Students at Camosun College have varying opinions over which candidate to cast their ballot for in the upcoming BC provincial elections. About a third of the people Nexus spoke to on a recent May morning said they supported the Green Party, a third said they supported the NDP, and another third said they were undecided.
“I’m thinking it’s probably the end of the BC Liberals, is what I’m seeing,” says first-year Nursing student and NDP supporter Linus Scott. “I don’t know a whole lot about the candidates, but I would love to see some more stuff for students and a higher minimum wage, and I’m pretty sure it’s the NDP party that’s looking for that.”
Third-year Environmental Technology student Pascale Archibald is a Green Party supporter (and former Nexus student editor); “I’m feeling pretty good about it,” she says. “I haven’t actually looked at all the platforms but I have a party that I want to vote for—the Green Party.”
Students like Scott and Archibald seem to have their minds made up on who they’re voting for come May 9, while other students haven’t quite made a decision yet.
“I’m feeling a little apprehensive, I would say,” says third-year English student Alice Stewart, who wasn’t quite sure who she would be voting for. “It seems like everyone I talk to has a different view on every single party and I’m not really quite sure who to choose. I’m planning on voting, but I’m not decided yet. My mom tells me horror stories of when the NDP were in power, so that makes me a bit apprehensive, but sometimes I feel like they have some good points, so it’s a little confusing. I feel like the candidates in our area are fairly strong, and very, ‘This is what I’m doing, this is who I am.’ I feel like it gets more convoluted as you go higher up.”
Second-year Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology student and Green Party supporter Alex Carter Johnson says he is “pretty excited to see what Victoria has to say in the fight between environment versus economy.”
“I’m planning on voting for Andrew Weaver of the Green Party,” says Johnson. “The other candidates have interesting viewpoints but I really feel like a more green approach needs to be taken, especially considering the rate of which climate change is happening within our world and here on Vancouver Island.”
First-year computer engineering student and NDP supporter Sunny Hundal feels that Clark has been in power too long and that it may be time to change the guard.
“I’m about 70 percent sure who I will be voting for,” says Hundal. “I like John Horgan, don’t really like Christy Clark much, so you can probably guess who I’ll be voting for.”