Meanwhile, a few of the grade 11 students from the two schools had been interviewed and I was selected to be the president of the student council of the brand new school. Our cohort became the senior grade for three years as grades 12 and then 13 were added on. That continuity proved to be useful in our campaign. I had just turned 15. Teachers at Graydon and the student council were looking for a project to pull the school together more substantially than the football games we always lost (there were no grade 12 or 13 boys at first). I don’t know who first suggested we look into trying to get a bridge over the highway – probably Walter Ward who was advisor to the school council. Ignorant of what such a project might entail, including the economics and politics, the council thought that a campaign to get a bridge would be great for “school spirit.” The fact that it is the only pedestrian bridge across the QEW for its entire length suggests the odds against such an idea succeeding – but the bridge is there.
It took almost two years from the spring of 1957 through the winter of 1958. First it became a research project. How many cars per day? What would happen when the highway turned into a six-lane highway? How many accidents caused by pedestrians crossing the highway? The answer was ten with one fatality. What would be the cost of a chain link fence running from Cawthra to Dixie Road? $50,000 in 1950s dollars was the estimate. What about a “Bailey Bridge” such as the two over the Lakeshore from the CNE to the waterfront which were used only two weeks in the year? One was said to be surplus. Would army engineers build it as an exercise? Buses cost $2,500 a month. To their great credit the various companies took us seriously and gave us answers, on the phone or by letter.
500 students (the whole school) had signed a petition requesting the bridge but to succeed we knew we had to build support in the community. I was spokesperson and made speeches to Toronto Township Council, the Board of Education, the Rotary, the IODE, the Kinsmen, Home and School groups and whomever else would listen. One by one the organizations swung behind us. In fact Toronto Township had already asked for either a bridge or an underpass with no success, but Reeve Mrs. Fix then realized, shrewdly, that a group of high school students might have more luck. We met with Colonel Thomas L Kennedy, a very kindly man as well as MPP for Peel and ex premier, who had a lot of influence with the Conservative government. He arranged for us to meet with Jim Allen, the transportation minister, who was the person who could make it happen. When, after many months of work we finally went to Queen’s Park to see Mr. Allen, the rest of the delegation, which included adults from the South Peel Board of Education, and Mrs. Mary Fix, Reeve and Robert Speck, Deputy Reeve of the township, stood aside and insisted that the students make the case.
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