Yellowknife’s Ecole St. Patrick High School is once again bringing its students into the political arena.
Coming up near the end of the month, the St. Pats School will be putting on an open forum event for the candidates running in the election to become the Member of Parliament for the Northwest Territories. The event is being organized by the School’s Social Studies Club, and three of the candidates have already confirmed their attendance.
The school has emphasized that this event is not a debate, and is simply an opportunity for the candidates to discuss their platforms.
Each candidate will be given two minutes to introduce themselves, which will then be followed by the question period, where the students themselves will be asking the questions. The entirety of the St. Pats student body will be in attendance, as well as Grade 7 students from Weledeh.
This is hardly the first time that the school has held a political forum such as this. A similar event was held for the Territorial election in 2023, where students collectively developed questions to ask the candidates as a way for the school to encourage participation and discussion in political matters.
While many of the senior students will be old enough to vote in the real election, the rest of the student body will be taking part in a mock vote on April 25th. The results of the Student Vote will be shared after the official polls close on April 28th.
