the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding, Jenn Neilson narrowly won, receiving 14 more student votes than NDP candidate Grace Lore.
Lastly, students in Saanich South chose 18-year-old Kate O’Connor over another longtime NDP incumbent, Lana Popham.
Students also voted in many of the party leaders.
NDP leader John Horgan won his riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca with 52 per cent of the student vote and Green leader Sonia Furstenau won in the Cowichan Valley riding with 49 per cent of the vote.
Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson also won his riding of Vancouver-Quilchena, capturing 39 per cent of the student vote.
Conservative Party leader Trevor Bolin also won the student vote in his riding of Peace River North.
Interestingly, students in Stikine riding voted for Rod Taylor of the Christian Heritage Party of B.C.
Neither Bolin or Taylor actually won in their respective ridings, based on Elections BC’s preliminary results.
Full results can be found here.
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