1930's/40's Canadian elite

[zellieh]

I'm looking for some verbal shorthand that would have been around in the 1930's and 1940's that I can drop into a conversation to show that this particular Canadian is from a good family, wealthy & well-educated, etc. He's a man aged 25-35, if that makes a difference, and the piece I'm writing is set in New York in 1946.

Comments

[anidada]

1. Family Compact -- IIRC, that term was used up until fairly recently to refer to the old guard of wealthy Canadians. More recently it's been referred to as The Canadian Establishment. (I have the book somewhere, it makes for strange reading, esp. thirty years on, as many of the old families are now broke or out of the family business, whatever it was.)

2. You can't go wrong with Rosedale. My partner's family is from there -- I can ask his mom for more details, if necessary

[anidada]

Sorry, ignore the girls' schools. :) All the schools are on Wikipedia and have their own sites, btw, if you're looking for more info.

[zellieh]

Thank you so much for all your comments - it's made it much easier for me to find the sort of specific information I was looking for. (I kept getting stuck in WWII before.)

I've already filled in several blanks in my character's backstory, and he's looking more and more interestingly well-rounded all the time. *g*

Thanks!

[phoenixy]

Anidada's response is consistient with my experience, but it should be noted that those colleges aren't code for privilege the way "Ivy League" or "Oxbridge" might be--they are good schools, and the best in Canada, but also large and public--McGill, for example, has over 20,000 undergrads. Canada doesn't, or at least didn't in the period that you're talking about (I don't know about now), have a super-elite college tradition in the same way that, say, the US does.

[zellieh]

Thank you for your comments - they've been really useful. My character isn't French Canadian, but Wiki-ing & Googling 'Pierre Trudeau' got me some very useful links. *g*

Thanks!

[anidada]

And would almost definitely have attended Lower Canada College, in Montréal, prior to that.

[shelovesjurgen]

2. rosedale in toronto, new edinburgh or rockliffe in ottawa, westmount in montreal, shaughnessy in vancouver (was still a small city back then but had some resource-based millionaires)

3. canadians went to american schools, but also u of toronto, queen's university in kingston, and mcgill in montreal.

a lot of the responses youre getting are toronto-heavy. let me tell you that montreal snobs in the 30s and 40s were way snobbier because little toronto didnt become canadas biggest city until decades later. lower canada college (guys) and sacred heart (girls) are some good schools in montreal - id google and double check if i were you because im actually from vancouver.

[zellieh]

I hadn't actually realised the other comments were Toronto-heavy until you pointed it out, so thanks for giving me more options to play with. Wiki and Google are being much more co-operative now that I have more specific search terms to throw at them. *g*

Thanks!