Loyalist College revives Sir Mackenzie Bowell Award

Sir Mackenzie Bowell

BELLEVILLE – For more than 45 years, the Sir Mackenzie Bowell Award honoured the former Canadian prime minister’s legacy by publicly recognizing the contributions of one exceptional educator in Hastings and Prince Edward counties. The award was discontinued last year, but now Loyalist College plans to bring it back with a twist – by giving it to a journalism student.

Loyalist received a portion of the remaining funds from the award when they were divided among several local educational institutions last year.

The college has confirmed that the winner of the new award will receive a small monetary prize.

“This is particularly important to the legacy of Sir Mackenzie Bowell, who was an apprentice and later an owner of the Belleville Intelligencer,” said Dianne Spencer, executive director of college advancement and external relations at Loyalist College.

For the moment the new award is just for the coming year, but the college may continue it into the future, Spencer said.

“The potential for a future award will be decided by our awards committee,” she said.

The award is exclusively for students enrolled in the Journalism, Online Print and Broadcast program at Loyalist. Spencer stressed that the college already has a number of awards for students in its other undergraduate programs.

Bowell was MP for North Hastings riding between 1867 and 1892 and served as prime minister from 1894 to 1896.

The old Sir Mackenzie Bowell Award trophy is being moved to the Glanmore National Historic Site, where it will remain permanently.