A teacher of English to the young McLuhan at Winnipeg and a friend of the McLuhan family, and later president of Acadia University in Nova Scotia. A prolific literary translator across many languages, Kirkconnell is where Cameron begins his case for a Nova Scotia School of Communication: the man who, alongside McLuhan's mother, first showed McLuhan a Canada of many peoples and the art of moving between them.
Across the dialogues
Enters as the first thread of the Nova Scotia School — the polyglot translator who carried a McLuhan influence into the province and modelled the leap between identities
Kirkconnell taught McLuhan English in Winnipeg and was close to the family — the first mentor Cameron traces from McLuhan's youth toward Nova Scotia.
"a social friend of the McLuhan family was a guy by the name of Watson Kirkconnell."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 18 (18 Mar 2021), 1:48:54
A translator working across "all sorts of different languages," Kirkconnell saw Canada as a multicultural mosaic decades before the phrase — and, with McLuhan's mother's one-woman plays, gave McLuhan the leap between identities that "characterized McLuhan from start to finish."
"Because nobody was looking at Canada as this multicultural mosaic in those years."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 18 (18 Mar 2021), 1:50:35
Kirkconnell's path — Manitoba to McMaster to the presidency of Baptist Acadia — physically carried a formative McLuhan influence into Nova Scotia, anchoring the province's claim on him.
"he became president of Acadia University in Wolfville."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 18 (18 Mar 2021), 1:54:47
Connections
A Winnipeg English teacher and McLuhan-family friend whose polyglot translation work — with McLuhan's mother's stage roles — gave McLuhan an early image of the "human mosaic."
The opening figure in the Nova Scotia thread — a formative McLuhan influence who ended up president of Acadia University in the province.