Creating buzz with bee hive atop T.M.R. town-hall

Students learn about nature and politics in unique project to place a bee colony atop town hall

Published on April 22, 2014 | Montreal Gazette
Written by: Catherine Solyom

For the bees, too, it’s been a long, hard winter.

As they prepare to leave the hive to take their first flight of spring, the question is whether there will be enough honey left over from last year to survive until the flowers bloom — and the queen lays her eggs.

But this Earth Day, the honey bees have found new friends in high places, as town councillors in Mount Royal team with “mini” town councillors to set up a hive on the roof of town hall.

It was an exercise first in democracy, Town of Mount Royal mayor Philippe Roy said — to school the next generation of politicians in a year punctuated by fierce municipal and provincial elections.

Twelve preteens from three local schools were also elected by their peers this year, albeit with fewer scandals and less name-calling.

They learned the ins and outs of council decorum, and that the mayor rides in a limousine to work. But these “Townschool councillors” as they are known, also learned about the dangers facing the Earth’s master pollinators, responsible for pollinating one-third of the food on our plates.

And they did something about it.

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