Last night saw many students – not to mention many Albertans – tuning in to see the only debate between the party leaders during this election. For many, it was perhaps their first look at the leaders up close – after all every party except for the NDP are running with new leaders this election. Post-secondary education was a highlight a few times in the debate, notably with the NDP and the Liberals highlighting their post-secondary education platforms, and it is clear that post-secondary education is a major issue in this campaign, which should not be a surprise how many students are going to vote in this very competitive election.
With only eight days to go before April 23, all of the parties have presented the majority of their ideas and promises, including on post-secondary education. Finding out what different parties want to do after they get your vote is an important part of determining who you are going to cast your ballot for, so take the time to look at what the different politicians are saying and then make an educated vote.
It should be said though, that Alberta’s post-secondary education system is a complicated and big part of our provincial government, and it is really hard to boil down everyone’s concerns with getting in and going to school into just a few bullet points. You have dig to deeper to find for example that the Progressive Conservatives are also promising a new rural bursary as a part of their strategy for rural Alberta or that the Wildrose Party are promising that a energy dividend will help address the costs of education for students.
Getting a clear picture of a endless stream of news and promises is a challenge, so don’t be afraid to contact your local candidate, and ask them for their views on what matters to you. You can find out more information as well as how to contact each party from their websites:
The election campaign is only half done and we already have made a lot of progress! Thousands of students have signed the pledge and hundreds more are making the pledge each day – keep up the great work and make sure your friends know about the vote on April 23.
Your students’ union and the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) are not the only ones working hard this election to make sure students are heard this election and that our issues are being discussed during the election campaign. The Edmonton Journal wrote about the Get Out The Vote campaign as well as the 28 Faces campaign by our friends at the Alberta Students Executive Council. Check out their campaign at 28faces.com.
CAUS has also been working with our friends at Apathy is Boring to make our Get Out The Vote campaign more effective. Apathy is Boring a non-partisan project to educate young Canadians about democracy and increase youth voter turnout, a perfect partner for Get Out The Vote.
Be sure to check out their fantastic infographic looking at the common question young Alberta voters might have when navigating the maze of figuring out how to vote!
The Students’ Union at the University of Alberta hosted the first of two forums for the provincial election, this one for the candidates in Edmonton-Riverview which includes part of the University of Alberta campus and is the home to dozens of students. Post-secondary education was a hot topic among the candidates, as the debate comes hot on the heals of several post-secondary related announcements from the past week.
John Corie (Wildrose), Arif Khan (Liberal), Lori Sigurdson (NDP), Timothy Wong (Alberta Party), and Steve Young (PC) all were present to highlight their campaigns and encourage students to get out and vote on April 23.
Dozens of students came out for the lunch time event, peppering the candidates with questions about our environment, our K-12 education system and of course issues around the affordability and accessibility of our campuses. Given the proximity of the election campaign to our exams the debate was also livestreamed over the internet for students unable to make it to the forum.
Get Out The Vote volunteers were also on hand, collecting pledges and reminding students how important is to cast their ballot on April 23.
Edmonton-Riverview is expected to be a hotly contested riding, with the sitting MLA, Liberal Dr. Kevin Taft, retiring and active campaigns from all five parties. Only 2,300 votes decided the contest in 2008 – and that was with the Leader of the Official Opposition being the incumbent. All parties are expecting a much closer race this time and with polls indicating that there is three-way and in many cases the possibility of four-way races in Edmonton ridings Edmonton-Riverview will likely be a riding where students who get out and vote will make the difference between who wins, and who loses.
Elections are not always called at the most convenient time – and that would be obvious this election as April 23 is the middle of exams for most of us. One of the most common reasons people don’t cast a ballot on election day is that they simply can’t make it to the ballot box in their constituency during voting hours on election day. For those voters, there are two options to make sure you still get to vote – going to the advance poll or using a special ballot.
The advance poll is available in your constituency on April 19, 20, and 21 between 9:00am and 8:00pm. You can find the address for your specific advance poll online at Elections Alberta by entering your postal code.
The other choice is to use a special ballot which will come to you via Canada Post and you will then be responsible for returning it to your returning officer in time to be counted on April 23. If you require a special ballot you need to request one as soon as is possible, after all it is only 18 days until the election! You can request one online from Elections Alberta. It is crucial that you take the necessary steps to return the ballot in time as any ballot received after polls close will not be counted.
This is especially important for students who are studying away from their permanent residence. You have to vote where you live, but determining where that is your responsibility.
The University of Lethbridge Students’ Union hosted the Get Out The Vote Campaign’s first all candidates debate of the election. All four candidates contesting Lethbridge-West were in attendance to debate a wide range of issues and answer questions from students.
The format of the debate allowed candidates to debate three issue areas: fiscal policy, energy and the environment, and post-secondary education.
The debate on post-secondary got heated when the candidates disagreed over the appropriate level of funding provided to Alberta’s universities and colleges. NDP candidate Shannon Phillips slammed the Government for the three years it froze funding to post-secondary, and Greg Weadick PC candidate responded by highlighting the 2% increase provided to Alberta’s institutions in the latest budget.
After the debate was finished students were able to engage with the candidates and their campaign teams and ask them questions one on one.
The crowd of students in attendance was enormous; in fact, we had twice as many students as seats. This is only further proof that students are engaged and planning on voting in this election. For the first time in the lives of many students, Alberta is in the midst of an exciting election. Students know their vote can make a difference, and this election we will be hitting the polls en mass on April 23.
In Alberta you need to be on the voter’s list in order to receive a ballot – not to worry if you were not enumerated in the fall – it is really easy to add yourself to the list. Just visit Voterlink on Elections Alberta’s website at www.voterlink.ab.ca along with your Alberta driver’s licence or identification card and you will be all set.
Registering before election day will mean that you will already be on the list and ready to go as soon as you get to your polling station. But not to worry if you don’t remember until election day – Albertans can add themselves at the polling station to the voter’s list, provided they have identification proving both their identity and address.
If you have any questions about the logistics of getting on the voter’s list contact Elections Alberta at (780) 427-7191 or at info@elections.ab.ca.
In 2008 fewer Albertans than ever before voted in the provincial election. Voter turnout was only 40%, an amount so low that many municipal elections and even students’ union elections see more eligible voters turn out and cast a ballot. Consider for a moment how important those 40% are, and how in those races where only a few votes separated the winner and the runner-up if more of the 60% had bothered to show up the difference that could have been made.
Elections Alberta did a survey after the election and found that people under the age of 24 were only half as likely to report that they voted than those over the age of 50. Certainly there is no hard and fast rule on age and students, so it is difficult to draw a direct link between the likelihood of young Albertans to vote and students but there is an overall sense that in a democracy where the majority don’t vote even fewer students are able to make it out to the ballot box.
There are some technical reasons behind that – Alberta has some of the toughest laws when it comes to determining where post-secondary students are able to vote and where they can’t – but that alone can’t explain away low voter turnout.
But we also think that is about to change this election – and not just because of efforts like Get Out The Vote.
This election has already met the promise of being more exciting than any in recent memory. Big ideas are being talked about from all of the parties, and only one week has passed. Today saw the announcement from Alberta Liberals on reducing tuition and eventually eliminating it. The Wildrose Party talked about returning energy revenues directly to Albertans in the form of a energy dividend. More health care options were presented by the governing Progressive Conservatives in the form of family care clinics. The Alberta Party presented their platform last week, full of new ideas from a new party. Finally the NDP talked about Alberta’s electricity rates and how they could be lower for consumers.
We are a non-partisan campaign, meaning our aim is to get students out to vote regardless of who they mark an x for, so expect any coverage on the parties to be as fair and balanced as we can make it. But that shouldn’t stop students from checking out their options, and learning more about the parties running in the election – and it shouldn’t stop you from contacting the campaigns and learning more about the positions they take and why they believe you should vote for them. But for us, we’re just excited to get you out to the ballot box, because this time your vote is going to be more important than ever before. We are in for a wild election, and students are going to be the ones who decide who will govern them.
(Photo by Allie Wojtaszek)
Our announcement yesterday of already signing up 10,000 students generated a lot of excitement yesterday, with lots of coverage from Alberta’s media but more importantly getting a few hundred more pledges. As our campaign enters the next phase we are going to ramp up our events and keep talking to students about the importance of their vote in this election.
Here is a list of just some of the media stories from yesterday’s launch:
- Get out the vote (Lethbridge Global)
- Students rally round pledge to vote (Edmonton Metro)
- U of A students get out the vote (Edmonton iNews880)
- University of Alberta students sign vote pledges (Edmonton CBC)
- University students sign up for “Get Out The Vote” campaign (Lethbridge Country 95)
- University students urged to get out and vote in the provincial election (Calgary AM 770)
- Voting? Call it a learning curve (Calgary Metro)
- Youth pledge to vote at Calgary Get Out The Vote event (Calgary Global)
The next provincial election being held on April 23 is about to get interesting. University students from across Alberta are pledging to vote, and with over 10,000 students already signed up, they are going to make in difference in this campaign.
“It has been an extraordinary campaign so far, and we are just getting started,” said Zack Moline, President at the University of Lethbridge Students’ Union and chair of the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS). “Over the next four weeks we are going to sign up thousands more and do our best to make sure those voters come out and are heard on April 23.”
Voter turnout was at a record low last election and the Get Out The Vote campaign hopes to change that. Students’ Unions from the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, and University of Lethbridge are getting students to pledge to vote and will be contacting them on election day to make sure they get to the polls. The non-partisan campaign is focusing on empowering individual students to exercize their right to vote and not endorsing parties, positions, or individual candidates.
Over 70,000 students attend the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge, and together they can make a big difference in ridings across Alberta come election night. In the first competitive election in a generation, students want to make sure that their voice is heard.
“There is so much at stake in this election for students, given the high costs of education in Alberta and our low participation rate and it is so exciting to see students wanting to make sure they are heard,” added Farid Iskandar, VP External at the University of Alberta Students’ Union and vice-chair of the Council of Alberta University Students. “We are happy to be helping ensure students know their rights and are able to cast a ballot and come April 23 we know students are going to be heard.”
The next phase of our Get Out The Vote campaign is starting off with a bang today, as we announce the number of university students who have already signed up to vote in the provincial election on April 23. Our campaign has been talking to students about the importance of the next election and making sure they are heard on election day and now the time has come to stand up and be counted.
And it is an election where every vote is going to matter.
Polls go up and down in every election campaign but every indication is that this election is going to be particularly close. There hasn’t been an election in Alberta like this since 1993, back when many university students were not even born yet.
If you have not taken the time to pledge to vote on April 23 – sign up now! And there are still 26 days until the vote and we still have thousands of students to talk to and that is going to take help. If you want to help your Students’ Union get out the student vote on April 23 let us know and we would love to have you on board. W have a great team of student volunteers working hard and need all the help we can get.
This is going to an extraordinary election, and students could make the difference and decide who is going to lead our province. Stand up and be heard!
(Photo by Chealion)
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