Tom Symons: A Canadian Life

The professional biography of influential Canadian educator and statesman, Tom Symons. 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.