Premier Jean Charest to Give Inaugural Symons Lecture on the State of Canadian Confederation at Confederation Centre of the Arts

Charlottetown, October 18, 2004- The Honourable Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec and former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, will give the inaugural national Symons Lecture on the State of Canadian Confederation at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, P.E.I, on November 8, 2004, announced H. Wayne Hambly, Chair of the Fathers of Confederation Buildings Trust, today.

A new initiative of the Confederation Centre of the Arts, the Symons Lecture will provide a national platform for a distinguished Canadian to discuss the current state and future prospects of Confederation. The lecture, which is intended to be broadcast and published, will be held each year to mark the anniversary of the meetings of the Fathers of Confederation in Charlottetown in 1864.

Mr. Charest will be joined for this first lecture by the Honourable Patrick Binns, Premier of Prince Edward Island and the Honourable Dennis Fentie, Premier of the Yukon. The lecture will take place on the Centre’s Mainstage at 1 p.m. and is open to the public.

The lecture honours Professor Thomas H.B. Symons, a supporter and board member of the Confederation Centre over many years. Mr. Hambly noted that Professor Symons, the founding President of Trent University in Ontario, is widely recognized nationally and internationally for his work in the field of Canadian Studies, in particular the areas of heritage, education and public policy.

It is the mandate of the Fathers of Confederation Buildings Trust, which operates the Confederation Centre, to inspire Canadians to celebrate, through heritage and the arts, the founding and evolution of Canadian Confederation. The Confederation Centre brings this mandate to life by celebrating Canadian creativity in the performing and visual arts on its stages and in its galleries, by its work in arts education, and by public policy and heritage initiatives such as the Symons Lecture.

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