A new Vanier Catholic Secondary School council will be elected today.

In advance of the election, Sacred Heart Cathedral distributed a letter to members of its parish urging them to vote.

"The governance of our Catholic schools is a crucial component of maintaining our Catholic schools and preserving their Catholic identity,” it reads.

"This is the time to exercise our responsibility to preserve our constitutional right to Catholic education as delineated in the Yukon Act and in subsequent educations acts.”

It goes on to note that all teachers, administrators and parents involved in the Catholic schools have agreed with the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Whitehorse's Mission Statement and Statement of Values and Beliefs including "enrollment requirements and full participation in the program including the prayer life, church-related activities, religious education programs and instruction and exercises in Catholic ethical and moral values.

"It is the responsibility of every member of Sacred Heart Cathedral and of Our Lady of Victory parish to discern carefully those candidates who are in full agreement with the Mission Statement and the Statement of Values and Beliefs,” it says.

The quote is formatted as it appeared in the letter.

Tjitske van der Eide raised concerns that the letter is taking indirect aim at her partner, John Berg, a current school councillor running for re-election, and other moderate candidates.

In his biography on the Catholic Education Association of Yukon website, Berg notes that he "felt a shift in the school's culture-and-vision, wandering from its successful past.

"As a publicly-funded Catholic school that for a long time accepted, even embraced, other faiths and beliefs, I find it critical to maintain that vision.

"The school's high academic standards and acceptance of other-than-Catholic world views were slipping, enrolment was declining, and other glaring issues were disconcerting. Very few would answer to those crucial facts, requiring parental action to prevent further erosion of the school's founding principles,” he writes.

van der Eide said Berg has been accused of wanting to eliminate Catholic education, but said his response is that if that were the case, why would he send his teenaged daughter to a Catholic school?

"We need to get our Catholic school in Whitehorse into 2014,” she said, referencing the controversy over the school's policy on homosexuality.

John Robbins, a volunteer at the church and a contact listed on the distributed letter, said the letter was meant to encourage parishioners to vote in the election at Vanier.

It was not directed at specific candidates, he said. Rather, it was to encourage voters to read through the candidates' biographies available on the Catholic Education Association of Yukon's website (http://www.ceay.ca).

Berg could not be reached for comment before today's press deadline.

Voting will take place today at the Vanier Catholic school library from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Any Canadian citizen with a child in the school can vote as well as any member of the two Catholic parishes in Whitehorse regardless of whether they have children in the school.