Education

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While voters are casting their ballots on Election Day today (May 2) in the federal election, the students at Huron Heights Public School in Kincardine have already made their decision.

Since they are not 18 years of age, they can't actually vote, but they held their own student vote at the school Thursday morning.

Prior to that, just as on the federal stage, the school held a leaders debate Wednesday, with all five parties represented, along with the candidates in Huron-Bruce for whom the electorate actually votes.

At the debate, teacher Sylvia Leigh, who set up the event with her students, told the audience that the issues are very complicated and her class actually knows more than most adults who are eligible to vote.

"They did a lot of research in order to understand the issues," she said, adding that the students will be hearing the leaders debate, but when it comes time to vote, they have to choose a candidate from their own riding - Huron-Bruce.

She also showed them the proper way to make their mark on the election ballot so that it will be counted.

Leigh said the student vote is a recognized activity through Elections Canada. The agency sends out all the required material and even the proper equipment including four polling booths and ballot boxes.

During the debate, Calvin Stares was Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, Lara Clubb was Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, Savannah O'Donnell was NDP leader Jack Layton, Robyn Mercanti was Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and Avy Mowle was Block Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe.

They each gave an opening statement, followed by questions from Grade 5 students in the audience. The leaders had teams of advisors to help them answer the questions.

Mowle, as Duceppe, started off by saying that his party's priority is Quebec's interests and sovereignty.

O'Donnell as Layton, said his party would provide more money for education, health care and improve seniors' pensions.

Clubb as Ignatieff, said the Liberals would bring democracy back into government and restore Canada's good reputation in the world.

Mercanti as May, said the Greens would restore the environment and help keep the earth clean for future generations.

Stares as Harper, said the Conservatives would keep taxes low and support continued economic growth with the Economic Action Plan.

The questions ranged from how to improve health care to better education to how to jump-start the economy.

Several times, there was some argument amongst the leaders as the NDP said it would spend money to fix the problems, but the Conservatives wanted to know where the money was coming from. The response was from large corporations.

The NDP asked the Greens how they would promote renewable energy without the nuclear industry.

The Greens said the country could use water power.

The Liberals then said that the workers at the nuclear plants are trained for those jobs, not for running water-powered plants. Closing all the nuclear plants, they said, would mean a lot of jobs lost.

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Sunday, May 01, 2011