Efforts made in student engagement

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In the June 12 provincial election, local NDP incumbent Catherine Fife was elected MPP for Kitchener-Waterloo with 37.4 per cent of the vote.

Catherine Fife 5 (Heather Davidson)
Photo by Heather Davidson

Efforts were made by both universities, however, to engage students in the election.

As in the past, Elections Ontario reached out to the studentsโ€™ unions at both Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo to set up advanced polls on their campuses.

โ€œElections Ontario is looking to reach out to the student vote,โ€ explained Rick Camman, vice-president of student affairs for the Wilfrid Laurier University Studentsโ€™ Union.

โ€œWe were too this year, especially with a provincial election with so many implications for students.โ€

Camman said Elections Ontario no longer keeps track of the youth vote, meaning the Studentsโ€™ Union doesnโ€™t have access to any data regarding how many students used the polling station.

โ€œFrom what we viewed we did see a lot of students there โ€” every time I looked there were a lot of students there on campus,โ€ he said.

Vanessa Partat, a third-year biochemistry and biotechnology student at Laurier, noticed many of her peers getting engaged.

โ€œA lot of my friends were actually more engaged with this election because of what Tim Hudak was proposing,โ€ said Partat.

Despite the lack of data about the student demographic, Camman noted that there was an overall increase in voter turnout in both the Brantford and Kitchener-Waterloo ridings.

Compared to 2011, K-W saw a 15 per cent increase, while Brantford saw 7 per cent.

Camman said the Studentsโ€™ Union was happy with these numbers, especially considering the lower student population on campus during the summer.

In preparation for the election, the Studentsโ€™ Union worked with the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to gather information about student priorities.

From there, they met with MPP candidates in both the Brantford and K-W ridings.

โ€œBy meeting with all of the candidates we got to decipher their opinions, found out what their stances were on student priorities like tuition and student financial assistance,โ€ Camman said.

โ€œFrom there it allowed us to get some good feedback on where they were at and also where we can go forward to help to help student agendas and priorities now that the election is finally over.โ€

He also worked with OUSA and the College Students Alliance on itsyourvote.ca to help simplify the candidatesโ€™ platforms and highlight student issues for post-secondary students.

โ€œIt can be very overwhelming,โ€ Camman said of trying to research the different platforms. โ€œEspecially if the popular media doesnโ€™t talk about students issues as the priority.โ€

Now that the election is done, Camman said the Studentsโ€™ Union is looking ahead to advocate to the Liberal majority and local MPPs.
โ€œThe next step is to keep on putting our foot on the gas and going forward and making sure that student priorities arenโ€™t once again overshadowed,โ€ he said.


  1. Ryan Zeitz Avatar

    I found it rather irksome that I was unable to vote on campus in the Concourse due to my residence on Hickory Street. The marketing effort by the university was exquisite in informing me of my ability to vote on campus, yet I was directed significantly further away to the church at King/Weber. Seems like a dropped ball on the part of government policy, which should be encouraging and simplifying student voting…

    …That online voting has not yet arrived is another lengthy subject to be discussed at length.

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