What is Student Vote? Everything you need to know about a key pillar of in-school civic education
Even though one must be 18 to vote in Canada, that doesn't mean learning about the electoral process should be limited to those above that age.
In fact, there are in-school opportunities for students to learn about the electoral process and how they can mobilize their vote during an election.
Enter Student Vote, a program organized to help inform students of the value of their vote.
What is the history behind the program?
Organized by CIVIX in collaboration with Elections Canada, Student Vote is an initiative aimed at teaching elementary, middle, and high school students across the country about the Canadian electoral process and to simulate what an actual election would look like.
As part of the program, interested teachers can register their school at no cost. They can register their class, their grade, or even the entire school for the program. Upon registration, schools receive the required materials to run their student vote, including ballots and curricula. Once the vote is complete, all ballots are counted, and the result is announced after the federal election.
The Student Vote website includes a list of resources for elementary, middle, and high school students alongside a playlist of educational videos.
How long has the program been around for?
Since 2003, Student Vote has helped Canadian students learn about why their vote matters and how they can take part in elections.
While the first student vote organized was for the 2003 Ontario election, the Student Vote program soon included parallel elections alongside federal votes as well as provincial campaigns outside Ontario. 2004 saw Alberta's first provincial student vote take place, while British Columbia followed suit in 2005. Municipal elections were added to the program when Nova Scotia took part in their first student votes in 2008. Three years later, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon took part in their first provincial/territorial student votes.
It's not just Canada. As per the timeline on CIVIX's official website, similar student vote programs were organized in Colombia and Chile, in line with their local elections and Constitutional Plebiscite, respectively.
How did students vote last time around?
Most recently, Canadian students held an in-school vote during the 2025 federal election. The results served as a comparison to the actual election: 36.3% of Canadian students voted for Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives, while 31.8% backed Mark Carney and the Liberals. 2.2% of students voted for Yves-François Blanchet and the Bloc Québecois, 14.5% backed then-leader Jagmeet Singh and the NDP, and 7.4% of students backed the Green Party - co-led by Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault - and their platform.
The aforementioned percentages translate to the following seat count:
Conservatives: 163 seats
Liberals: 147 seats
Bloc Québecois: 18 seats
NDP: 13 seats
Greens: 2 seats
All party leaders except for Singh and Pedneault won their seats.
This student vote also included an exit survey, representing the first of such analyses. In terms of the issues at play, a majority of students felt that cost-of-living and related political topics (cost-of-living, housing affordability, everyday items) should be prioritized.
For the fun of it, how well have student votes reflected the final outcome?
Of the publicly available results lists, only once have the results not aligned with the national picture. That came in the most recent federal election, where students went against the grain and voted in favour of a Conservative minority government (see results above). The actual election saw voters send Carney and a minority Liberal government to the House of Commons.
The prior three student votes backed the Liberals. In 2021, students elected the Liberals with 118 seats, 2019 saw them earn 109 seats, while 2015 saw them pick up a whopping 226 seats in the House of Commons. All three aligned with the actual outcome of the election.
What can the Student Vote program teach Canadian youth about electoral participation?
Participating in the program acts as a key early-career learning opportunity for Canadian youth. Not only does it serve to inform students of the electoral process, but it also acts to encourage Canadian youth to take part in elections when they become eligible to vote.
By giving Canadian youth the opportunity to participate in these programs, they'll be able to learn that their voice does indeed carry value in their country's political society and that they have the means to ensure that it is incorporated in policymaking.
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