Ministers Bountrogianni and Wynne were on hand October 11th, 2006 to officially announce the launch of the Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform. The Ministers joined students at East York Collegiate to lead a brief discussion on electoral reform before announcing their government's support for the Students' Assembly program.

“We believe that all citizens, including young Ontarians, should have a meaningful voice in shaping their democracy,” Bountrogianni said. “The exercise of re-examining our electoral system through the Students’ Assembly will reinvigorate and heighten young Ontarians’ understanding of our democratic system.”   More

Between November 14 – 19th, 103 students -- one from every riding in the province -- convened to take part in a special conference that will help set the course for Ontario's democratic evolution. The members of the Students' Assembly were selected from more than 450 applications and are each responsible for contributing to a report that will be presented to the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in February, 2007.

The students began their five-day conference at Hart House in the University of Toronto. From there, visited Queen's Park and attend ed Question Period, as well as a special reception with MPPs hosted by the Minister of Democratic Renewal, Dr. Marie Bountrogianni. They then boarded buses and heaedd north to Huntsville to begin a compressed study and deliberation program based loosely on the learning phase completed by all members of the Citizens' Assembly.

During the conference, members had the opportunity to hear from experts and cast mock ballots in a range of electoral system simulations. At the conclusion of the conference, each member wasasked to cast a vote for the electoral system which they feel could best serve the future interests of all Ontarians. The full results of the conference will be made available shortly.   More

See also: Fresh ideas for politics of tomorrow, The Toronto Star, November 20th, 2006

Using curriculum materials developed by the Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform, teachers across Ontario will be engaging their students in a discussion about the electoral system we have and its alternatives. At the conclusion of the assembly module, students will cast votes for the electoral system that best reflects their preferred values and outcomes. Vote tallies, survey research and reflections gathered in both phases of our program will be analyzed and incorporated into a final report to be presented by youth to the Citizens' Assembly in February 2007.

On February 17th, 2007, the combined results of the Students' Assembly and Classroom Assembly program will be delivered to the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform and released to the public. These results will include the deliberations of the Students' Assembly members as well as the submissions, survey data and electoral system preferences indicated by the more than 10,000 Ontario high school students anticipated to participate through the Classroom Assembly program.