From Fredericton to the Red Chamber: How 2 N.B. students became Senate pages

It's been five years since there's been a participant from New Brunswick in the Canadian Senate's page program — now the province has two.

Amanda Morris and Tait Leroux of Fredericton, who both go to university in Ottawa, are two of 17 pages from across the country in the Senate page program.

Senate pages assist with the day-to-day operations of the Senate, including passing messages between senators, printing out speeches and documents and setting up Senate committees.

Morris said it’s a “big honour” to represent New Brunswick in the program.

“It's something that I'm very proud to do because of the community that has supported me throughout the entirety of my high school career,” Morris said.

Leroux also points to her hometown as part of the reason she and Morris made the cut.

“I think Fredericton punches above its weight in a lot of ways,” Leroux said. 

“It kind of shows people that Fredericton is capable of a lot to have two people in a group of only 17.”

Morris said she was happy to get the coveted position and happy to see another New Brunswicker, who she knows well, in the program.

“Tait and I will talk a lot about New Brunswick,” she said.

“Things like moon mist ice cream, which is apparently only a Maritime thing.”

Conversations about ice cream aside, Leroux said she was happy to have a fellow Frederictonian to talk to about home.

“Sometimes me and Amanda just start talking about a teacher we had in middle school or something,” Leroux said. 

“It's hard for [the other pages] to believe that we've known each other for so long.”