The Early years at Trent/Champlain College and the importance of French in Ontario at that time

A guest blog by Paul Delaney, Trent Class of 1964.

I was in the very first class at Trent, one of about a hundred undergraduates. Two of my five subjects were History and French, but French soon gave way to Politics. I lived in residence at Peter Robinson College (now Sadleir House) in Peterborough. At Nassau (now the Symons Campus) there was a hydro-electric generating station, a few houses, the CNR tracks to Lakefield (now the Rotary Trail) and a swing bridge over the canal for the train, a bridge for cars to the “River Road” and a Loyal Orange Lodge which is still standing near today's Peterborough Rowing Club. Women in residence lived at Catharine Parr Traill; men were at Peter Robinson.

Peterborough's Member of Parliament, a farmer, and the Member of the Provincial Parliament, a car dealer, were both Progressive Conservative. John Robarts, also a PC, was the Prime Minister of Ontario and his Tory predecessor, Leslie M. Frost, became Trent's first Chancellor. The Ontario Minister of Education when Trent opened on October 17, 1964 was William Davis; he went on to become Premier of Ontario in 1971 … and an honorary graduate of Trent in June, 2010. I think it must be said that Progressive Conservatives such as Robert Stanfield, John Robarts and Bill Davis bore little resemblance to that of later leaders such as Stephen Harper, Mike Harris and Tim Hudak. To be a conservative usually meant that you were progressive.

The Red Ensign was Canada's flag. The Liberal Prime Minister of Canada was Lester B. Pearson, and the Governor General was Georges P. Vanier – the first Francophone appointee to that position in Canadian history. (General Vanier was appointed by John Diefenbaker.) No doubt Georges Vanier's visit to Peterborough in October 1964 was the first by a prominent son of Quebec since the days of Wilfrid Laurier. At the time of Trent's opening ceremony at Rubidge Hall in downtown Peterborough a local restauranteur was heard to comment that it was the first time in living memory that Sherbrooke Street had been washed – and he gave full credit to the Vaniers' visit!

Trent's first colleges were named after Peter Robinson and Catharine Parr Traill, two aristocratic English individuals with strong ties to the Peterborough area. The Trent University symbol was derived from that of the coat-of-arms of the City of Peterborough, and we understood that it represented the sword of Samuel de Champlain, the first Governor of New France, plunging through the waters of the Otonabee in 1615 on his way to Huronia. It was exciting and, I believe, to most of us very appropriate that the first college at the Nassau site would be named after him. Harry Van der Lugt and I were despatched to the International Plowing Match in Harry's hometown of Orillia to man a Trent exhibit with a scale model of the proposed campus and an original copy of one of Champlain's books! And when the Journal of Canadian Studies was first published it would have an illustration of Champlain's astrolabe on the front cover.

The cornerstone-laying ceremony for Champlain College was held on October 20, 1965. On the platform several flags fluttered prominently – those of Canada (the new Maple Leaf flag), Ontario, Quebec and the Union Jack. The guests of honour were the Prime Ministers of Quebec and Ontario, Jean Lesage and John P. Robarts. It was the first time too that we had seen Leslie Frost (“Old Man Ontario”) and the new Master of Champlain College, Professor William L. Morton, one of Canada's greatest historians – a westerner, a monarchist and quite a progressive conservative.

Was there a political angle here? Why would Trent name its first college after Quebec's most famous historical figure? I would suggest that the decision was very political and that at that time the choice was an inspired one. Traditionally Ontario and Quebec had strong ties. For example, it had not been uncommon for Leslie Frost to meet with Quebec's Maurice Duplessis to discuss shared interests and common strategies. In the years leading up to Canada's Centennial in 1967 there was much effort to build on these traditional ties in order to strengthen Canada in the face of rising Quebec nationalism, and also to strengthen tourism and trade between those two provinces. Many Quebec nationalists believed (and still do) that English-Canadians took Quebec for granted … or worse – that the rest of Canada was willing to let Quebec separate just to be rid of it. John Robarts, William Davis and their advisors (including their mutual friend, T.H.B. Symons, who was remarkably well-connected with the PC's both at the provincial and federal level) believed that the establishment of a college in the heart of Ontario named after a great figure in Quebec would help to build on the historical friendship between Quebec and Ontario and that such strengthening would ultimately strengthen the Canadian federation.

Ontario had set up its Ontario Advisory Committee on Confederation and Tom Symons was on that committee. Ontario envisaged more emphasis on French in Ontario's schools, cultural exchanges and shared tourist destinations. It would increase government services in French and it would also make reforms in the use of French in the legislature.

When Champlain College opened its doors to its first men during the winter of 1966/67 it was a pretty dismal place. Any social action and most classes were still in downtown Peterborough at Traill, Peter Robinson and Rubidge Hall. Taking their lead from the journal of Champlain himself a celebratory winter feast was created – the winter weekend that we now know as Bon Temps. A mascot, too, was adopted: Oisoo-Oiseau, based loosely on Champlain's description of a mysterious fowl that he had seen. (How this mascot devolved into a gorilla decades later is for someone else to discover!) Having a good time in the midst of adversity (too much school work, lack of female companionship etc.) became an integral part of the culture of Champlain College, along with recreational explorations of the neighbouring hills and rivers and lakes fortified by beaucoup de biere et vin.

Many of the university's guests in those early years were well-known Quebecois such as Rene Levesque, Claude Ryan, Laurier Lapierre, Solange Chaput-Rolland and Jacques Monet. Significantly we did not see Pierre Trudeau or even Lester Pearson … although Pearson's “flag man” and great confidant, John Matheson, encouraged his oldest son, Duncan, to choose Trent. Duncan was part of the merry band who arrived in the winter of 1966/67. He's now a Professor of Social Work at Laurentian, and his son, John, graduated from Champlain College in 2008.

To be honest though, the culture of Champlain College when I left Trent in 1968 was very anglo. We still wore gowns to meals and classes. There was a High Table in the Great Hall and sherry was to be had before dinner in the Senior Common Room. French was rarely if ever heard. The first Porter (a fine fellow) could have been an English butler.

In 1968 Trudeaumania swept Canada. Much of English-speaking Canada saw Pierre Elliott Trudeau as the man who would put Quebec in its place and voted for him. Being well-disposed towards Quebec was no longer politically popular in much of English-speaking Canada. Hugh Faulkner, formerly a History teacher at Lakefield College School, was re-elected as the Liberal M.P. for Peterborough in the Trudeau sweep. Many of those who campaigned for Faulkner were Trent students. Although the Trent PC's had been the strongest, loudest and most well-organized political group during the first couple of years of Trent's existence the Trent Liberals soon caught up. Many of the key members of that group were Champlain students.

I've been away for from Trent for many years but I have not been altogether detached from it. My impression is that the dream of Champlain College symbolizing the Francophone presence in Ontario has not yet been met. I have seldom met Quebecois students or professors at Trent, nor have I seen Trent publications in the French language. I do know, however, that many fine French teachers have graduated from Trent and I also know that there is a fairly strong and active French Club at Trent, its strength due in large part to the effort of Francophone students from Africa and the encouragement of TIP. It's wonderful to know that Dr. Michael Allcott, the new Head of Champlain College, has plans to revive the French component of Champlain's proud history. The Champlain College coat-of-arms which was adopted more than thirty years ago includes the motto “Continuer mes decouvertes”. It's good to know that we Champlainers are continuing to learn and to make discoveries.

One of the things that I learned long ago is that the writing of history changes. In recent years I've become aware that the Peter Robinson persona is suspect to some, that the values and influences of the First Nations is very strong (as it should be), that even the pronunciation of Otonabee is open to dispute, that the sword in the Trent logo is offensive to those who think it's a cross … and (ready for this?) that Champlain probably did not canoe past Champlain College almost four hundred years ago! (Thanks to geographer and former Liberal MP, Dr. Peter Adams, we now know that Samuel de Champlain and his fellow travellers portaged and probably never set foot on the Symons campus!)

These are my memories and any mistakes are mine alone. I have benefited from conversations in the 60's with my History Professor, Tom Symons, my Politics Professor, Denis Smith and over the years with former Premier William Davis, Walter Pitman and Duncan Matheson '66 – as well as two other Trent Alumni, Phil Morgan '08 and John Mullin '08 (who wrote a valuable paper in 2009 on constitutional reform in Ontario from 1964 to 1982). Not long ago I was told that politics, Canada’s bilingual foundation, and constitutional issues had nothing to do with the founding of Champlain College. That's not what I recall … and I was there.

Paul Delaney, Trent Class of 1964