Candidates in Oak Bay-Gordon Head, expected to offer one of the tightest races in the May 14 provincial election, will warm up with a high-school forum on Thursday.
Mount Douglas Secondary School will play host to the event, beginning at 10:30 a.m. It will be only open to the school鈥檚 1,200 students and staff.
Liberal incumbent Ida Chong is defending her seat in the riding against NDP candidate Jessica Van der Veen 鈥� who lost by 561 votes in 2009 鈥� as well as the Green party鈥檚 star candidate, Andrew Weaver, and Conservative Greg Kazakoff. All four are expected to attend.
Political watchers are anticipating a three-way race among Chong, Van der Veen and Weaver.
Each candidate will make an opening statement before the floor opens to student questions. The students will cast votes in a mock election, following the forum.
Grade 12 student Caleigh Bachop, who is staging the forum as a member of the school鈥檚 Challenge Program, said she hopes to include youth in dialogue about provincial issues.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not necessarily a target audience for them, so I think sometimes we get left out of the picture,鈥� she said.
鈥淎nd then hopefully the Grade 12s who are able to vote will go out and do that. That鈥檚 my ultimate goal: To inspire the students who are of age to vote and the ones who are getting there to go out and vote when they are.鈥�
