I am Keira Spurrell, a Grade 12 student at Trinity College School, and I was one of two elections officials of the 2021 Student Federal Election alongside Grace Gay.

The Grade 12 Politics class took a special interest in the 2021 Federal Election here in Canada and decided to recreate the election process within the Senior School. To simulate the proper democratic process here in Canada, which we had learned about in our lessons, we had 10 students in the class take on the role of a real political candidate of the five major parties running in two ridings near the School. The first group of candidates would represent the Northumberland-Peterborough South riding, portrayed by Riley Christensen, Jamil Velji, Neyha Billing, Isolde Ardies and Mitchell Baboolal. The second group of students, consisting of Adam Fraser, Gordon Roblin, Ava Becker, Luke Vrooman and Matteo Mascarin, would comprise the Bay of Quinte riding. Each candidate would create political ads describing their party’s political platform and outline the five main pillars of their campaign. The candidates were assisted by their communications officer, who helped their candidate create their political ads and various paraphernalia, including posters, stickers and pins. This creativity and freedom provided to the candidates when advertising allowed them to truly express each party’s platforms.

The candidates were also given the opportunity to speak in front of the Senior School in chapel on Thursday, September 16th and Friday, September 17th. These two minute long speeches allowed the candidates to persuade their potential voters to choose them, with sometimes hilarious effects. Of special note was the fictitious smear campaign between two candidates of Riding One, involving an alleged outburst at a local pizza shop and a candidate forgetfully leaving a grocery store without their children. These speeches enthused and amused the Senior School and created high interest for the election on the following Monday.

As the elections officials, Grace and I ensured the democratic process was followed by all and made sure no voter fraud was present when counting the votes. We had a high turnout rate on Monday, September 20th, the same day as the actual election day in Canada. The results came back with a Conservative majority across both ridings with at least 45% of the vote in each riding. We had at least 20% of all grades come out to cast their ballots across the two ridings. The top three houses with the most votes were, in order, Rigby, Wright and Hodgetts. Elections Canada, the government agency that runs the actual federal election, actually got involved with our student election and provided ballot boxes for student to use when casting their votes.

Overall, the politics classes, as well as the entire Senior School, enjoyed this mock election. It brought school spirit and humour together while educating the student body on the democratic process in Canada. This mock election will surely be an unforgettable part of this school year.

Note: Our Junior School students once again participated in the Student Vote Canada program, and we look forward to reporting on the results of their simulated election next week!