The compass rose recalls Champlain’s role as explorer and cartographer. The wavy line, taken over from the Trent University and the Peterborough coat of arms suggests the Otonabee River. The mural crown evokes the architecture of the College, and the motto inspired by Champlain’s diaries - “Continue our discoveries.” 

As a college named after the founder of the City of Quebec, long the principal town of New France, we draw attention to this by using a silver mural crown charged with three blue fleurs-de-lys. It evokes not only the tower as the principal architectural feature of the College by representing the crenelled top of the heraldic town, but also one of the more important achievements of the man whom the College is named.