With his finger pointing and voice raised, Jason Aginsky, of the Environment and Learning Development Party, tried to poke holes in the SJP's platform to be elected to govern the province of Steveston.
In a retaliation Christy Clark would have been proud of, Katie Snell, of the SJP (Steveston Justice Party), challenged the ELD's masterplan to use revenue from underwater tidal power off Garry Point to fund a new hospital in Richmond.
Such was the intensity of debate and depth of knowledge from each candidate, if you weren't sitting in a Grade 6/7 classroom in Steveston's Tomekichi Homma elementary, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Legislature's public gallery in Victoria.
In the run-up to yesterday's B.C. election, the students in Michael Gilles' split class formed five political parties for five imaginary ridings to lay claim a seat in the fictitious province of Steveston.
As well as the ELD and SJP, on the ballot there were the CPS (Construction Party of Steveston), the DPS (Democratic Party of Steveston) and the SS (Steveston Supremes).
Each had five candidates bidding for a seat and each party had researched their platforms and made pre-election promises, including: creating a surging economy through tourism; rapid transit rail from Steveston to Richmond city centre; cures for deadly diseases; jet fuel pipeline for and against; treating all citizens with respect and wind farms on Garry Point.
BC VOTES 2013
RICHMOND NEWS COVERAGE
For election stories about each of the Richmond ridings, head to www.richmond-news.com. and click the B.C. Election tab under News.
To see maps, tweets and how the night unfolded, check our Live Election page, also under the online News tab. Few got a free ride, however, and all parties' fluffy pledges were tested and twisted during a fiery question and answer session, moderated by student teacher Brian Pantaleo and timed by Gilles.
"Statistics show that students who study elections and politics will be lifelong voters themselves and will take the issues home and not be lethargic voters in later life," said Gilles.
"It's incredible how they took on the roles and they've really done a lot of research and have a really good understanding of the issues."
The class also took part in the province-wide "Student Vote," which runs parallel to the actual election and has all participating schools mark a mock ballot for the actual candidate in their riding.
HOMMA ELECTION RESULTS:
'Province of Steveston': The SJP (Steveston Justice Party).
Actual riding of Richmond-Steveston: Scott Stewart (NDP) with a landslide 18 votes; Carol Day (BC Con) 8.
