HEAD OF THE CLASS
The link between education, demographics, growth and development
By the time Bill Davis became Premier of Ontario in 1971, he had already transformed the province he would run for the next 14 years. As minister of education and also minister of university affairs from 1962 to 1971, the Man From Brampton spearheaded legislation that gave thousands of Ontarians access to a better life through higher learning. Not only did he preside over the creation of the community college system, he revamped public schools and helped establish numerous new universities.
The population of Ontario and Canada in the 1960s was literally booming, powered by immigration and the post-war baby boom. By 1969, there were 8 million of us. Shaping the socio-economic profile of this population would largely fall to the education system, and this in turn would help influence the what and where of the region’s development.
Davis specifically helped enlarge the middle-class. A better-educated populace meant a better-paid populace. That in turn led to unprecedented demand for singlefamily housing. This was the fuel that powered the growth of the suburbs. At the same time, the need for new commercial and industrial development, both urban and suburban, took off. Roads, bridges and sewers were critical, of course, but without higher education – what we now call investment in human capital – modern Ontario would not have been possible.
Picking up where John Robarts, Davis’s predecessor both as education minister and premier, left off, he completed the metamorphosis of Ontario into a society preparing itself presciently for the “knowledge economy” that still lay decades ahead. And, as the need for knowledge grows, so too does the need for education.
Ontario in the ‘60s was a place of unabashed optimism and a willingness to move boldly, even radically. Indeed, the revolutionary ‘60s demanded action. Nowhere more so than in education, which remained largely stuck in the past. Baby Boomers were ready to start classes. Because they were so numerous, the need to expand the elementary school system was glaring. At the same time, by 1963 the number of university students had doubled from the early ‘50s. Established educational institutions entered a period of unprecedented growth.
The University of Toronto opened satellite campuses in Mississauga and Scarborough, suburban locations that previously couldn’t have supported such a venture. New universities – including York, Trent, Laurentian, Windsor, Brock – were chartered. They took higher education out of the city into more dispersed communities throughout the province. Simply constructing the new facilities, residences and supporting infrastructure would keep builders and developers busy for years.
Through it all, regional growth continued at lightning speed. York University, for example, one of Ontario’s first suburban campuses, is now accessible by subway. When it opened in 1960, its 76 students attended classes in the University of Toronto’s Falconer Hall. Several years later, it moved to its current location in North York, where today it has 55,700 students and 7,000 staffers.
This massive expansion reflected the recommendations of the 1956 Royal Commission on the country’s economic future. It made clear the need for more university graduates and improved educational opportunities in general. In 1965, Davis launched the College of Applied Arts and Technology legislation that led to the formation of 24 community colleges throughout Ontario. Universities retained the right to grant degrees while colleges awarded diplomas.
Most Ontario community colleges were established between 1965 and 1967. Their purpose was not to replicate programs offered by universities but to prepare students for careers in fields as varied as healthcare and technology to journalism and hospitality. Typically, teachers were workplace veterans with plenty of real-world experience. This job-orientated approach was a response to an economy that wasn’t just growing but shifting away from traditional manufacturing to higher-paying, skill-based industries.
When Davis succeeded Robarts as premier, a vast network of schools, colleges and universities had been established across the province. As a result, spending on education between 1962 and 1971 increased a staggering 450 percent. On the other hand, Davis consolidated school boards, reducing the number from almost 3,700 to fewer than 200 by 1967.
In the ‘60s, an enlightened provincial government decided to reinvent education to meet the needs of both the individual and the economy. Fifty years later, Ontario’s population ranks among the most highly educated in Canada and by far the most prosperous.