Green Party leader Elizabeth May (second from left) participated in the first annual “Who’s Smarter Than A Kroeger Kid?” game show at Carleton || photo by Catherine Benesch

Four Carleton University students went “brain to brain” March 4 with federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May and two Carleton professors in a Jeopardy-style game show for an evening of friendly competition and laughter.

The first annual “Who's Smarter Than A Kroeger Kid?” was attended by about 90 people, mostly students. The hour-long event was organized by the student society of the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs at Carleton.

The Green Party leader and Patrick Salonius, a first-year student at the college, tied for the win with 4,000 points each after two rounds of 25 questions in five categories. The questions covered topics such as politics, history, sports and technology.

Nicholas Rowe, an economics professor, and Trevor Purvis, a law professor, kept the audience and fellow contestants laughing with comments on the difficulty of some of the questions. Purvis placed second with 3,800 points, and Rowe came in at a close third with 3,600 points.

The evening began with an introduction by event organizer Martha Chertkow, a fourth-year public affairs and policy management student. She described the show as a fun spin on the annual night of “more traditional” policy discussion between the college’s students and MPs.

Chertkow said the turnout and enthusiasm surpassed all her expectations as something innovative that integrates policy discussion a good time with a bit of competition.

She also said the event created a sense of community by bringing together students in the different years of the public affairs and policy management program. One student from each year of the program was “democratically selected,” Chertkow said, to participate in the game show.

Salonius said fellow first-year students nominated him for the show and that he is humble about tying for first-place.

 “When I first heard about it, it was somewhat daunting,” Salonius said. “I didn’t think I stood much of a chance.”

May, the only female contestant in the game, said she credited her performance to “just being older and remembering things.”

“Everybody was a very good sport,” she said. “That’s the fun thing about this – people aren’t too competitive and they have a good laugh with the questions too.”

The seven contestants each went home with a shot glass picturing the college’s founder, Arthur Kroeger, with a party hat and party blower. Inside each glass was a small pouch of green Smarties, wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper.

“I am a green smartie,” said May with a laugh. “But I gave up chocolate for Lent, believe it or not, so I’ll save these for Easter.”