Friday, August 11, 2023 5Brooklin Town Crier The BTC sat with Whitby Mayor Elizabeth Roy last week to learn about her background, life before politics and things about her we didn't know. She was born and raised in Cha- tham, ON, the second youngest of five children to the Jansens, Dutch immigrants. Her youth, she says, was spent learning about the rural experience that included driving "three on a tree" (standard transmission) farm vehicles from age 13 and working on the farm. "I just remember, summer was hanging out at the parks in the parks program. I started working at the age of 13, and I worked as a page at the library." In high school, she was on stu- dent council, played broomball and participated in school plays written by the principal, something she loved. Is she then a ham? "I would say I'm a calculated one." Ham-ish? "Yes." By 1988, she was attending school at the Ontario Cancer In- stitute at the Princess Margaret Hospital. "I did a three year diploma pro- gram in medical radiation ther- apy. Health care interested me because healthcare was some- thing that is within my family. My mom's a nurse, my older brother, my younger brother's a nurse. My oldest brother is a pharmacist and my attention to what took place within healthcare was something that I really gravitated to." Here's what else we learned about the Mayor: (Edited for length and clarity) Favourite subject or course I just remember my geography course because of the teacher, but I do remember my algebra course. My geography course was Mr. Myers and he actually played for the Detroit Tigers. So whenever there was a Detroit Ti- ger game and it was during the school day we all of a sudden had a spare. But he was just a very in- teresting individual. Mr. Denomy was my algebra teacher. I really enjoyed the math, but he made algebra a lot of fun. He did the moonwalk in class. Least favorite subject or course. Probably English. I love reading, but I was gonna say probably it was the two teachers that I had, especially in high school that just did not make it very favourable. Why radiation therapy versus something else in the medical profession? When I was ac- tually investigat- ing the different programs that were available, I was looking at a lab tech posi- tion. So I got to follow along as well. My mom was a nurse. She worked in the ma- ternity ward. And then I followed along in the x-ray department for a day as well, too. And social work was another area that I was looking at. It was my guidance counselor who actually gave me the pamphlet about the radiation therapy. So I went for a visit to Princess Margaret. If you were a lab tech or if you were working in X-ray, it was not a full connection with the patient because it was you come in, you get the proce- dure done and away you go. Ra- diation therapy, you come in and that time that you're with the pa- tient could be a week, two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, You really get to have that connection to the patient as well. Early career objectives and en- tering politics I was always very involved in what I did. My parents were always very Meet Our Mayor continued on page 6