Students take over mayor’s chair at Windsor city hall

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Local News

Published Jun 14, 2023 • 2 minute read

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

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.

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.”

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.

“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.

tcampbell@postmedia.com

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