Seeing how well MPPs of different political stripes actually get along surprised Sarnia’s Emily Coyle during a month earlier this year she spent serving as a page at Ontario’s legislature.
The 13-year-old Grade 8 pupil at Cathcart Boulevard public school was part of only the second group of pages to serve at Queen’s Park in Toronto since the pandemic began.
Even then, the group of 12 pages she was in was half the normal size because of COVID restrictions.
Her four-week term in the page program ended just before Easter.
“We’ve been talking about it for years,” Coyle said about conversations she and her father, Chris Coyle, had about her applying for the page program.
He said Emily applied in February when the page program resumed earlier this year after pausing because of the pandemic.
“We had been checking from time-to-time,” he said.
Information about the page program and how to apply can be found online at www.ola.org/en/visit-learn/programs/about-page-program.
Emily said she thought it “would be a good experience to help me to be less shy, and kind of talk to people more. And learn more about how the government works, and stuff.”
The program’s website says it’s designed for “outgoing, high-achieving, community-involved pupils who have demonstrated responsibility and leadership.”
At Queen’s Park, pages are under the direction of a certified teacher and each receives a $15 daily honorarium.
Applicants must be in Grade 8 and have an average of 80 per cent or better.
Emily stayed with her grandfather while in Toronto at an Airbnd that was a three-minute drive from Queen’s Park.
Her mother, Tanya Coyle, said pages from outside of the Toronto area normally billet with families there but that wasn’t possible because of the pandemic.
Pages wear uniforms and serve four days a week, with field trips around Toronto on Fridays. They attend classes for math and legislative process while at Queen’s Park, as well as serving in the legislature, filling water glasses, and delivering messages and documents.
“There were a lot of rules about how you deliver those, and stuff,” she said.
Pages also have to memorize the names and ridings of each of the 124 MPPs, plus there are traditions to honor and procedures to follow, including paying a dollar fine if they show up late for duty, but Emily said the program was less strict and “ more fun” than she expected.
“A lot of people get along,” Emily added about how she saw MPPs from different parties interact with each other, at least when there were outside of the legislative chamber.
On one of the days Emily served as a page captain, she and her parents had lunch with Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey. She also had her photo taken with Bailey, and there were group photos with the lieutenant-governor, speaker and other officials.
Emily said she enjoys art, drawing and reading. She’s going to Northern Collegiate next year and hasn’t made up her mind about her plans for after high school.
Serving as a page followed an earlier adventure when Emily and her family spent two years living in Taiwan where her father, a principal, and her mother, a speech and language pathologist, worked in schools there.