By Sarah Madussi
Grade 8 student Zachery Lang got the experience of a lifetime, serving as a Legislative Page at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto for three weeks in April.
One of his teachers gave him an application for the position and he sent it in with little expectations.
A week or so before his term was set to begin, Lang received notice that he was accepted and just one week, he had 107 MPP names to remember and memorize where everyone was seated.
“We tried every funky technique to help memorize everyone’s name, including putting their pictures up on a board and putting names to faces. I had most of them memorized but no one could do it all.”
Lang’s three week term consisted of delivering messages and documents to various people and places in the Legislative Chamber and around Queen’s Park and delivering water and messages during Question Period.
Lang says he got to witness what goes in the world of politics and says it wasn’t just the MPPs battling it out in the Assembly.
“One day, they were debating a bill about windfarms and an MPP stood up and said that there were no health risks involved.
All of a sudden, a lady in the public gallery stood up and starting yelling at them, telling them about her experiences with wind farms and the health issues she suffered.
The deputy speaker told her to stop talking but she yelled again so the sergeant-at-arms pointed to the door and said ‘Out!’
The pages also had a Legislative process class where they learned how the Legislative Assembly functioned and math class since they missed three weeks of school.
Lang says that the experience really opened his eyes to what the government is really like and it’s a lot more work than the average person’s job.
Lang also had lunch with MPP Howard Hampton and heard how he got involved in politics.
He adds that flying airplanes and becoming a pilot is more his thing for the future, perhaps even the Canadian Air Force, but the other pages he met during his term in the program have become good friends and he hopes to keep in touch.