Kelowna students favour new blood on city council in voting exercise

If it were up to the youth, only four of the seven incumbents would have been elected to Kelowna city council last weekend.

Results of Student Vote, an educational program that involves schools from across the province, were released following Saturday’s election.

Students mirrored the actual vote as Colin Basran was elected in the straw vote. As well, Maxine DeHart topped the polls in both Student Vote and the actual election.

For mayor, Basran received 727 votes, Tom Dyas 308, Bobby Kennedy 219 and Bob Schewe 93.

For council, students elected: DeHart with 344 votes; Lindsay Ball, 329; Brad Sieben, 286; Loyal Wooldridge, 285; Amarjit Singh Lalli, 244; Ryan Donn, 235; Luke Stack, 233; and Kevin Bond, 216.

Ball, Lalli and Bond were not elected in the actual vote.

Incumbents Gail Given and Mohini Singh were tied for first runner-up, each with 210 votes.

A total of 22 Kelowna schools participated. The exercise is designed to teach kids about democracy and to encourage them to vote once they turn 18.

In Vernon, Victor Cumming, who won the election, finished third among youth. Erik Olesen won the Student Vote with 109 votes, Darrin Taylor was second with 95 and Cumming collected 74 votes.

Councillors elected by Student Vote were Scott Anderson, Kelly Fehr, Jasmine Finlay, Kari Gares, Shawn Lee and Kevin Lepp.

In Peachland, where only one school participated, Keith Thom was elected mayor by the youth with 14 votes compared with six for runner-up Cindy Fortin.