Ottawa — Mayor Jim Watson announced today the winners of the first Mayor for a Day contest. Madison Richmire, a grade 10 student from A.Y. Jackson Secondary School, and Jackson Millenor, a grade 10 student from St. Peter Catholic High School, were selected for their exceptional and innovative ideas on how to make Ottawa a better place to live.

Madison’s active transportation and recreation suggestions of adding more OC Transpo bus routes, additional bike paths and creating more outdoor spaces and sport facilities for youth would help improve the way residents travel and move through our city. Jackson’s ideas of converting all street lights to LED technology, retrofitting City parks and outdoor public spaces and creating multipurpose gathering spaces in libraries and modernising their technology equipment would benefit the environment, help bring people together and create new community hubs.

The two winning students have been invited to be Mayors for a Day on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. Madison and Jackson will chair the City Council meeting alongside Mayor Watson, accompany the Mayor at various community and city events and learn more about how municipal governments work.

The Mayor for a Day contest was organized by the Ottawa Youth Engagement Committee (OYEC) in partnership with the City of Ottawa and Mayor Jim Watson‘s office, as a way to promote youth engagement on municipal politics and civic issues. It took place from February 2 to 28 and was open to all Ottawa high school students in grades 9 to 12. Participants were invited to submit their ideas on how to improve the city for their chance to experience a day in the life of the Mayor. Over 90 applications with more than 250 ideas from students from high schools across the city and from all school boards were received. Submitted ideas from all participants will help inform the Ottawa Youth Engagement Committee’s Youth Action Plan (YAP), as part of OYEC’s current citywide youth consultations.