This week, Scott Vaughan should be a very proud teacher at the Canora Junior Elementary School.
In social studies, he has been teaching his grades 3/4 split class about leadership, locally and at senior government levels. Though she was on her Easter break, eight-year-old Lila Wilson took what she has been learning to heart and on March 29 had Premier Brad Wall describe his leadership during a public pre-election meet-and-greet in Canora.
In the couple of days before the scheduled event at Terry Dennis’ campaign office, Lila was telling her mother, Alissa, that she wanted to ask the Premier a few questions. When Alissa went to work that morning (teaching at the Canora Nursery School), she told Lila to think about the questions she wanted to ask and to write them down.
On March 29, after Wall addressed the gathering, Lila presented her questions and Wall knelt down, read them and publically gave his answers.
She asked how he became the provincial leader. Did the people elect him or was it a position that he inherited? Wall explained the party voting system in Saskatchewan, explaining that his leadership depends upon his party having the greatest number of MLAs elected.
The second question was about what kind of leadership he used to help the people of Saskatchewan. Being informed that Lila was a member of a dance club, Wall said a similar methodology could be found in his government. All the elected MLAs work together like a team to make the best choices for the people as a whole.
Her third and final question was about how average citizens could help government make decisions. Wall said that citizens can phone, text or email their ideas or they can share their opinions at organized meet-and-greets, such as the one that was being held that day.
Alissa said the crowd was very attentive and the Premier responded with such kindness and thoughtfulness that it was a very proud moment for her. Her daughter impressed her in how she prepared the questions and her teacher deserves credit for encouraging an eight-year-old to have that depth when thinking about a topic like leadership.
