Passing the gavel, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens shakes hands with Jax Gorica, a Grade 5 student from Ecole St. Therese. Gorica was briefly the city’s mayor during a mock council session by elementary school students at city hall council chambers on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star
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The mayor’s chair and Windsor’s city council chambers were briefly taken over Wednesday by pint-sized politicians as St. Therese Catholic elementary school’s Grade 5 students held a mock meeting.
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In an enthusiastic display of simulated municipal politics, students debated a replacement option for the Charles Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain at Reaume Park, an issue council debated and decided on last year.
After a brief presentation by Ray Mensour, city commissioner of community services, the young council of five listened to a series of delegates — their peers — who argued the merits of three fountain options.
“I think the kids did an incredible job,” said Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie, facilitator of the student meeting.
“I was quite impressed with their ability to look at a quite complicated investment, and to unpack that, understand the ramification of it, and to come up with good and solid arguments — arguments that were actually articulated in council chambers when we had the debate around the Peace Fountain issue.”
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Grassroots politics: Raelyn Gauthier, left, Sophy Hayes, Bradley Kizigenza, and Ismael Tulundakio, Grade 5 students at Ecole St. Therese, occupy the seats normally filled by Windsor’s elected city councillors during a mock council meeting at Windsor city hall on Wednesday.Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star
During the meeting, which was conducted in French, students connected the Peace Fountain to economic development and tourism, arguing a flashier design would draw more visitors to the park.
Some students were supportive of maintaining a similar design to that of the original floating fountain out of concern for historic continuity, while others questioned fountain engineering that might end up soaking onlookers.
Ultimately, the young mock council voted unanimously for the most expensive option: an “arch” that would cost between $16.8 million and $19.3 million and would reach out over the bay with water raining down.
City council in May 2022 decided differently and chose to purchase a similar floating fountain to what has been on display for more than four decades at a cost of between $7 million and $8.1 million.
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Future politicians? Grade 5 students from Ecole St. Therese and their teachers pose for a photo with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie in council chambers ahead of a mock council meeting run by the students at Windsor city hall on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star
“I thought it was really fun. It’s kind of nerve-wracking, though,” said Jax Gorica, who served as mayor during the exercise and shook hands with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens ahead of the meeting.
“I think (my classmates) did well — we chose to do the arch because I learned a lot during what the delegates said. It proved to me that I wanted that.”
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McKenzie said the mock meeting was born out of an inquiry by one of his former classmates, now a teacher at St. Therese, looking to bring students to tour city hall.
“If you’re coming to city hall and you’re going to bring a student group here, the experience is governance,” McKenzie said.
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Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie takes questions from Grade 5 students from Ecole St. Therese who ran a mock council meeting at Windsor city hall on Wednesday.Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star WINDSOR, ON. Wednesday, June 14, 2023 — Grade 5 students from Ecole St. Therese sit in council chambers at Windsor city hall and participate in a mock council meeting run by their peers on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star
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