The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

No ghosts at Queen's Park, but lots of in-house fighting by Dominik Kurek Oakville Beaver Staff 21 | Wednesday, June 19, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Grade 8 St. Matthew Catholic Elementary School student Charlie Violin got an up-close-and-personal lesson in Ontario politics he could not get in the classroom this year. The 13-year-old participated as a page in the Queen's Park Legislature. One of the most interesting lessons he learned in the three-week program is that some politicians don't act any older than the youngest of children at his school. "(Some) politicians are overgrown Kindergartners, we called them. Some people would just play Brick Breaker on their phone. Someone would say something and they would start yelling out," Violin said. "Question period was a lot of fun. People would say something and then they would start yelling back and forth and the speaker would have to get up and start yelling at them." Violin served at the end of February and beginning of March, a few months after he was originally supposed to. His session was delayed and shortened after the provincial government prorogued Legislature. Violin heard about the page program from a neighbour and an aunt who had participated. He said he likes politics and watching how laws are made, so he applied for the program by writing an essay. He was one of 24 students serving during his term. Before Violin could serve as a page at Queen's Park, he had to pass a test. For the test, he had to memorize all the names of the MPPs and ministers and where they sat. He also had to learn the etiquette in the Legislature, such as facing the camera when motions were being read and to bow whenever he handed something to the speaker. Violin said the experience was worth it. Even though he missed school for three weeks, he did not miss schoolwork. The pages have a teacher assigned. They had a math class and a legislative process class, in which they learned about different types of government. Government is not in session on Fridays, so those days included a field trip day for the students. One Friday, they explored the at- Charlie Violin tic of Queen's Park. The attic also has a room from which a person could have a bird's eye view of the council chamber. "There are supposedly ghosts up there. We didn't see any," Violin said. The pages enjoyed a lunch with their local MPPs. For Violin that was with Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh. Getting to Queen's Park was a bit of a mission. Violin said he had to wake up at 4:45 a.m., be at the GO station at 6:20 a.m., arrived at Queen's Park around 7:30 a.m. and had to be in uniform and ready by 8:15 a.m. Going home was never on schedule. On days he had math class, he would be done at 4:30 p.m. On the days he served in the council chamber, he would wrap up anywhere between 2 and 6:30 p.m. Violin said his favourite aspect of the page program was meeting the other pages. We continue to maintain contact still, he said. "We Skype and text and e-mail," said Violin. Some things are just better together. #itsbettertogether facebook.com/flyerland.ca @flyerland