Distinguished Graduates
Trinity College has an enviable reputation for producing leaders in virtually every field. Since its founding in 1851, it has prided itself on developing leadership talent and a sense of social responsibility in its students.
The following list of Trinity alumni who have sought and held political influence is long and impressive. If we have forgotten to include someone who should be on the list, please let us know.
Meanwhile, watch this space for future lists of Trinity alumni who have led the way in other areas, including business, the arts and entertainment, science and philosophy.
John Black Aird (1945)
Top position: Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (1980-1985); Senator (1964-1974)
John Aird attended Osgoode Hall Law School after his graduation from Trinity. He practised law in Toronto and founded his own firm in 1974.
From 1964 to 1974, he served as a Canadian senator for the Liberal Party. He was later chairman of the Canada-United States Permanent Joint Board on Defence. Aird was Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario from 1980 to 1985.
He was chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University from 1977 to 1985 and of the University of Toronto from 1986 to 1991.
John William Bosley (1968)
Top position: Speaker, Canadian House of Commons (Progressive Conservative)
Dates: 1984-1987
Sir John George Bourinot
Top position: Chief Clerk of the Canadian House of Commons; President, Honorary Secretary, Royal Society of Canada
Dates: 1880-1902
J. Edward Broadbent (1959)
Top position: Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada
Dates: 1975-1989
Ed Broadbent completed his master’s degree two years after graduating from Trinity. After studying for a year at the London School of Economics, he returned to Canada to teach political science at York University. He was first elected an MP in 1968, and after one unsuccessful attempt, he won the leadership of the NDP in 1975 and would guide the party through four elections. Under Broadbent’s leadership in the 1984 election, the party gained 30 seats, only 10 behind the second-place Liberals. In 1988, the party won a record 43 seats.
Broadbent stepped down as leader NDP in 1989 after 15 years in that position and later served as head of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.
In 2004, he won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons as the MP from Ottawa-Centre, but did not run again in 2006.
Michael Morris Cassidy (1958)
Top position: Leader of the New Democratic Party of Ontario (1978 -1982); Member of Canadian House of Commons (1984-1988)
Before his official entry in politics, Michael Cassidy worked as a journalist, serving, at his height, as Ottawa bureau chief for the Financial Times. He was elected an alderman in Ottawa in 1970, then won a seat in the Ontario Legislature in 1971 as the representative for Ottawa Centre. Cassidy was re-elected to the provincial government in 1975 under the leadership of Stephen Lewis, whom he would replace, in 1978, as leader of the party. After Bob Rae took over the leadership of the party in 1982, Cassidy moved on to federal politics, running successfully for a seat in the House of Commons as the representative for the riding of Ottawa Centre in 1984. He was defeated in the 1988 election.
Michael Chong
Top position: Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister for Sport, Government of Canada (2006); President of Queen’s Privy Council (2006); Member of Canadian House of Commons (2004-)
Profile, Trinity Magazine, Spring 2006
Adrienne Clarkson (1960)
Top position: Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada
Dates: 1999-2005
Jason Dearborn (1994, MDiv 1996)
Top position: Member of Legislative Assembly, Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan Party)
Dates: 2002-
Jason Dearborn was elected in a by-election to the Saskatchewan legislature as the representative for the riding of Kindersley in 2002. He is a member of the Saskatchewan Party and serves as the critic for SaskEnergy. He is also the deputy critic for the Public Service Commission.
John Ferguson Godfrey (1965)
Top position: Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities) (2004-2006); Member of Parliament (1993-)
Two years after leaving Trinity, John Godfrey completed his M. Phil at Balliol College, Oxford, and his D. Phil at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, in 1975. He taught French and Modern European History at Dalhousie University from 1970 to 1987, and also served as President and Vice Chancellor, University of King’s College, Halifax, from 1977 to 1987.
In 1987 Godfrey became a regular columnist and Editor of The Financial Post, a paper he led through its conversion from a weekly to a daily newspaper. He wrote over 400 articles for the Post and co-authored The Canada We Want – Competing Visions for the New Millennium in 1999.
In 1992, he became Vice President of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
In 1993, Godfrey turned to Federal politics, winning the Toronto-area riding of Don Valley West as a Liberal. He was reelected in 1997, 2000, 2004, and 2006. He held numerous positions including Committee Chair, Chair of Commons Committees, and was Parliamentary Secretary under both Prime Ministers Chrétien and Martin.
In 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin appointed him Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities) with responsibility for The New Deal for Cities.
As a Member of the Official Opposition, Godfrey was Official Opposition Critic for the Environment under interim Liberal Leader William Graham, and then Chair, Caucus Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.
Godfrey was awarded Doctor of Sacred Letters (honoris causa) from Trinity College, University of Toronto (1987), and Doctor of Civil Laws (honoris causa), from University of Kings College (2006). He has served on board of directors of numerous arts, social justice research and education and national unity organizations.
He is married to Trish Bongard Godfrey and has a son, Ian, born in 1994.
William Carvel Graham (1961)
Top position: Leader of the Official Opposition, Canada (Liberal)
Dates: 2006-
Profile, Trinity Magazine, Spring 2006
Ruth Anna Grier (1958)
Top position: Ontario Minister of the Environment (1990-1993), Ontario Minister of Health (1993-1995)
Ruth Grier attended both Trinity College Dublin and Trinity College at U of T and has a degree in Political Science and Economics. She won a seat in the Ontario legislature in 1985 after beating Liberal Frank Sgarlata to become the New Democratic Party’s critic for the environment. When the NDP won the 1990 election, Grier was appointed Minister of the Environment. In 1993, she became Minister of Health.
Terence (Terry) Wyly Grier (1958)
Top position: Member of Canadian House of Commons (1972-1974); President, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (1988-1995)
Before his entry into politics in 1972, Terry Grier was a lecturer in the politics department at the Ryerson Polytechnic Institute. From 1972 to 1974 he served as MP for the New Democratic Party for the Toronto riding of Toronto-Lakeshore. After his defeat in 1974, Grier returned to Ryerson, where, in 1988, he was appointed president and oversaw the transition of Ryerson from a technical institute to a university.
George M.A. Grube
Top position: President, League for Social Reconstruction, Toronto Branch
Dates: 1934-35
While a professor of the classics department at Trinity, George Grube was part of a circle of Canadian socialist intellectuals advocating radical social and economic reforms and political education as a response to the Great Depression. The League for Social Reconstruction helped inspire the CCF (Co-operative and Commonwealth Federation), the forerunner of the New Democratic Party.
George Ignatieff (1936)
Top position: Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations (1966-1968); President of the United Nations Security Council (1968-1969)
George Ignatieff was a Rhodes Scholar and the Provost of Trinity from 1972 to 1978.
Michael Ignatieff
Top position: Member of Canadian House of Commons (Liberal)
Dates: 2006-
Michael Kergin (1965)
Top Position: Ambassador of Canada to the United States of America
Dates: 2000-2005
William Kilbourn (1948)
Top position: Councillor, Metropolitan Toronto Council (1973-1976); Alderman, Local Toronto Council (1970-1976)
Steven W. Langdon (1969)
Top position: Member of Canadian House of Commons (NDP)
Dates: 1998-1993
Donald Stovel MacDonald (1952)
Top positions: Minister of National Defence (1970-1972); Ministry of Energy, Mines and Resources (1972-1975); Minister of Finance (1975-1977); President of Privy Council (1968-1970); High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (1988-1991)
Donald MacDonald was first elected to the House of Commons in 1962 as a Liberal MP for the riding of Rosedale. In 1968, he was appointed by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau to cabinet, where he served as minister without a portfolio. With time, he was given a number of important portfolios, including National Defence, Energy, Mines and Resources, and Finance. He also served as President of the Privy Council from 1968 to 1970.
In 1978, he resigned from cabinet, but when Trudeau stepped down as leader of the Liberals in 1979, MacDonald, a nine-year veteran of the cabinet, declared his candidacy to replace him. Before a leadership convention could be held, however, Trudeau returned as leader (following the motion of non-confidence in Parliament over the leadership of Joe Clark).
In 1988, he became High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, a post he held until 1991.
Roy MacLaren (MDiv 1991)
Top positions: High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (1996-2000); Minister of State (Finance) (1983); Minister of National Revenue (1984); Minister of International Trade (1993-1996)
Roy MacLaren served as Liberal MP for the riding of Etobicoke North for four terms, beginning in 1979. He was Minister of National Revenue in 1984 under former prime minister John Turner. From 1993 to 1996 he managed the portfolio of International Trade.
After his resignation from office in 1996, he was named High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Today, he is active on the board of the Royal Ontario Museum and is the author of a number of books.
(Roland) Roy McMurtry (1954)
Top position: Chief Justice of Ontario
Dates: 1996-
Roy McMurtry studied law at Osgoode Hall. After being called to the bar in 1958 he worked as a trial lawyer.
McMurtry was elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1975 and was appointed to cabinet as attorney-general under former premier William Davis. In this role, McMurtry helped to bring about the establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the patriation of the Constitution.
After holding positions as Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and CEO of the Canadian Football League, he was appointed associate chief justice of the Superior Court of Ontario in 1991, and advanced to the position of Chief Justice of Ontario in 1996.
Sir Gilbert Parker
Top position: Member of Parliament, British House of Commons (Conservative)
Dates: 1900-1918
Parker was best known in Canada as a writer of French-Canadian historico-fiction. In one novel, The Seats of the Mighty, he recounts the Conquest of Quebec and the Battle at the Plains of Abraham with Sir James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm as characters.
From 1895, the year of his marriage to New York heiress Amy VanTine, Parker became increasingly devoted to a life in politics. Representing Gravesend, Kent, he won a seat in the British House of Commons, a position he held until 1918.
Escott Meredith Reid (1927)
Top position: Member of Canadian delegation to founding conference of United Nations (1946); High Commissioner to India (1952-1957); Ambassador to Germany (1958-1962)
Escott Reid graduated from Trinity as a Rhodes Scholar.
Timothy Reid (1959)
Top position: Member of Ontario Legislature (Liberal)
Dates: 1967-1971
Timothy Reid, Escott Reid's son, graduated from Trinity as a Rhodes Scholar.
Sir John Beverley Robinson
Top position: Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench
Dates: 1829-1830
Robinson was a close friend of John Strachan, founder of Trinity College. Serving with Sir Isaac Brock in the War of 1812, he fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights. He was Trinity’s first Chancellor.
James Blair Seaborn (1945)
Top position: Canadian Diplomat; Chairman of International Joint Commission (1982-1985)
Blair Seaborn was a Canadian diplomat whose height of service came during the Vietnam War when, as one of Canada’s representatives on an international conflict-management team, he was ordered to personally deliver a message from U.S. President Lyndon Johnson to the Vietnamese – an undertaking that would come to be known as “the Seaborn Mission.” The message Seaborn was to deliver is unclear, but he managed to meet five times with the Vietnamese delegation.
Seaborn was later appointed assistant deputy of consumer and corporate affairs (1970-1974) and deputy minister of Environment Canada (1975-1982). In 1982 he was appointed Canadian chairman of the International Joint Commission, a position he held until 1985.
William J. Saunderson (1956)
Top position: Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Trade & Tourism
Dates: 1995-1997
Bill Saunderson received his B.A. from U of T in 1956, then went on to earn his F.C.A. and work as a chartered accountant at Clarkson and Gordon before co-founding Sceptre Investment Counsel Ltd.
Saunderson was very active in the fundraising campaigns of Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark, Art Eggleton and others and served as the comptroller for the Progressive Conservative Party campaigns in both 1984 and 1988.
In 1995 he was elected to the Ontario Legislature as the Progressive Conservative candidate for the Toronto riding of Eglinton, defeating Liberal incumbent Dianne Poole and serving as Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism.
In recent years he launched Market Ontario, served as director of SmartRisk, and has done fundraising work for the University of Ottawa, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Scouts Canada, and Rowing Canada.
Michael Holcombe Wilson (1959)
Top position: Ambassador of Canada to the United States of America
Dates: 2006-
Michael Wilson also served at Trinity’s 11th Chancellor.
Profile in Trinity Magazine, Spring 2006.
– Compiled by Malcolm Johnson
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