Kathleen Wynne Finds Hope in the Classroom

^{Photo by Minh Truong}

By Leslie Shepherd

Kathleen Wynne spent years navigating the complexities of public life. Now, in her classroom at Victoria College, the former premier of Ontario is helping a new generation make sense of a rapidly changing world. She says she feels optimistic about the future every day she meets with her knowledgeable, tech-savvy students.

Wynne, who holds the Hon. Newton W. Rowell professorship, has a unique perspective on undergraduate life. In the fall, she teaches in the Vic One program, working with first-year students just beginning their university journey. In the winter, she leads a fourth-year seminar in the Ethics, Society and Law program at Trinity College, engaging students on the cusp of graduation.

“I feel hopeful every day I come out of class,” she said. “When people ask me about my teaching, why am I doing it, am I enjoying it, I say it’s all about the students. They’re so smart. They know so much.”

Today’s students arrive at university with a different knowledge base than previous generations, she said. Many have a strong understanding of Indigenous histories and perspectives, providing a foundation for conversations about truth and reconciliation. They are also highly fluent in technology, comfortable discussing artificial intelligence and its role in their education.

“It’s instructive and illuminating,” Wynne said. “I can have conversations with students about AI that I can’t have with people my own age. It’s a really interesting meeting of the generations.”

They’re also accustomed to communicating in shorter, more compressed forms shaped by social media, a shift Wynne sees as evidence of how language continues to evolve, rather than a loss of complexity.

She still prints out first-year journals and marks them by hand with a red pen—a habit that amuses her students but, she says, reflects her belief in giving them “as good a start as possible.”

However, Wynne sees mounting pressure. Students are grappling with the lingering effects of pandemic disruption while absorbing a steady stream of news about economic uncertainty, climate change and political instability in the United States. For many, concerns about the future and their job prospects create a constant undercurrent of anxiety.

That anxiety often shows an intense focus on grades. Students push for near-perfect marks, sometimes returning to ask whether an 85 per cent grade can become a 90.

“It withers my soul to have that conversation,” Wynne said. “I want to talk to them about the issues in the paper more than I want to talk about the grade.”

The heightened concern about grades reflects a broader shift she finds troubling: the growing framing of universities as pipelines to employment.

“Of course that is part of it,” she said. “But it is also about educating citizens, having people in our society who are critical thinkers, who will question the decisions of leaders, who will be engaged in the democratic process.”

In her classes, students are encouraged to lead discussions, challenge one another—and her—and connect course material to current events unfolding beyond the classroom. The goal is not consensus but engagement and helping students build confidence in expressing and defending their ideas.

“I want these young people to think about what public policy means and how decisions get made and then formulate opinions about particular issues,” she said. “If we don’t feel we can question decision-makers, then we’re giving free rein to people who may or may not have our best interests at heart.”

Wynne resists making the comparison of whether she accomplished more by shaping the next generation as premier or as a professor.

“I got into elected politics because of publicly funded education,” she said.

She points first to the lasting impact of public policy, such as full-day kindergarten, which she helped implement as education minister.

At the same time, she has come to value a different kind of influence in the classroom. Some of the most meaningful moments, she said, have been with students she debated intensely, who later returned to say that sustained disagreement reshaped how they viewed issues such as basic income.

“I have felt that in a number of instances over the last five years that I have had a significant impact on some of the young people's lives,” she said. “I have students who have gone on and done political internships, who have gotten involved even in partisan politics. I've had students, some of whom we really locked horns with about our worldviews, come to me and say, you know, it was great to be able to have these conversations and you've changed my perspective.”

She doesn’t think students are intimidated by the fact their professor was once premier of Canada’s largest province. Many are from outside Ontario or were young when she resigned as Ontario Liberal Party leader in 2018.

If her political history does register, it tends to emerge gradually rather than shaping the classroom dynamic. Students get to know who she is over the course of the term, she said, and the process feels mutual. “They get to know who I am and we kind of learn together.”

Originally published in the Spring 2026 issue of Vic Report.

This edition features Kathleen Wynne reflecting on teaching at Victoria College, a Q&A with Professor Ira Wells on his role as president of PEN Canada, and Bob Rae’s return to Vic One after his UN tenure.

Read the full issue →