Elections and Voting

Lesson Overview

Historical Thinking Concept(s)

• Identify continuity and change

Background Information

Lesson Activity

ACTIVATING

• Prepare an anticipation guide for students using the article “The Election Trail” in the Choosing Canada’s Leaders issue of Kayak: Canada’s History Magazine for Kids. If you are not familiar with an anticipation guide, it is a learning strategy that is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and engage them in learning more about a topic. Write four to six short, declarative, thought-provoking statements about elections using “The Election Trail” content to help you. Some statements should be true and some false. Include two sets of columns before and after the statement. One column should be labelled Agree and the other Disagree. You can use the Anticipation Guide Template to help build this out.
• Some examples of statements are:
  • Anyone who is a Canadian citizen has always had the right to vote in Canadian elections.
  • If you are under 18 years old, you cannot be added to any registry of voters in Canada.
  • The Prime Minister of Canada has the power to call an election any time they want to.
  • You need to have a certain amount of money in your bank account if you want to run as a candidate in a Canadian election.
  • You must belong to a political party in order to run as a candidate in a Canadian election.
  • There are rules about how much money you can spend on your election campaign.
  • If you are not in Canada on election day, you can still vote.
  • The party with the most votes wins the election.
  • Anyone 18 years of age or older can vote in a Canadian election.
• Working in partners or small groups, students can compare their responses with one another. You can then lead a whole group discussion for students to share their thinking. After the group discussion, have students circle/indicate True or False in the last column.

ACQUIRING

• Direct students’ attention to the statement about the mandatory voting age in Canada.
• As a class, review the list of reasons for and against lowering the voting age found on page 15 of Kayak.
• In partners or small groups, ask students to generate political issues teenagers could be concerned about at their age. They can write these issues on post-it notes and then post them in a visible location in the classroom or on small whiteboards or a digital shared file or app.
• Some issues are:
  • children or youth rights
  • bullying
  • education (e.g. mandatory courses, graduation requirements, funding)
  • community safety
  • minimum wage
  • affordability
• In a whole group discussion, consider the issues students come up with and have students connect to the bigger discussion around the voting age.
• The article “It’s My Right!” in the magazine discussing voting rights and responsibilities can be used to extend the discussion.
• If students generate more points against or for lowering the voting age, keep track of them in a visible location for students to reference.
• Ask students: Should the voting age be lowered to 16? The teacher can conduct a poll or vote in class or use a digital tool to survey the class. In a recent survey by Children First Canada, seven out of 10 kids said they were okay with the idea of lowering Canada’s voting age to 16. Consider developing some numeracy skills by comparing the percentage of students in the class who favour lowering the voting age. Is it greater or lesser than 70%?
• Encourage students to participate in the issue’s contest found on 31. Students can visit Voice Your Vote to log their vote.

APPLYING

• Provide students with a fill in the blank paragraph to develop their opinion writing skills. Here is an *example:
  • In my opinion, __________ is better than __________ because __________.  For example, _______________. Furthermore, _______________. Clearly, _______________ is the worse option. I believe the best __________ is __________ for many reasons. The best thing about it is _______________. Also, _______________ and _______________. I think you will agree that _______________. I prefer __________ because __________. For instance, _______________. Also, _______________. Finally, _______________.*

Extension Activity

• Review and discuss the article “It’s My Right!” on the rights and responsibilities of voting. This could be reading the story aloud as a class or students reading it together in small groups. In the story, Marianne did not grasp the importance of voting. There are many reasons her family shares with her to help change her mind.
• In partners or small groups, students can create a 30-second PSA/campaign/commercial/ad to encourage young people to vote using some of the reasons provided in the story and generating their own arguments as well.
• Provide time for students to generate a list of reasons and ideas for how to present them in a persuasive format for an audience of 18-year-old Canadian citizens. Students can perform their final products live in class, film them or audio record their products as well.