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.

Ralph Heintzman is a senior fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto and an honorary senior fellow in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.

Ralph Heintzman's profile page

"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