Margaret McCain gifts $10 million to Mount Saint Vincent University
HALIFAX, N.S. — Margaret Norrie McCain has made a $10-million donation to Mount Saint Vincent University to help support the teaching of and research on early childhood education.
The former New Brunswick lieutenant-governor’s gift is the largest in the school’s 150-year history.
In a news release announcing the donation, the school says that McCain is both passionate and accomplished in advocacy for ensuring quality early childhood education practice.
As home to Atlantic Canada’s only undergraduate and graduate child and youth study programs, MSVU has been working to build the child-care sector in Nova Scotia and beyond to show the benefit of high quality, play-based early childhood programming and the opportunities it provides to young Canadians, the release said.
“Intervening in the earliest years so that as many children as possible are afforded the very best start in life will have a tremendous impact in the long term,” said McCain.
“I am pleased to support MSVU’s exceptional work in early childhood education, research and practice — work that will contribute to a Canada-wide early learning childcare system that is universal, voluntary, high quality, aligned with public education, and organized to support parent’s work and study.”
McCain is a previous donor to the school, helping to fund the construction of the Margaret Norrie McCain Centre for Teaching, Learning and Research in 2015, which remains the only building on a Canadian university campus dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments of women.
