This article was first published by BarrieToday, a Village Media publication.
Don’t be too surprised if you see the name Chloe Hassberger on an election ballot sometime around 2040.
A self-described political junkie who loves to discuss politics with her parents, the 13-year-old Anten Mills resident has already decided she wants to become a lawyer.
Recently, she’s been mulling over the thought of adding another vocation: ‘serving the people’ as an elected representative.
She thinks Queen’s Park might be the place for her.
It would be familiar terrain, as she’s just wrapped up a stint as a page at the provincial legislature.
Inspired by her mom’s friend’s experience as a page, Chloe thought it would be “cool” to get an insider’s view of how the government works.
“It’s pretty chaotic,” she said. “There’s a lot of yelling at each other to figure things out.”
Chloe quickly discovered the yelling was as much theatre as anything else.
She said the members of provincial parliament she met, regardless of their party allegiance, were always kind and supportive of the pages and she thinks most of them are pretty decent folks.
But that didn’t preclude her from enjoying the friction of Question Period.
“I love Question Period, everyone’s there,” Chloe said. “It was the most energetic, most exciting part of the day. Definitely the most fun.”
According to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website, approximately 150 pupils from across Ontario are selected every year to participate in the page program which “is designed for outgoing, high-achieving, community-involved students who have demonstrated responsibility and leadership.”
To get in, a potential page must submit an essay, in Grade 7 or 8, explaining why they’d be good for the program and what they could bring to the program.
Chloe, who attends St. Marguerite D'Youville Catholic Elementary School in Barrie, applied twice — once in Grade 7 and then again in Grade 8.
“The first time I didn’t get in, but I was passionate about this and I wanted to get in, so I applied again,” she said.
In her second submission, she highlighted an achievement she felt wouldn't appear on any other application — she won on the Pepsi Titleist Girls U15 golf tour and she won the Simcoe County junior golf tournament.
“I’ve been the champion of two golf tours this year,” she said. “I feel like that’s not very common and a little bit more rare. I thought they might think that was cool and they’d let me in.”
She also let the screening committee know she does other sports as well, in addition to volunteering for food drives and being a reading buddy at her school.
Chloe submitted her essay in June and received her confirmation email in September.
And while she knew she was going to be busy, the days were longer than expected.
Chloe said a typical day would begin at 7:45 a.m., when she would arrive at Queen’s Park.
She’d change into her page uniform and be ready for her daily briefing starting at 8:15.
She’d get her schedule and then do her chamber duties.
“I had to get water for the sergeant-at-arms and his assistants, every Monday and Tuesday,” she said.
Depending on which page group she was in, her day, which included a number of hours spent doing the school work she was ‘missing’ back home, ended at either 4:30 or 6 p.m.
“I really, really enjoyed it,” she said. “I’d recommend it to anyone. It’s an amazing program and I learned so much from it.”
