The OLIP cohort had the amazing fortune to meet with the Honourable Gerard Kennedy, former Minister of Education of Ontario. Elected as a Liberal Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament to represent Parkdale—High Park in 1996, Mr. Kennedy served as the Liberal Party’s health critic while in Opposition. Mr. Kennedy assumed his position as Minister upon the establishment of the Liberal provincial government in 2003. As Minister of Education, Mr. Kennedy focused his efforts on finding a peaceful and just resolution to the labour strife that had been present within education systems during recent years, establishing a provincial framework for teacher negotiations.
Mr. Kennedy grew up in Manitoba, born and raised in The Pas and later moving to Winnipeg when he was 14 years old to attend St. John’s Ravenscourt School on a hockey scholarship. He continued his excellence in both academics and athletics at Trent University, also on a hockey scholarship, and later attended the University of Alberta to continue his studies. After working as a historical researcher for the government of Alberta in the early 1980s, Mr. Kennedy made the decision to dedicate himself to public service and social activism by acting as the director of the volunteer program at an Edmonton Food Bank in 1983 and later serving as the executive director of Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank from 1986 up until 1996 when he was elected as an MPP.
Mr. Kennedy’s passion and dedication for social service and activism is apparent, not only throughout his career as a director of a food bank and his actions as a Minister, but also in the sincere values he expressed to the interns during our meeting. Mr. Kennedy emphasized the responsibility we have as members of a prosperous society to do everything in our power to make sure no one goes hungry, expressing how we need to use the abundance of resources in Canada to support and aid the less fortunate. He expressed the necessity of having a strong civic outlook, of working collaboratively to bolster our communities and support every member of our society. To do this, Mr. Kennedy explained to us, we need to maintain a healthy collegiality, even in the face of disagreement, to ensure that we keep the fundamental goal of common good at the heart of any discussion. Everybody wants the same thing; for Canadians to prosper, but we sometimes just have different ideas of how to accomplish that.
The Interns would like to express our sincerest gratitude to Mr. Kennedy for allowing us to learn from his experiences and insight. It was a pleasure to have the meeting, and we look forward to applying what we learned to ensure we remain responsible and hardworking in our time here at Queen’s Park and beyond.
