Big Idea:Informed participation in local government both stimulates and upholds the principles of democracy.

Essential Question: What are the characteristics of an informed Canadian citizen participating in a municipal election or school board election?

Candidates in Your Municipality & School BoardInteraction with local candidates is an important means for voters to better understand election platforms and evaluate candidates’ approaches for addressing local issues.

Hook 5 min.Brainstorm qualities that you look for in a leader by thinking about leaders that you know. Look at the pictures of municipal and school board election candidates and consider what you would want to know about them before selecting them to lead you.

Essential Learning 20-40 min. 1. Using Handout 6.1 and the resources provided by your teacher, create a profile for each of the

municipal and school board candidates that you will have the option of electing on Student Vote Day. Each profile should include the candidate’s name, age, political and related experience, and significant campaign planks and promises. Consider dividing up the candidates amongst your classmates and share candidate profiles with one another.

2. Using the information provided in your candidate profiles and your knowledge of local election issues, prepare questions for each of the candidates that will help you to better evaluate each individual’s capacity to lead your community. Pose these questions via a letter, email, telephone call, interview, or at an all-candidates debate, and record the responses to each question you ask. Reflect on how interaction with candidates affected your perception of each individual.

3. From this set of activities, review what you have discussed and learned about knowing of and interacting with election candidates.

Extended Learning 20-30 min. Option A: Create a public service announcement that explains the importance of meeting and interacting with election candidates. The announcement should target young voters, be exciting and persuasive, and contain factual information about the value of meeting election candidates. Share you announcement with members of your community.

Option B:Before attending an all-candidates’ debate, establish criteria and different levels of standards by which candidates can be evaluated. What characteristics do you look for in a candidate? How should an ideal candidate debate with the other candidate? In your opinion, to what ideas should the ideal candidate assign the highest value? How will evidence of a candidate’s worth be observed and measured? Consider surveying federal leaders’ debates in order to help identify some key characteristics of a political leader or acting out how each of these standards might appear during the debate. After the all-candidates’ debate, evaluate the candidates according to your criteria.

Option C:Highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate running in your local municipal and school board election in a creative way that can be shared with members of your community.

Option D:

Nominations for municipal and school board elections opened on January 4, 2010 and closed on September 10, 2010. Are there any municipal or school board election candidates who have won by acclamation? Using the resources provided, compare the number of acclamations in your municipality and school board to that of neighbouring municipalities and school boards; alternatively, compare the number of acclamations in your municipality and school board in this election to the number of acclamations in previous local elections. Use this information as you reflect on the necessity of acclaimed candidates to reflect the wishes of constituents while in office.

Key Termsacclaimed; acclamation; all-candidates’ debate; campaign plank; election platform; political experience; public service announcement

Essential QuestionsWho are the candidates? What are the differences between the candidates? What candidates reflect my own beliefs?

Teacher Preparation Select teaching strategies for essential learning activitiesMake class copies of required handoutsLocate local news articles, campaign materials, web and print commentary about the municipal and school board election candidates in your community for essential learning activities (see chapter on Additional Resources for links to Ontario school boards and municipalities and to Google Alerts)Book computer lab, if desiredPreview websites to be used for class activities, if desired (see chapter on Additional Resources)Select extended learning activity and teaching strategies, if desiredOrganize municipal and school board all-candidates’ debates at your class or school, if desiredLocate and prepare acclamation statistics for the upcoming election from municipal election offices (see chapter on Additional Resources)

Assessment Students should provide evidence that they have the ability to use the distinctions between candidates (such as purpose of campaign, election platform, personal connection to candidate) to judge the worth for election of each candidate.

Handout 6.1: Election Candidate ProfileCreate a profile of a municipal or school board candidate that you will have the option of electing on Student Vote Day.

Candidate Name:

Candidate’s Age:

Candidate’s Political Experience:

Candidate’s Related Experience and Qualifications for Public Office:

Significant Campaign Planks and Promises:

Interesting Fact about Candidate: