I thought it might be good timing for an update.

Yesterday, the other students I had a chance to get a chance to go for a Legislature Tour. I was totally stoked on going, since I unfortunately had to cancel my appointment last term due to some last-minute branch meeting.

I remember when I was just a little boy in grade six when we last had a tour of the Ontario Legislature. But obviously, being like all the other crazy elementary school kids, it was more of a chance to fool around and play, rather than paying attention and listening.

But this time, ten years later, I did pay attention. Wow. This is how I’ve evolved. Ten years. I’m proud of myself.

The tour was pretty good, but shorter than expected. I remember some interesting tidbits that I thought I would share:

The Main Legislative building is actually not entirely symmetrical as you might think. The west portion of the building has four floors, while the east portion has three. Apparently, there was a huge fire back in 1913 in which people were welding on the roof. The welding equipment was apparently left unattended, while the construction crew was off for lunch. Sparks permeated into the building, and because the columns where made of (I believe) copper, the columns melted and collapsed. And there goes the building’s west side. The west side was then rebuilt using marble, which were less vulnerable to fires.

The tour guide pointed out that there was sort of an image of dinosaur bones on three of the columns in the west wing. I thought that was totally neat. But after some Google searching afterwards the tour (or if you remember from Grade 10 Geography), marble is a metamorphic rock. It takes intense heat and pressure to transform it to marble, which obviously make it impossible for fossils to be still embedded in it. That totally ruined the “coolness” of it all.

I was sooooo into dinosaurs in Grade Five. While everyone else loved the T-Rex, my favourite was the Triceratops and the Brontosaurus. They’re peaceful plant-eating creatures and so terribly cute. I wanna pinch them. (I also like Triceratops because that was one of my favourite Power Rangers!) Oh I miss those days of Power Rangers. Again, back in Grade 6. It was just terrific. Boy those actors suck, could be believe what they wore? That was just over 10 years ago? Haha.

Back to the tour. Another interesting factoid is that in the Chamber, the government side and the opposition side of the house is exactly two swords’ length in apart from each other. This was done to deter any violent brawls. Hmmm. Interesting.

The other students and I also had a bit of time to check out Question Period. I love Question Period. It’s definitely much funner to watch in-person than on the tube. You can better hear all the lewd remarks from the opposition when cabinet member is speaking. It’s nice to know that there’s a nice live sitcom just across from the office.

Did any of you want to be a Page back in the day? Man, I so wanted to be a Page. I thought it would be totally neat to meet Bob Rae, who was then premier. I remember having this feeling that if I was in a room full of powerful people, then I would then become powerful too through the powers of osmosis. Anyways, it didn’t happen. Apparently, go to school two hours a day, and spend the rest of the day performing Page duties. It is hard work and you are compensated $10 a day.

That’s not bad for kid!