Tom Symons: A Canadian Life

by Ralph Heintzman (Editor)

Overview

Tom Symons: A Canadian Life is a compelling portrait of one of Canada's pre-eminent educational and cultural statesmen of the twentieth century. An outstanding public figure, Symons was a leader in many areas of Canadian life, including as the founding president of Trent University, as a pioneer in Canadian and Aboriginal studies, as an architect of national unity and French-language education in Ontario, as a champion of human rights, and as the chief policy advisor to the federal Progressive Conservative party in the 1960s and 1970s. The volume's contributors are as remarkable as its subject. They include Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada; the Honourable Tom McMillan, former federal Minister of the Environment; the Honourable Charles Beer, former Ontario Cabinet Minister; Ivan Fellegi, former Chief Statistician of Canada; John Fraser, one of Canada's most distinguished journalists; and Denis Smith, award-winning biographer of John Diefenbaker, among others. Tom Symons: A Canadian Life is a study in leadership. It brings to light the unique human and personal qualities that allowed Symons to lead in such a wide range of areas and to exercise such deep and lasting influence on so many Canadian institutions -- contributions that continue to be meaningful and relevant for Canada today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780776630434
Publisher:	University of Ottawa Press
Publication date:	06/04/2011
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Ralph Heintzman is an adjunct research professor of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and a Senior Fellow of Massey College in the University of Toronto. In the 1960s, he served as assistant to Tom Symons. He is a former editor of the Journal of Canadian Studies and has served in many senior executive positions with the Government of Canada.

Table of Contents

Preface
Becoming Tom Symons
-- Ralph Heintzman, University of Ottawa and Massey College
Tom Symons and the Founding of Trent University
-- Denis Smith, author and biographer
Classrooms, Conversations and Communities: Tom Symons’s Perspectives on Learning
-- Jamie Benidickson, University of Ottawa
He Walked in Our Moccasins and Mukluks: Tom Symons and Native and Northern Studies and Policy
-- Harvey McCue, former Director General, Policy and Research, Education Branch, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
Quiet Revolutionary: Tom Symons, National Unity and Linguistic Rights
-- Charles Beer, former Ontario Cabinet Minister
Robert L. Stanfield and Tom Symons: A Public Policy Partnership
-- Tom McMillan, former federal Cabinet Minister
To Know Ourselves: Tom Symons and Canadian Studies
-- David R. Cameron, University of Toronto
“It’s All About Culture”: The Cultural Perspective of Tom Symons
-- Walter Pitman, former President, Ryerson University
Transformative Leadership: Tom Symons and a New Vision of Human Rights
-- Rosalie Silberman Abella, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
Tom Symons and the Commonwealth
-- Alastair Niven, former President of English PEN
Peace and International Understanding through Education: Tom Symons and the United World Colleges
-- Ralph Heintzman
Tom Symons, Independent Schools and the Canadian Educational Standards Institute
-- John Stevenson, partner emeritus, Gowlings LLP
The Sum of All We Are: Tom Symons and Heritage
-- Christina Cameron, former Director General of National Historic Sites, Parks Canada
Tom Symons and the National Statistics Council
-- Ivan Fellegi, former Chief Statistician of Canada
Unexplored Frontiers: Tom Symons and the Arctic Landfall of an Elizabethan Adventurer
-- Stephen Alsford, Canadian Museum of Civilization, retired
Tom Symons and Massey College
-- John Fraser, former editor of Saturday Night magazine and Master of Massey College
Summer Islander: Tom Symons and Prince Edward Island
-- Edward MacDonald, University of Prince Edward Island
Tom Symons and Peterborough
-- Sylvia Sutherland, former Mayor of Peterborough
Tom the Radical Tory
-- Marco Adria, University of Alberta
A Canadian Life
-- Ralph Heintzman
ANNEXES
Remarks on the occasion of the retirement of Professor T. H. B. Symons as President and Vice-Chancellor of Trent University, at the Seventy-fourth meeting of the Trent University Senate, 24 May 1972
-- Stuart Robson, Trent University, retired
Curriculum vitae for Thomas Henry Bull Symons
Notes on Authors

Editorial Reviews

"Like all festschrifts, it is a collection of essays, but each essay addresses an aspect of one man’s remarkable career. And because they are arranged more or less chronologically, ‘they add up to a professional biography’" 



"When Symons’ biography is written, this festschrift of sorts will serve as a convenient entry point into the larger social history of post-1945 Canada."



"A Canadian Life captures Symons’ many contributions to Canada’s transformation from an ethnically British nation with a French-speaking province to a bilingual, multicultural nation with a deep commitment to equality, or its transformation from the Red Ensign to the maple leaf."




- Donald Wright, Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation Vol 25, #2, 2013


http://historicalstudiesineducation.ca/index.php/edu_hse-rhe/article/view/4351/4467

Historical Studies in Education/Revue d’histoire de l’éducation Vol 25, #2 - Donald Wright