County students elected Gord Fox for mayor

Gord Fox would be mayor according to Prince Edward County students in five schools who studied the municipal election process and cast ballots.
More than 375,000 votes were cast across the province in a parallel election run by Student Vote in partnership with Local Government Week and the Ontario Government.
The goal of the program is to provide young people under the voting age with an opportunity to experience the democratic process first-hand and practice the responsibilities of informed citizenship.
In the County, four of the five schools posted their results with Student Vote – Prince Edward Collegiate Institute, 118 votes; Sophiasburgh 146 votes; Athol, 187 votes, and Kente, 119 votes. Sonrise Christian School participated but did not officially post results.
Gord Fox was the top mayoral candidate gaining 139 votes. He was followed by Lori Slik with 82, Sandy Latchford with 72, Peter Mertens with 54, Monica Alyea with 36 and Paul Boyd with 31.
More than 1500 schools from 255 municipalities signed up to participate in Student Vote’s first-ever Ontario Municipal and School Board Election program. Registered schools received free educational resources and electoral supplies to use during the course of the campaign. After studying the democratic process, local candidates and party platforms, schools conducted their own parallel election on local election candidates.
More than 375,000 votes were cast for mayor, council and school board trustees across the province.
“Student Vote is delighted with the turnout for its first ever Ontario Municipal and School Board Election program,” said Taylor Gunn, Chief Election Officer. “Despite the complexity of local elections, teachers have risen to the challenge and provided a great experience for their students. We have been told that participating students were more informed about the election than their parents.”
Student Vote results are available at  www.studentvote.ca/2010results.
Student Vote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works with educators to engage young Canadians in the democratic process. Since 2003, two million students across Canada have participated in Student Vote parallel election projects. The Ontario Public School Boards’ Association partnered with Student Vote to empower the next generation to acquire the knowledge and habits of democratic citizenship.