A Pledge to Vote challenge between Campion and Luther University of Regina Federated Colleges appears to have been a success.
The challenge between the two faith based colleges was issued September 29 by the two College Presidents, Dr. John Meehan S.J. of Campion and Dr. Bryan Hillis of Luther. The winner would receive a pizza party paid for by the loser.
The voting was close with Campion counting 83 students who voted and Luther 81. The numbers claiming University of Regina affiliation was 107 for a combined total of 270.However, when the student population in each college was takeninto consideration Luther had 16.9 % of its student body cast a vote and Campion had 13% so Luther was declared the winner. A pizza party was held in the Luther student lounge October 20 but in the spirit of co-operation, Hillis said Luther would split the cost of the pizza with Campion. The challenge included a stipulation that the losing college president would be required to wear the other’s sweatshirt; so Meehan sported a Luther sweatshirt at the Pizza Party.
Both Meehan and Hillis were pleased with the results. “We congratulate Luther College and their strong performance in the last week but we are even more encouraged by the overallstudent engagement,” said Meehan in a news release. “The right to vote is something for which many people around the world struggle to obtain, yet in Canada voter turnout among youthaged 18-24 remains surprisingly low,” said Hillis. “We are happy with the overall results of the challenge and I am delighted to hand over my Luther College sweater to PresidentMeehan to wear.”
Campion and Luther together boast a student population of something over 1,000 and the U of R claims a total of about 14,000, its highest registration ever. Elections Canada can’t identify which students voted where so students had to self declare their intention by filling out a card and depositing it in the appropriate box. It’s likely that voter turnout at the U of Rwas higher than the 270 counted from the boxes.
The challenge came about after several student bodies on campus wanted to increase participation in political discourse and translate that into higher vote counts. The 18-25 age demographic has traditionally been the group with the lowest turnout record.
Elections Canada, in an attempt to increase that number, for the first time, established polls on university campuses allowing students to vote on campus with their vote going to their home constituency. Some 70,000 students across Canada took advantage of that program.
