Students at Trinity Christian Academy in Strathmore held a student election earlier this month.
According to junior high humanities teacher Amanda Gass, the election was held between the Grade 6 and Grade 9 social studies classes.
"In Grade 9 we study federal politics and in Grade 6 we study local politics, so this was a marriage between those two ideas," said Gass. "The idea was to give the Grade 9's the chance to do some background research on some hands-on, real-world examples about what it would take to create a political party."
Several parties were made by the Grade 9 students, including the Canadian Reformation Party, the Maple Alliance, the Left Wingers, and the Junior High League. The students were also tasked to create advertisements, commercials, and attack ads on the other parties.
"We even interviewed Mayor Pat Fule to bring a little bit of celebrity into the advertisements, and all of these were presented to our Grade 6's," added Gass.
The election led to a mock debate between the parties, with all students being asked to contribute $1 towards a "class tax", which the winning party would spend according to their promises.
"Each political party had to tell the students how they would spend the class tax. Some promised a pizza party, some promised pancakes, and that was a part of their platform that they had to campaign on."
All of the Grade 6 and Grade 9 students were given the chance to vote, with the Canadian Reformation Party winning the election by just two votes.
On Tuesday, Feb. 25, the winning party celebrated by using the class tax towards a movie night with popcorn for the students.
"The kids had such a great time. It was really fun for the younger kids to work with the older students," added Gass. "The Grade 6's loved the power they had with the vote, and everybody was quite engaged as they were financially invested as well."
This was the first time that the student election featured both Grade 6 and Grade 9 students at Trinity Christian Academy.