Trinity, Transcendent: An Interview with University of Toronto Chancellor and Former Minister of Fin

The lift’s muffled, metallic ringing gives way to the staid and corporate foyer of Barclay’s Toronto offices. Perched atop Bay Street’s Adelaide Centre, the glass expanse houses a modest meeting room. The city of Toronto lays stretched out before it in the afternoon haze.

Upon entry, a stark contrast becomes apparent; the nuances of The Honourable Michael Wilson’s storied career laid bare by a room that eschews Simcoe Hall’s mahogany paneling in favour of a more bullish glass and granite. In many ways Canada’s ode to American-style multi-sectoral achievement in the image of Robert Rubin or Larry Summers, Chancellor Wilson’s life has spanned the fields of business, politics, academia, diplomacy, and philanthropy.

He enters the room unceremoniously. His pressed white shirt and unassuming gray slacks – subtly accentuated by colourful, yet faint, pinstripes and a silk red tie – embody the juxtaposition of a career in both public service and investment banking. Lauded as an effective policymaker and a knowledgeable technocrat while serving as Canada’s Minister of Finance, it is clear Chancellor Wilson remains at ease with the Toronto business community in which he worked prior to politics.

A handshake, a wry smile, and a laugh. With that, the interview began.

***

“Trinity was always such an endearing place to me – a real home.” Prompted to recall his connections to the college and how his time as a student shaped him, Chancellor Wilson is frank.

“U of T was – and is – a big, big place and, in a sense, Trinity offered a home within that large community in which to flourish. I made lifelong friendships with people I played sports with, people who had the same courses as me, others, even, who I played sports against. In many ways, it was a very good experience and I got to know myself a lot better as a result, too.”

Grinning, he continues, “the other thing you need to understand is that just going to university in and of itself was a great experience for me because I was exposed to girls for the first time. It was a much broader environment at Trinity than what I had been used to at Upper Canada College” – a boy’s preparatory school in Forest Hill. “That was the fun part about being at Trinity. You could get a coffee or a milkshake at The Buttery with some of the girls, and oftentimes the boys would come over too and it would be a great time.”

In many ways the music scene in the late 1950s was very important to Chancellor Wilson as well. “We had a couple of stomping grounds at the time. There was the Plaza Room on the main floor of the Park Plaza Hotel - now the Park Hyatt - there was a restaurant just along where the InterContinental Hotel is, and there was a basement pub on the northeast corner of Avenue Road and Bloor Street. That one was the best. There were two really top vibraphone players at the time – Peter Appleyard and Hagood Hardy – who would do gigs there. Hagood was from Trinity and we used to go over and listen to him playing jazz at this basement cave.” Both Appleyard and Hagood went on to receive the Order of Canada.

“20 years later I would be talking to Hagood at a Trinity reception and I showed him this picture that I had come across. There was me, in my horn-rimmed glasses, and Hagood just a few feet away playing the vibes as I just sat, mesmerized, watching this guy zip around on the chords.”

Chancellor Wilson continues to emphasize how foundational non-academic pursuits like music and athletics had been on his student life. “Sports were always a major part of my time at Trinity and at the University of Toronto. I played football on the Trinity team and while I didn’t play for the Blues, I knew the guys there and went to all the games. Varsity Stadium, which held over 25,000 people, used to be pretty full back then.”

“I think sports for the university is a very important part of bringing the alumni and students together,” he adds, citing the example of the University of Notre Dame, where football remains a powerful bond and source of continued engagement between graduates and the university.

“While it is clear that Varsity sports are coming back at the University of Toronto, we still have a ways to go to be able to match the excitement that we used to have.”

Chancellor Wilson continues, “I remember in my year, we won the Mulock Cup. That was a huge victory for us. The last time Trinity had won it was 25 years before and it turned out the next time we would win would be 25 years later.”

If this statement resonates with Trinity’s current crop of students, it is for good reason. Even more relatable, it seems though, were the antics of the Trinity men of old.

“My family had lived in Montreal and the winters can be quite cold there. And so I recall my father had bought himself a very large fur coat. It had very deep pockets and went down to my knees when I wore it – I remember thinking that it would do just the trick.

He lets out a wry chuckle, “suffice it to say I would go to the football game with very full pockets.”

***

Next we turned to the subject of convocation. “For each student coming up, I have to be up for it with them. The last thing I want is for them to think, ‘O jeez I shook this old guy’s hand, big deal.’”

Fast-forward 50 years and the little kid with horn-rimmed glasses hanging out in the Buttery with his friends is now the Chancellor of Canada’s largest university – rounding off a career that has included serving as Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, as a Minister of Finance, International Trade, and Industry in the Mulroney government, and as Chairman of Barclay’s Canada.

“The convocations at the University of Toronto are obviously huge. And I did 15 or 16 of them this year alone. The thing about convocation that people don’t think about is that for those young people who are coming up to graduate, it’s the biggest milestone of their life. They are excited. Some of them are nervous. Some of them are just bursting with energy. And I feel that I have to match that excitement, energy, and sense of achievement that they have.”

His excitement building, Chancellor Wilson continues. “One of the common questions I get is about the future, and about job prospects. It is hard to suggest that the market isn’t tough nowadays. But for me, I always emphasize that being in a job where you are constantly learning is the key.”

“When I graduated, it was just before the Baby Boomers were entering the job market; the University of Toronto doubled in size three years after I left. All the universities were in the same position. So that meant that my group that was graduating probably had our choices of jobs available to us. A few years later this changed. This is definitely not the case now.”

With that, the conversation begins to transition towards Chancellor Wilson’s early career. “My choice at the time had been to go to London and work there for a year and half and then New York for six months. I learned a lot working in those two great financial centres and I don’t think I ever quite stopped – take my service in Washington as the Ambassador for example. If anything, the learning curve just got steeper!”

In many ways, the knowledge he garnered from business and banking would become integral to his pedigree as a politician and Cabinet Minister. “As an investment banker, I did a lot of work in the energy and manufacturing sectors and for financial services companies. This helped me develop a broad range of experience on the policy issues and meant that I had more than a superficial knowledge of what was happening. My work in the investment business over those years also exposed me to monetary policy in a very significant way. When you are advising companies on corporate finance issues, the cost of money is very important, which in turn relates directly to monetary policy.”

“So all that helped when I went to Parliament. As an example, I had a meeting every week with the Governor of the Bank of Canada when I was Minister of Finance and I remember one time one of the Deputy Governors of the Bank came into the room trying to be funny and said ‘I understand we can use market jargon with you.’ And I looked at him and I said ‘yes, I’ve been using it for the last 25 years.’”

***

“I don’t recall anybody talking about mental illness when I was at the University of Toronto.”

In 1995, Chancellor Wilson lost his 29-year old son, Cameron, to suicide; depression had manifested itself in a visceral and deeply personal way. Chancellor Wilson’s subsequent support and advocacy came at a time when the service delivery gaps and societal stigmatization of mental illness was not a topic that was openly discussed.

“I decided after government that I would devote my main volunteer efforts – which had been with the Cancer Society before government – to mental health. I remember joining the Foundation Board at what was then the Clarke Institute for Psychiatry [now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health]. The Chairman of the Foundation said he was having difficulty having people to serve on his board. These were people who he knew had mental illness in the family but who would say to him, ‘if I join your board, people are going to ask why and I can’t tell them why.’ It was at once disheartening and utterly unsurprising.”

Nevertheless, Chancellor Wilson is optimistic about the trajectory of mental health policy and advocacy. “That was 20 years ago. Today, we have a Board that has had some of the senior business leaders in Toronto. You have Michael McCain (CEO of Maple Leaf Foods), Jaimie Anderson (Deputy Chairman of RBC), Tom Milroy (CEO of BMO Capital Markets), Harry Rosen, and Paul Beeston (Blue Jays President). These are all people who are very comfortable, happy, and proud to be on the board of a mental health foundation. This is 180 degrees from where we were 20 years ago.”

“Do we still have a stigma problem? Yes. There are still people who do not want to talk about the fact that they suffer from depression or have an addiction. And while that is changing, there is still an element of denial that is palpable. From my perspective, I think the successes that have been had are largely a result of greater awareness and greater understanding of mental illness and people being more open to talking about it.”

In many ways this response is self-effacing. Credit must also be given to the tireless labours of health practitioners and the generosity of benefactors within Toronto’s business and philanthropic communities, of which Chancellor Wilson is a stalwart. His efforts, in supporting a Chair in Depression Studies - named after his son - at the University and in relentlessly pursuing the issue throughout his personal and professional life, far exceed the archetype of an image-conscious corporate donor. Time and again throughout this interview Chancellor Wilson’s humility belies his achievements. Nevertheless, it is eminently clear to all that he is a man who cares deeply about public service and one who relishes the opportunity to be “always learning, always growing.”

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