John Horgan and the New Democrats would cruise to a comfy majority, with a Green party opposition, if only kids could vote.
The B.C. Liberals, meanwhile, would be third and their leader, Christy Clark, would not even make it in her own riding.
The 2017 Student Vote program saw more than 170,238 elementary and high-school students from 1,092 B.C. schools cast ballots at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Students had earlier learned about the electoral process, researched the various parties and platforms and held debates among themselves. They then cast ballots for candidates in their local electoral districts.
Students gave the NDP 60 of 87 seats, with 39 per cent of the vote. Horgan won his riding, Langford — Juan de Fuca, with the support of 55.7 per cent of the students.
The B.C. Greens took 28.5 per cent of the vote in the kid poll to capture 14 seats and official-opposition status. Andrew Weaver, lone incumbent Green, also took his own riding of Oak Bay — Gordon Head.
B.C. Liberals, meanwhile, captured only 12 seats and 25.4 per cent of the students’ vote. Clark was defeated in Kelowna West by NDP candidate Shelley Cook.
In one close student vote, independent candidate Nicholas Wong beat Liberal Ian Paton by 10 votes in the riding of Delta South.
This year’s Student Vote is the fourth in a growing program. In the 2013 Student Vote, 101,627 students participated from 766 schools.
