Harry Baglole, age 76, dies in Charlottetown

Native of Wilmot, P.E.I., was known as a teacher, historian, writer, publisher, volunteer and advocate

A pioneer of Island history studies has died.

Harry Baglole died Tuesday at the Provincial Palliative Care Centre. He was 76.

Born and raised in Wilmot, P.E.I., Baglole attended school in Summerside before attending Acadia University, receiving a bachelor of arts in 1964. He would go on to study history at Memorial University and earned an education diploma in 1972 from the University of Alberta.

Teaching brought him to schools from Kensington to St. John’s to Uganda, working with CUSO during his time in Africa, but in the 1970s during his travels his desire for “the Island way of life” grew stronger.

Baglole’s “radical new approach” to Island history, especially the Land question, led to “brilliant” articles on the province’s first governor, Walter Paterson, and on Escheat Movement leader Willam Cooper, said Island historian Ed MacDonald.

He also helped establish Theatre P.E.I., as well as encouraging the Amish settlement to the province.

Baglole in 1973, along with David Weale, co-founded the Brothers and Sisters of Cornelius Howatt (BSCH), a “P.E.I. patriotic society” that encouraged critical engagement to history and present circumstances, offering a satirical challenge to celebrations marking the 1973 centennial of P.E.I.’s entry into Confederation.

BSCH also organized a series of publications on Island history, including the Weale-Baglole co-authored book “Prince Edward Island and Confederation: the end of an era,” which led to Baglole establishing one of P.E.I.’s first publishing houses, Ragweed Press, leading to an involvement in the early days of the Atlantic Publishers Association.

Baglole created an innovative new course in P.E.I. history for Island schools and led the compilation in 1976-77 of Exploring Island History, the first high school textbook on Island history. During this period, he was also among the first editors of the P.E.I. Heritage Foundation’s Island magazine, putting what MacDonald described as an “indelible stamp” on a periodical that remains an essential reference on Island history.

Other work includes as education officer with the P.E.I. Heritage Foundation and as a community studies specialist with the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs.

In 1986, Baglole was chosen as the first director of UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies.

Not one to shy from a public debate, in the late ’70s he, along with Weale, drafted the rural renewal platform — later dubbed the Rural Renaissance — helping to secure victory for Angus MacLean’s PCs in the 1979 provincial election. He was also active in The Island Way, which was among the groups that successfully opposed plans by defence contractor Litton Industries to open a P.E.I. plant in 1986.

In 1988, he took a leave from the Institute of Island Studies in the run-up to the fixed-link plebiscite to campaign for a “No” vote, and through the early 2000s was a founder in the advocacy group Every Vote Counts, which managed to persuade the provincial government to hold a plebiscite in 2005 on electoral reform.

After leaving the Institute of Island Studies in 2003, he helped establish of the Quality of Island Life Co-operative, dedicated to developing and documenting reliable measures of well-being for Island residents, where he served as founding co-ordinator until 2006. He also co-founded the Iris Group in 2005, originally focused on protecting P.E.I. lands from excessive development. In 2008, he established the Vinland Society of Prince Edward Island, launched to forge closer ties between P.E.I. and Iceland to “promote a stronger sense of Island cultural and economic self-reliance.”

Baglole also lent efforts to the Belfast Historical Society, the P.E.I. Association of Community School, the Rural Development Council, the Island Nature Trust, the Bonshaw Community Hall, Farmers Helping Farmers and the Sir Andrew Macphail Foundation.

Visiting hours are at Belvedere Funeral Home on June 3, 2-4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. A celebration of life will be held at Spring Park United Church in Charlottetown on June 4 at 7 p.m. with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Bonshaw Hall Co-op. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Dingwell Funeral Home. Online condolences can be made at www.dingwellfh.ca.