More than 930,000 students from across Canada have elected a Conservative minority government as part of Student Vote Canada, a parallel election initiative held alongside the 2025 federal election.
Over 6,100 schools participated in the program, which is designed to teach students about democracy, elections, and civic engagement. After researching platforms and debating issues, students voted for real candidates running in their ridings.
The results, based on 934,917 valid ballots, show the Conservatives winning 162 seats and 36.3% of the vote, followed by the Liberals with 149 seats and 31.8% of the vote.
The Bloc Québécois secured 17 seats, the NDP won 13 seats, and the Green Party captured 2 seats. There were also 31,929 rejected ballots in the student vote.
Some 2,439 students handed in valid ballots in Algonquin-Renfrew-Pembroke to re-elect incumbent Conservative Cheryl Gallant, who fended off Liberal Cyndi Mills by about 250 votes. Green Party candidate Danilo Velasquez came in a narrow third against the NDP’s Eileen Jones-Whyte and the United Party’s Randy Briand. Independent candidates Stefan Klietsch and Seth Malina also received votes.
The program is run by CIVIX and aims to foster engaged citizenship and awareness of Canada’s political process among youth before they reach voting age.
(Matt Leblanc)