The Association for New Canadians is hosting a mock election event to help familiarize newcomers to the country to the electoral process – even if they aren’t yet eligible to cast a ballot.

Director of Language Services with the ANC, Leo Etchegary, says their goal is to explain the process to non-citizens and host a mock provincial election that’s as authentic as possible, to familiarize them with the democratic process in Canada.

He says they’ll have ballot boxes set up, and ballots with the names of candidates on them – similar to the real thing.

“Each teacher then will review with the class with all the resources we have about…what the different parties are saying, here are the candidates, here’s what they stand for, and then we bring them down to the polling station. We will have a scrutineer, we have a returning officer. It looks very similar to what you will find in a regular polling station. And then they cast their vote, and they feel a big part of the process.”

The event is set for October 8th.