Tom Symons: A Canadian Life

Chapter 13: The Sum of All We Are: Tom Symons and Heritage

The Sum of All We Are: Tom Symons and Heritage CHRISTINA CAMERON I n 1986 Thomas H. B. Symons was appointed chairman of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada by the Hon. Tom McMillan, then federal minister of the environment. Symons’s background and experience made him eminently qualified for this appointment. Yet what made it predictable was the friendship between the minister and the chairman. The two men had worked closely together through much of the previous fifteen years and shared a progressive conservative political philosophy. They had collaborated in the 1970s at the federal Progressive Conservative Party’s Policy Advisory Committee (Symons as chair from 1968 to 1976 and McMillan as executive assistant to the committee), at the Ontario Human Rights Commission (Symons as chair from 1975 to 1978 and McMillan as executive officer), and at the Commission on Canadian Studies (Symons as commissioner and McMillan as a senior research associate), which produced the pioneering report on Canadian education, To Know Ourselves (1975). Each man believed passionately in a distinctive Canadian culture rooted in its unique political, social, and cultural development. Appointed to the board at age fifty-seven, Symons brought decades of experience and a grand vision to the job. An academic bureaucrat, he had chaired or been a member of several national commissions dealing with education, Canadian studies, native rights, multiculturalism, Northern studies, and human rights. He therefore C H A P T E R 1 3 274 TOM SYMONS: A CAnAdiAn Life had a sound understanding of public policy and Canadian issues as well as finely-honed skills in chairmanship. Of particular relevance to the work of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada was his participation from 1980 to 1982 in the Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee, known as Applebaum-Hébert. It is clear from the briefs presented to the committee that historic sites had gained in importance since the Massey Commission thirty years earlier.1 The final report highlights strong public interest and concern among Canadians, noting “the importance of heritage as a distinct and vital component of Canadian culture.”2 While its formal recommendations dealt only with impact studies for historic sites and a heritage preservation act for the Northwest Territories, the report itself set out a robust policy agenda that included federal heritage legislation for historic buildings and archaeological sites under federal administration, a “heritage first” policy for government accommodations, comprehensive heritage preservation legislation for the Northwest Territories, and compulsory heritage impact studies before altering or disposing of federal historic sites. It also identified the need for leadership and coordination of federal heritage activities, recommending the creation of an arms-length Canadian Heritage Council that—while not operational— would serve as champion and clearing house.3 This comprehensive vision influenced Symons’s approach to the board. Not deeply interested in the day-to-day operations of the National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, or in the more operational aspects of the board’s work, he focused his attention on building the public profile of the board and updating its policies in order to play the role of national champion for heritage. He envisaged a well-known public institution that would be seen as a professional and scholarly body in tune with the current preoccupations of Canadians. Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada is a seventeenmember statutory advisory body to the minister of the environment on the commemoration of nationally significant aspects of Canada’s THE SUM OF ALL WE ARE 275 history. Since its creation in 1919, the board has been supported operationally by a secretariat located in the government organization responsible for parks and sites, currently known as Parks Canada. When Symons was appointed to head the board, he became the latest in a distinguished roster of chairmen who advocated tirelessly for the preservation of Canada’s past. Without exception, his predecessors were historians. The first person who presided over the board from 1919 to 1939 was Brigadier General Ernest A. Cruikshank, a soldier and historian with the Department of National Defence, who had a particular interest in the War of 1812. Subsequent chairmen usually came from university history departments or provincial archives, including Fred Landon, librarian and professor of history at Western University (from 1950 to 1958); Bruce Fergusson, provincial archivist and professor of history at Dalhousie University (from 1960 to 1967); Alan Turner...