The Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform offers high school students the chance to learn about the inner workings of Ontario's electoral system and the three main alternative systems used in different countries throughout the world.

The Students' Assembly program has two main components:

AUTUMN 2006:

Students' Assembly Conference: 103 young people were selected for each Ontario riding following an extensive application process to gather at Deerhurst Resort in Muskoka, November 15 - 19, 2006. The Student Assembly members had a great time and learned about Ontario's electoral system and its alternatives, before recommending that the Citizens' Assembly propose a new, more proportional system for Ontario. All conference and travel costs were waived for assembly members.

Meet the 103 members of the Students' Assembly
Read the Students' Assembly Interim Report to learn more about what they discussed


NOW EXTENDED FOR WINTER AND SPRING 2007:

Classroom Assemblies on Electoral Reform: Schools that register to participate will receive curriculum materials to organize their own 'Classroom Assembly on Electoral Reform'. Using the materials provided, teachers will have the opportunity to engage their students in a discussion about the electoral system we have and the electoral system they hope to inherit. 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.

The ‘Classroom Assembly’ program is a key part of our plan to engage thousands of high school students from across the province in a discussion about their political values and priorities. By registering your school and using our program in your classroom, you can help us reach this goal.

Registered schools will receive the following materials: A four lesson curriculum module, a "Votes to Seats" reference guide, student survey, sample ballots from electoral systems used around the world and instructions for voting for the electoral system your students prefer.

Register your school here
(Only registered schools receive a complete teaching kit and binder)

Access online copies of the teaching materials here

Submit classroom votes here

Thank you everyone for your help in recruiting a tremendous selection of candidates to participate in the Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform. Ultimately, more than 450 applications were submitted and 103 students were chosen to attend our conference in Deerhurst. All in all, a great a success. Read more about the 103 members of the Students' Assembly on Electoral Reform.

If you’d like to notify your students, your colleagues or tell a friend about this program by email, we have a letter ready to send here.

At the conclusion of each ‘Classroom Assembly’, we'd like you to submit a record of the votes cast by your class. You can submit these votes online or call the Students’ Assembly hotline: 1 866-488-8775. Once the votes are in and the results released, your class will be able to analyze the results from different regions of the province.

The deadline for submitting results for inclusion in the presentation to the Citizens' Assembly is January 22, 2007. We are encouraging all schools to complete the program by this date. However, because we would like to see as many classrooms participate as possible we will continue to accept Classroom Assembly results until May 1st, 2007. These results will not inform the deliberations of the Citizens' Assembly, but they will nevertheless be automatically tallied and displayed by our online reporting system.