About the Toronto Debating Society

The Toronto Debating Society is a non-profit public community organization; the first and oldest non-university debating club in Toronto.

Members meet every second and fourth Tuesday from September to May and debate topical and interesting resolutions. No debating experience is required and visitors are always welcomed (free of charge). Now you can also find us online at Facebook and MeetUp.com.

Debating is a great way to develop skills applicable to all aspects of life, so come out and join us!

History

In the fall of 1995, Jim Smith wondered if there was enough interest in the community for a debating and speech-making club. He found interest when, with David Murray and Peter Goldthorpe, he established the Swansea Debating and Public Speaking Society.

The inaugural meeting of the society was held on October 18, 1995, and included a presentation by David Murray entitled "Speech Making and Speaking Extemporaneously." Mr. Murray, a man of grand gestures, also holds the distinction of being the club's first paid member.

The first debate was held on November 8th, 1995, with the motion: "this house resolves Remembrance Day should be forgotten." Unfortunately, the record of the debate does not include the outcome. What is remembered is that the club quickly established itself as a setting where individuals with all levels of experience could meet to enjoy an evening of entertainment while they honed their public speaking skills and ability to think on their feet.

For the first couple of years, the club met on a monthly basis. A number of members, however, felt that they became rusty between debates so the decision was made to increase the frequency of meetings to twice monthly. With this change, the skill level of debaters and the overall energy level of the club increased dramatically. Then, as debaters started focusing more attention on their strategies and presentation skills, they began asking why the audience often remained unmoved by their rhetoric.

Until this time, the audience voted to determine the winning team and the speaker supplemented this evaluation with comments on the strengths and weaknesses of each debater. As interested as they were in the vote and informal comments, the members decided they were ready for formal adjudication. In 1998, scoring methods used by several international debating organizations were reviewed and finally adapted for the club's use. The introduction of adjudication was followed the next year by videotaping the debates so debaters could see and hear their own speeches.

Meanwhile, the club was slowly building a profile beyond the local community. A debate filmed for CITY TV and a write up of a meeting by National Post columnist Joe Fiorito both helped to increase awareness.

In 2002, the club was renamed the Toronto Debating Society and reactivated in the fall. In addition to contacting past members and intensively postering the community to advertise each debate, Mike began reaching out to other groups. That winter, the club went on the road, holding debates at Rotary Clubs in Streetsville and Port Credit and at the Deer Park Toastmasters Club.

To help build on this renewed energy, Jim Smith provided the initiative and resources to launch the important public face for the club, the Toronto Debating Society website, at www.debating.ca. To go with the new web presence, a logo was developed and all the club's background documents were rewritten to bring them up-to-date and give them a more consistent style.