Next August, Trent will offer a two-week hit of Canadian courses and field trips, and, if all goes well, stir in a rich dose of local culture.

        Designed for tourists, foreign Canadian studies enthusiasts and Canadianists in general, the program will combine history and literature lectures with trips to the petroglyphs, Haliburton, the canoe museum, Trent canal cruises and evenings of local theatre, music, films, dance, drink and food.

        The Trent component -- lectures in Canadian history, literature, native studies, environment, politics, regional development combined with excursions -- will definitely get off the ground next summer. If the Peterborough arts and business communities plan events to coincide with the two-week program, the upshot could turn into a unique summer festival that benefits the whole community, says Canadian Studies professor John Wadland.

        The idea seemed so promising that city council donated $5,000 towards the three-day organizing conference and Human Resources and Development Canada has pitched in another $14,000 to be used to kickstart an advertising and marketing campaign. Lakefield consultant David Beatty started work this summer to bring together all potential partners and help plan the festival. They met for three days this week to discuss the possibilities.

        "There is no such thing in Canada as a festival of Canada," says Wadland. There are festivals that celebrate Canada's colonial past, like the Shaw and Stratford festivals, but nothing with a truly Canadian multicultural and pre-colonial perspective, he says.

        The "we" he refers to includes Canadian Studies professor Christl Verduyn and Traill College master Heather Avery. Verduyn, especially, convinced former Trent president Leonard Conolly to back the idea of a Canadian Studies Institute to offer the unique Canada-centred summer program. Conolly's endorsement and contribution of $2,000 towards the planning gave credence to the project and spurred the city's support, says Wadland.

        The germ of the idea was fleshed out three years ago by graduate student Paula Boon. She produced a 73-page report outlining a community-based Canadian Studies summer enrichment program in Peterborough.

        Next summer, Trent plans to offer a two-week course that "aspires to explain the whole country," says Wadland. Grad students and faculty will give guest lectures on native history, immigration and settlement, land survey, the building of the railroad, the growth of agriculture, forestry and mining, urban development, the Canadian novel.

        Participants -- an expected 20 in the first year -- will receive reading lists in advance. They will live at Traill, a deliberate attempt to engage the downtown colleges in the life of the Peterborough community, says Wadland.

        To attract the first class, Trent will begin promoting the program soon. It will develop a Web site and send flyers through the International Council of Canadian Studies, a huge network of foreign scholars studying all things Canadian, and through the Journal of Canadian Studies.

        The initiative jives with Trent's current efforts to recruit international students and it builds on Trent's academic strengths -- Canadian, native and environmental studies -- says Wadland.

        Community supporters on the steering committee for the larger Canadian Culture and Heritage Festival are Erica Cherney, representing the Greater Peterborough Economic Council; Kevin Edwards, Community Opportunity and Innovation Network; Ken Doherty, Peterborough Centennial Museum and Peterborough Library director; Glenda Hunter, Peterborough Kawartha Tourism and Convention Bureau; Angela Chittick, Lang Century Village; Bjorn Neilsen, Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation; Lauri Waldbrook, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism; Bill Kimball, Peterborough Arts Umbrella; and Avery and Wadland, Trent.