A Remarkable Assembly, Women's Forum

Tuesday, 16 April 2019 13:06

Former municipal candidate Kate Leatherbarrow represented Oxford County at A Remarkable Assembly, Women's Forum in Toronto yesterday.

TORONTO - 95 women with an eye on politics from different ridings across Ontario were at Queens Park yesterday for A Remarkable Assembly, Women's Forum.

Former Municipal candidate Kate Leatherbarrow was selected to represent Oxford County at the event. Leatherbarrow's day started with an inspirational message from the leader of the NDP Andrea Horvath.

"It was a long day, I left Woodstock around 5:30 and the day started with a breakfast at the legislative building at 8:00 a.m. Andrea Horvath and the MPP from Guelph spoke, along with the speaker at the legislative building, inspiring us to continue with our political careers or aspirations."

Leatherbarrow says she really enjoyed taking in the entire experience, learning more about politics and having the chance to sit in on a very heated Question Period.

"Question Period was very theatrical and entertaining, I think that was my favourite part, seeing all of the big leaders, debating across the floor and exchanging some very heated words with each other. We also had lunch with several female MPP's and talked to them about the campaign period, how often they have to be in Toronto, how to pass different legislative bills and things like that, it was very informative."

Leatherbarrow says it was amazing to see so many different MP's at their job.

"It was really interesting to see the MPP's come into where we were, Kathleen Wynne was there, Doug Ford was there, Catherine Fife from the Waterloo region, who is an idol of mine was there. Ernie Hardeman was there but unfortunately he didn't come and see me on the three opportunities he had, which was a little disappointing because we had so many MPP's come in and congratulate us for being in attendance yesterday."

Leatherbarrow was selected for the Assembly after writing an essay on Women in leadership and outlining the different ways she has shown leadership in her community. She says the day was inspiring and it made her want to continue to further her education into politics and give back to the community.

Leatherbarrow is very active in the community and just missed out on a seat on Woodstock City Council by 70 votes last year.