Victory party for new council
Civics class at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School gets a visit from youngest mayor ever elected in Peterborough
Mayor-elect Diane Therrien told a group of 16-year-olds on Friday that when she was their age, she never imagined she’d someday run for office.
“I was the kid in class who asked questions that got me into trouble,” she said.
But now at 32, she’s the youngest person ever elected mayor in Peterborough, although she acknowledged that 32 is “probably old, to you guys.”
Therrien was speaking on Friday at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School.
She was joined by four people elected to city council: Stephen Wright (Northcrest Ward), Keith Riel (Ashburnham Ward), Kim Zippel (Otonabee Ward) and Kemi Akapo (Town Ward) were invited to TASSS on Friday.
Teacher Jeff Bergeron’s Grade 10 civics class invited them for a victory party at noon. Over pizza, the students asked the politicians question after question for 90 minutes.
Not every councillor was present: Bergeron said he invited those he knew personally and not everyone could make it.
But he said he wanted students to be able to ask questions of their newly elected representatives “before anybody else gets to them.”
The students had good questions: for instance, they wanted to know what will become of the previous council’s plan to extend The Parkway across the city, a project championed by former mayor Daryl Bennett, and long-opposed by Therrien.
“Yeah … it’s not happening,” she said of The Parkway, which elicited laughs from the class.
They also wanted to know what will become of the General Electric lands on Park St. N., once manufacturing ceases later this year.
Re-elected councillor Keith Riel said the lands are contaminated “with every chemical known to man” and he figures GE will need to spend $1 billion in a massive cleanup.
Riel had a long career at GE.
“I worked there for 38 1/2 years — it’s sad for me to see it go,” he said.
The teens also made a few suggestions for ways to modernize the city: they want more plug-ins for electric cars, for instance, as well as a grid system and allnew buses (to replace those in the fleet from the 1990s, which one student called
outdated).
“Some buses are brand new — some are older than you,” Therrien said.
When asked for advice on how to get into politics, councillor-elect Stephen Wright suggested starting now by volunteering for social justice causes. “Stay engaged in your community right now — that’s how I started.”
Councillor-elect Zippel suggested coming to a council meeting. Therrien added that the meetings can be streamed online.
Councillor-elect Akapo told the teens not to be intimidated: get involved “in the political sphere” at any level, such as volunteering to help a campaign.
Riel said he started in politics as the student council president at his high school.
The big issue he championed was a change in the dress code: rather than mandatory skirts for girls and dress pants for boys, he successfully lobbied the administration to allow blue jeans for all.
“Thank you for your work,” Akapo said, which made the whole class laugh.
The new council will be inaugurated at City Hall on Dec. 3.