Frank Garner, a native of Mississauga, Ontario, helped bring paddling in Nova Scotia to a higher level and made the province a national force to be reckoned with.
Garner came to Nova Scotia to attend St. Mary’s University in 1964. He fell in love with the province and stayed. When the Cheema Canoe Club opened in 1969, Garner became its first head coach and he brought a long list of impressive credentials with him. During the ten years Garner coached at Cheema, the new club quickly established itself nationally, becoming one of the top three canoe clubs in the country by 1975. Cheema captured the overall Canadian Championship, a first for a Nova Scotia entry, at nationals in 1977.
Garner has groomed some of the best paddlers in the province. He became Nova Scotia paddling coach at the 1973 Canada Summer Games and also the head coach of Canada’s national team in 1980.
• First Head Coach Cheema 1969
• Junior World Medalist
• Multiple National Title Holder
• Nova Scotia’s Paddling Coach 1973 CA Summer Games
• National Team Volunteer Coach 1974
• Head Coach Canada’s National Team 1980-1984
• Coaches Assoc of CA Coaching Excellence Award 1984
• 1985 Named NS Amateur Coach of the Year
• Winner Cdn Canoe Assoc’s Edgar Gilbert Award 1985
• General Manager for Canoe ’09 (World Canoe Championships) and chef de mission for Team Nova Scotia at the 2011 Canada Games
• Chief official for canoeing at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg
• 2013, the Frank Garner Boat House was named in his honour at the Cheema Canoe Club
