Debate Camp inspires young people to confidently speak, debate and think on their feet. Our one week day camps are offered in major cities across Canada and our overnight program is based in central Nova Scotia. All camps open young minds to world issues and generate the skills needed to confidently engage in intellectual dialogue and debate. We welcome all ability levels.

The Our Kids review of Debate Camp

Nick Szymanis founded Debate Camp Canada after having achieved a long and impressive career in private schooling. He held teaching and leadership positions at Havergal, Crofton House, and was director of academics at Sterling Hall. Director Oona Craig has a CV that is similarly impressive. In all, this is an academic camp that is placed very firmly on a foundation of academic experience and expertise. It’s not a traditional camp, of course, perhaps particularly because it’s not about providing a wide breadth of experiences, but rather an intensive focus on one: debating. That said, there is more breadth here than you might assume. Debate is a tool, like any camp activity, to get at other things, including confidence, resilience, skill development, and effective collaboration. The kids that attend find themselves in a group of peers that share their interests as well as their academic disposition, and many come away—as with any camp—with friends and memories for life.

Nick Szymanis, Director
BA, MA, B Ed

This camp is one of my favourite things.  We started it 16 years ago - as an idea between coaches and university students.  It took off.  Now in 5 provinces and 3 US states, we run day and residential camps that provide training in public speaking and debate - to interested kids, in grades 5 to 11.  Each summer, our 1 week camps fill up and campers come away with new skills and new friends.   My family and I look forward to Debate Camp each summer - as it provides the perfect mix of learning, skills development and good times.  More info on myself, my team and our great little camp - visit: www.debatecamp.com

• Debate Camp Canada

  Debate Camp Canada has trained hundreds of eager speakers since it's start-up in the summer of 2002. Our camps have served the debate and public speaking communities in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. The new location of our residential camp, to Windsor Nova Scotia stands to make us truly a national program, with campers from across Canada attending each summer. In addition, we have opened two new day camps in the Toronto area and one in Vancouver, to serve all those eager students unable to make it to our annual overnight camp. Over the years, Shawnigan Lake School and Rosseau Lake College have provided great campus environments in which our programs have developed. Many debate and public speaking tournaments both in Canada and abroad, boast the participation of multiple debate campers from past summers - many of which have returned in the ranks of staff once actively competing at the university level. Our best stories certainly involve those campers who came to us, hesitant and often shy about public speaking and graduated after a few summers, with renewed self-confidence in a polished set of abilities that in some cases reaped rewards in tournaments or even just their own school's academic program. Moreover, everyone certainly had fun in the learning process. Join us in continuing this fine tradition.