Norwood Park elementary student Nicole Lachapelle had a front-row seat at Queen's Park this fall when she won a position as a busy, Legislative page.By ROB FAULKNER, HWDSB Staff
Nicole Lachapelle was always interested in how politics works. Her parents are keen newspaper readers, her dad has taught politics and the family chats about public affairs at home.
But the 13-year-old Norwood Park student got a front-row seat for four weeks this fall – literally – when she landed one of 20 spots as a Legislative page at Queen’s Park.
“Some people say the role of the page is so important that, if they weren’t there, the House would stop functioning,” she said. “It was really fun, and I’d tell every student that they should do it.”
Nicole, in Grade 8 student at the French Immersion school, west Mountain school, learned of the page program from her mom, who works for the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association in Toronto. Her dad Pat teaches at Orchard Park secondary.
“I had to write an essay about why I thought I would be a good page,” explains Nicole, who noted that she speaks French, has Level 4 marks (above 80 per cent), has travelled widely in Canada, the US and Europe, and is a great team player.
So, Nicole became one of the thousands of Toronto-bound commuters from Hamilton. Luckily, her mom works in Toronto so she caught a ride some days. She got used to taking the GO train.
A page, she explains, works in the Chamber when the House is sitting. They deliver documents to MPPs so the members can be well-spoken about various topics. They bring water. They do the “Joe jobs” required behind the scenes, her dad says.
“I had to admit that I didn’t notice them before. But when I went to watch, it’s amazing how busy they are running back and forth across the floor,” Pat says. To help her with her errands, he helped quiz her on the names and faces of 107 MPPs. Nicole had to deliver the notes to the right people, after all.
Her first impression of the House?
“There was a lot of heckling, which was funny and sometimes I started to laugh. But you aren’t supposed to laugh,” says Nicole, who was, like her dad, impressed by how on-task all the pages were at Queen’s Park.
“The kids are instructed on what to do and, without someone looking over them, they are left to do their job. Everybody knew what their expectations were, and they were basically treated like adults,” Pat said.
Nicole is also involved in school volleyball, basketball, the athletic committee and at her church as a volunteer. In a word, she’s busy. Her hours as a page were generally 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m., but some days went long; so adding on her GO train commutes, she was gone from 6:15 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
“Unfortunately for Nicole, most of her school work was done on weekends. Our rationale was that it was better to chip away at it than to have weeks of work to do when you get back to school,” said Pat, who credits Norwood teacher Giselle Blais with sharing work for Nicole to do, to catch up.
During his stint as a page, the program provided students with a tutor, as well as classes such as Legislative Process. Students debated a mock bill to make the 401 a toll highway. (It didn’t pass.) She also met MPPs representing Hamilton, like Sophia Aggelonitis and Andrea Horwath.
One VIP had a special tie to her family.
“Well, it’s a bit of a human interest story,” says Pat, urging Nicole to share the tale of her meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty. McGuinty asked about Nicole’s surname, and said that his own grandmother’s maiden name was Lachapelle.
Nicole says, “I called my great-aunt in Timmins and it turns out we are related. My great-grandfather and his grandmother were brother and sister.” So, when he met Nicole, what did McGuinty say?
“He said, ‘Hey cuz!’”
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