Casual Fridays in an Ancient Building

Last Friday, unlike normal days, the Legislative Pages didn't have to wear their uniforms.
Why?
The Legislative Assembly does not sit on Fridays.

As we don't have to work, Fridays are usually fun days; it is on these days that we go on trips outside of Queen's Park. However, today was the Orientation Day for the next group of Legislative Pages who begin work on Monday, March 18th. As our teacher Ms. Tedford needed to be with the new group of pages to train them, we had an extra-early release. While dismissal on Friday is normally two, today we were allowed
to leave at 12:30. As well, today we couldn't go on a trip. So instead, we went on tours.

The Main Building in Queen's Park was constructed in 1893; before that, there was a Mental Hospital for Women on the same grounds, more commonly called the Insane Asylum.
With a history like that, the Ontario Legislative Building must have some ghost stories. In fact, it has many.

The first tour that we went on was to the Attic; the Pages and I were standing directly above the Chamber. Because the wooden floors in the attic was the same that it was built off nearly one hundred and twenty years ago, and for that reason we all had to walk on special paths. We walked to the center of the room, and were given permission to go in pairs off the path to a spot in the center of the floor where you can see down into the Chamber. It was an amazing view.
As well, we were told of a ghost that lives there in the attic; if you look up at the top three windows on the South Side of the Legislative Building at night, you may catch a glimpse of Clarice, the attic ghost.

After our attic tour we headed to the 'dungeons', a basement storage area that was the same as the one in the Insane Asylum. Our tour guide told us of a ghost sighting that occurred there just a few years ago. A construction worker, with limited English skills claimed to have seen a male figure in clothes that a doctor might wear, before the figure floated to him and disappeared.

After our tour of the dungeons, we all headed to the Page Quarters to get our jackets; we were going to go on a scavenger hunt. In pairs, we had to search the Queen's Park for answers to several questions; for example, we needed to find the statue of Sir. John S. Macdonald to figure out the name of the Premier who shared a first and last name with the first Premier of Ontario, Sir. John A. Macdonald.

After an hour of running around in the cold, me and my partner came in last place. Oh well.

We headed back inside and went to the room in which press meetings occurred and got a special visit from one of the reporters that worked at Queen's Park. She explained to us about the Media's part in politics, and how things like Press Meetings and Scrums (mobs of press) worked. It was a great experience, as I to wish to go into journalism or writing when I am older.

After that, the Pages went back downstairs to the Security's Main office. The Head Constable there explained to us the different strands of constables that work at Queen's Park, as well as how their uniforms look like and what they do. We got to meet a constable dressed in Riot Control uniform, and test him on his reaction skills when one Page yelled 'Gas gas gas!', the signal for a gas bomb. The Constable got his gas mask on and redressed in his uniform in a mere 27 seconds!
We also got to interact with the Constable who was monitoring the 160+ security cameras that were placed in and around the Legislative Building; we even got to control one of the cameras with a joystick!

Shortly afterwards, we headed across the hall back to the Page Quarters. At this time, the new Legislative Pages for next term were already there, getting fitted and socializing. My group of pages were told to wait in the classroom, while the pizza was being brought for lunch. Once it arrived, we got a chance to interact with the new patch of pages; I jumped onto this opportunity to welcome them. We were also told to give the new pages some advice for their term.
For any new pages going into the program; my suggestion for you is to make sure that your shoes fit your perfectly. My shoes had already been broken in, but since I hadn't worn them for a year, I got massive blisters on my first day. It really isn't comfortable to be limping around when you have three trips to the Whitney Block across the street.

At twelve thirty, the Term 1 Pages packed up our stuff,  were given our paychecks and said goodbye to the new pages.