Will the real Paddy Tracy please stand up?

By: Melissa Beauregard

I met Paddy Tracy over Canadian Thanksgiving in first year. We had both been expatriated from the States and were stuck in the cold, desolate downtown Toronto core – sans pumpkin pie. As the weekend passed, we bonded over light-saber battles, and in the mornings, I would hear the soft erotic melody of his penny whistle drift from the quad and into the windows of the third Whitaker shower.

However, our brief first year soujourn had left me unsatisfied. In my opinion, Paddy is one of the most influential – and infamous – members of Trinity College. I couldn’t help it. My interest in powerful men with copious amounts of facial hair had left me with the deep desire to know more.

The place was the Duke. The beer was Steamwhistle. And two pitchers in, our conversation had devolved from Trin politics into games of ‘Marry, Fuck, Kill’ and ‘Would You Stay With Her If?’. It was a date to remember.

Melissa Beauregard: When did you start growing your beard, and are you hiding from something? Paddy Tracy: I’m hiding from the law.

MB: When you came to Canada, what struck you as a cultural difference?

PT: I would say Canadians are a lot more politically correct. Luckily, nowadays I found my own little group of people who don’t give a shit. That … and I guess bags of milk.

MB: For me it was religion. I know very few religious people here, which I found strange.

PT: Before I came here I was actually thinking of going into seminary, and then I decided against it. A big thing is I’m a Catholic, and I saw a lot of differences with their views on homosexuality and female clergy that I didn’t necessarily agree with.

MB: Tell me about Head of Arts elections.

PT: Hell. I had a great person to run against – David [Brayley]. My election was a little bit different, in that one thing Heads in the past have done is step down from [Episkopon], and I decided that I wasn’t going to.

MB: Do you worry that Pon affects your relationships with students?

PT: I guess my thought process both then and now [is] if I had left Pon, then I think I still would have had that taint. So the people who wouldn’t be comfortable with me, I still would have had that, ‘Oh, he was in Pon, all of his friends are in Pon.’

MB: I guess from my point of view, the biggest concern was -

PT: You don’t want to alienate anyone.

MB: Sure.

PT: Which is something that I think that everybody does by their actions. Some people wouldn’t

Will the real Paddy Tracy please stand up?be comfortable going to somebody because of other things. Like girls…going to [male heads] and guys… going to [female heads]. There are always going to be some things that people are uncomfortable with.

MB: Do you think there is a way to balance cherishing our traditions while still integrating into the larger community? PT: Having the animosity towards other colleges is something we don’t need. That being said, I like having our secluded college. Rather then building college bonds with U of T, maybe we should consider… build[ing] ties [with] Trinity College Dublin. Trinity College itself is a name. We don’t need the name of U of T.

MB: It’s no secret that you were opposed to the parade.

PT: Vehemently.

MB: Could you tell me why?

PT: The problem I had was having the bishop march in it. That decision should be up to the bishop. My boys over in Welch, I asked a few of them if they would … come up and carry [the bishop] in the litter. I also briefed them that they had to listen to only the bishop. It was a difference of opinion and of who should have the power – the bishop or the frosh exec.

MB: Would you be opposed to Trin Frosh continuing to participate in the parade?

PT: Yes, … because it’s an UTSU parade. I am personally against UTSU. Last year their elections were very un-democratic. If we’re trying to break away from them, but yet still marching in [it], it’s us marching in a parade that is run by what we can consider ‘the enemy.’

MB: You were talking before about your ‘Welchmen’. What is your affinity with Welch?

PT: I lived there my second year, and I just liked being a Welchman. I didn’t really enjoy Massey in my first year. In second year, it was nice because I had that community.

MB: What is your life’s ambition.

PT: I’d like to get my bartending license … maybe own a bar someday. Also, not to be a corporate sell-out, but I really want to work for Steamwhistle.

Lightning Round Favourite Head: Paddy Tracy

Marry, Fuck, Kill – Alexander Saxton, Anthony Botelho, and Ali Malik-Noor: Marry

Alexander, Fuck Ali, Kill Anthony.

Would you stay with her if…

[The premise of this game is that there is a member of the opposite sex who is perfect in every single way except for one thing. You have to decide whether to continue seeing him/her].

…She made you wear a gorilla mask during sex: Yes …She wore gorilla mask, too: Yes …She had was a teenaged cat-killer: Yes …She had a sexually transmitted cure for cancer, and had to use her gift: No, it would just

get too weird…