OTTAWA — He may not have won a majority in the hearts of Ontario’s students, but he still captured the most seats.
While real voters were handing a third majority mandate to the Doug Ford PCs on Thursday night, Ontario students participating in the Student Vote program still gave the win to the Tories, but provided a much narrower gap between the government and opposition.
Tabulating 242,407 votes from students at 1,839 Ontario schools gave the Ontario PC Party 53 seats, netting 24.1% of the popular vote.
Thursday’s provincial election garnered the Tories 75 seats with 43% of the popular vote.
Students handed the opposition role back to the Ontario NDP, giving them 40 seats, while the Liberals came third with 27 seats (the NDP and Liberals won 25 and 13 seats respectively on election night.)
Both the Liberals and NDP garnered 23.6% of the popular vote among students who took part.
Students also gave the Green Party an additional seat, choosing Matt Richter over PC incumbent Graydon Smith in Parry Sound-Muskoka, and re-elected independent Bobbi Ann Brady in Haldimand-Norfolk.
While Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie didn’t win a seat on Thursday, students felt differently and elected her in Mississauga East-Cooksville.
All other party leaders won their seats in the student vote.
Student Vote is run by Canadian charity CIVIX as an means to increase education and awareness about democracy and civic affairs.
Complete results are available at studentvote.ca.
[email protected]
X: @bryanpassifiume