By KATIE MILLER Staff Writer

Heckling, debate and business suits can only mean one thing: politics. Young aspiring politicians of every party congregated at Queen’s Park in Toronto to participate in a model Parliament Jan. 29.  

Model Parliament has been in existence at Queen’s Park “on and off since the ‘80s,” Damien O’Brien, 24, says. The event is planned and organized by the governing party. In this case, the Young Liberals, with the help of the senior party members, came together and hosted the events of the day.

“Youth wings of each party come together to debate and discuss,” O’Brien says. The young, active cardholding members of the party, usually under the age of 25, make up the youth wing of a party. O’Brien, a Brock University student and member of the Young Liberal caucus, says the experience is a “mix of debate and fun.” Tyler Dennis, 22, a Brock University student in the political science and labour studies program, says the experience “gives youth wings the chance to mimic what the senior parties do.”

Dennis, a member of the Progressive Conservative (PC) caucus, has been in four model parliaments in his home province of Nova Scotia. There, he was on the government side of the house. Dennis finds being in government “more challenging.” However, he finds that being in the opposition allows for “more freedom in questioning.”

William Burtch, a student at Seneca College in Toronto, enjoys the opposition’s role because it’s “a lot of disagreeing with the government.” Neil Irvine, 24, a Queen’s University history student at the master’s level, found that sitting in the real provincial legislature building added a “high degree of realism to the event.”

“The most rewarding part of the day was to discuss political issues with participants from every party as true allies, even though we just spent the day yelling at each other across the floor,” he says. Burtch, 21, of the PC caucus, says he enjoyed the realism of the day. Each party had the chance to present bills, debate the bill and participate in Question Period.

“In order to have a variety of experiences, we had the Throne Speech, caucus meetings with three guest speakers, three sessions of third readings for bills, Question Period and a budget. It was very busy,” Irvine, a resident of Kingston, Ont., and a member of the Young Liberals says. O’Brien emphasizes it is a “privilege to be here [at Queen’s Park]. There is a lot of history.”