I went on a bit of a bender this summer reading histories of Canadian universities, and I really enjoyed them all.  Hugh Johnston’ Radical Campus, a history of Simon Fraser’s frankly batty early years was probably the most interesting, but I also quite enjoyed histories from Manitoba, Carleton, and Bishop’s.

But I wanted to tell you my absolute favourite story from my summer reading, which concerns the creation of the Atlantic Veterinary College. It comes from the pages of that institution’s official history, entitled Pets, Professors and Politicians, by Marian Bruce.

Dial back to 1973.  It’s decided that the Maritimes needs its own Veterinary School.  With inter-provincial cooperation being in vogue, all provinces agree to jointly fund one – and the feds even agreed to put up the initial capital costs.  But where to put it?  And who should decide?  Well, the short-stick went to the newly created Maritime Provinces Higher Education Council (MPHEC), who duly created an expert committee to evaluate various sites.  Eventually, they decided to award it to the recently-created University of Prince Edward Island.

At this point all hell broke loose.  UPEI faculty were aghast at the idea of – sniff! – *vocational* education at their little liberal arts college, and promptly went into a decade-long snit.  Joining them in said snit was the government of Nova Scotia, who, it turned out, only agreed to jointly-fund the project because they expected MPHEC to pick the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro (recently absorbed by Dalhousie) as the site.  When that didn’t happen, it found excuses not to pay up. This in turn stalled the federal contribution for capital construction, since they wouldn’t fund unless all parties were playing nicely.

It took until 1983 for all the disputes to be settled and the signing ceremony to be held.  It was to be a big deal for the whole island.  So it was a bit disconcerting when, the night before the ceremony, the Premier’s Chief of Staff received a phone call from the Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Ottawa.  He bore news that the Minister wasn’t coming unless they changed the School’s name.

The name “Atlantic Veterinary School” was pretty straightforward, as these things go.  But the federal Minster – the unforgettable Eugene Whelan – was very intrigued with possibility that the school could contribute to aquatic farming, and aqua-culture generally.  And he had his heart set on a different name.

“What does he want us to call it?” asked the Chief of Staff.

“Atlantic Veterinary and Aquamarine College” said the Deputy.

The Chief of Staff thought about this.  “Isn’t Aquamarine a colour?”  The Deputy agreed that this was the case, but that the Minister was intransigent.

Now, Whelan did eventually relent and come to the signing – albeit about 5 hours late.  During those five hours, the Nova Scotia University Presidents seized their chance to cable their Minister (who of course was stuck in Charlottetown with the delay) with a final plea – it wasn’t too late, they said, to renege on the inter-provincial funding agreement and spend that money on Nova Scotia universities instead.

Honestly, I think this story has everything you need to understand higher education in Canada: pointless inter-provincial bickering, pointless interference from Ottawa, and pointless snobbery from humanities professors.  What is not pointless in all of this is the college itself, which has grown and thrived for more than 30 years now, and is a major scientific centre on the country’s east coast.  Mazel’tov, guys.