Student shadows spend strike day with Guelph mayor

With a day off school and nothing to do, many teenagers might opt to head to the mall or the movies.

Faced with the same proposition Wednesday, two Guelph students instead chose to spend the day with the city's mayor, Cam Guthrie. 

Schools within the Upper Grand District School Board and Wellington Catholic District School Board were shuttered Wednesday due to a one-day job action by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation. 

That same morning, Guthrie took to Twitter and posted a call-out inviting high school students to join him for a day of local politics. 

"I thought ... there's a lot of opportunities here [for] high schoolers who want to learn more about their city, learn more about what I do, what the city does and career opportunities in the municipal sector," said Guthrie, who has two teenagers of his own.  

Grade 9 student Lucas Rozanski and Grade 10 student William Cherry took Guthrie up on the offer.

Rozanski said he wanted to learn more about opportunities for the future. Cherry said he's interested in both business and politics, but that the job shadowing idea was his mom's. 

"I got rushed out of bed, didn't even have time to brush my teeth," said Cherry.

"I didn't even grab a coat and, you know, here I am."

Guthrie said the students started their day in a meeting about the new Guelph strategic plan. They suggested adding more bike lanes to cut down on carbon emissions, and improving business in the city.

After that, they headed to the University of Guelph and took part in a gathering held in honour of the students who were killed onboard Ukraine Airlines Flight 752 last week.

Rozanski said he looked forward to joining in the moment of silence.

"I've been trying to learn as much as I can about what had happened," he said.

Guthrie said he also planned to show the students a few places around town and have them sit in on meetings and, of course, media interviews.

Open invitation

The OSSTF is still in negotiations with the province and it isn't clear when a deal may be reached. If more strikes happen in the weeks to come, Guthrie said he's happy to repeat the impromptu job shadowing program with other students. 

The only caveat, he said, is that he can only host three at a time.

"I have a car that only has four seats in it," he explained.

Based on their experience Wednesday, Rozanski and Cherry said they might consider a career in municipal government.

Although for Cherry, working in the mayor's office comes second to his first dream of working on the open water.

"I kind of want to join the coast guard," he said.

"I'll be a reference for you," Guthrie added.