Ontario Model Parliament

Ontario Model Parliament
Abbreviation	OMP
Motto	Engaging Students in Democracy since 1986
Formation	1986
Type	NGO
Purpose/focus	Education
Headquarters	Upper Canada College
Location	Toronto
Region served	Ontario
Official languages	English
Chairmen	Aleksei Wan & Sachin Pasricha
Faculty Advisor	Mr. Matt Griem
Affiliations	UCC
Website	OMP

The Ontario Model Parliament (OMP) is a model parliament for high school students in Ontario, Canada. The OMP was founded in 1986, much through the efforts of Dr. Paul Bennett, a former history master at Upper Canada College in Toronto. The OMP is not affiliated with any political party.

Approximately 200 students participate in the OMP each year. The annual OMP commences with an "Elections Day", in which the "government" and "opposition" are established. The delegates then prepare their "legislation" for the legislative sessions held in the spring. The students convene at Queen's Park, the legislative building for Ontario. The students debate their bills as if they were real Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). In addition, the delegates hear from keynote speakers. In the past, such speakers have included John Tory (Leader of the Opposition for Ontario), James K. Bartleman, the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and Rex Murphy, political commentator and host of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Cross Country Checkup. Ontario Model Parliament celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011.

Past simulations

Dates

For 2014, the dates for OMP are the following:

• Elections Day: March 1, 2014

• Simulation: April 23-25, 2014

Governance

For 2014, the Ontario Model Parliament Executive includes:

• Chairpersons: Aleksei Wan and Sachin Pasricha

• Director of Academic Programming: Elliot Kaufman
• Director of Registration: Steven Chen & Javid Karim
• Director of Communications: Winston Kwok
• Director of Operations: Matt McKinlay
• Director of Delegate Services: Christopher Taylor
• Secretary: Jack Oneschuk

• Head of Crises: Jonathan Goldberg
• Head of Conference Services Staff: Avinash Moorthy
• Head of Press Corps: Osman Bari
• Associate Directors of Academic Programming: Cole Thompson, Jean Doubovksy, Faraz Fadavi, David Chiodo
• Associate Directors of Registration: Richard Hastie, Austin Haber, Pedram Malakian
• Associate Directors of Communications: Patrick Lee, Kinton Cheung and Derek Lam
• Associate Directors of Operations: David Spear, Shakir Lakhani and Andre Jeyarajan
• Associate Directors of Delegate Services: Nikhil Kassum

• Faculty Adviser: Mr. Matt Griem

External links

• OMP official website.
• Upper Canada College.