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James Robert Laxer

ジェームズ・ロバート・ラクサー

Jēmuzu Robāto Raksā

Aliases: Jim Laxer

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1941-12-22 （Montreal, Quebec, Canada）
Died
2018-02-23 （Paris, France） age 76
Nationality
Canadian
Languages
English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
Montreal, Quebec, Canada → Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Career

Occupations
political economist, historian, public intellectual, political activist, professor
Active Years
1969-2018
Affiliations
York University
Influenced By
Robert Laxer, George Grant

Education

University of Toronto
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Country: Canada
Queen's University
Political Science
Degree: Master of Arts
Year of Graduation: 1967
Country: Canada
Thesis: French-Canadian Newspapers and Imperial Defence, 1899–1914
Queen's University
Political Science
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
Country: Canada

Awards

Gemini Award
1988
Work: Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada episode one 'In Bed with an Elephant'
Category: Best Writing in an Information/Documentary Program or Series
Organization: Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada

1986 Political Economy

Documentary series and book examining Canada's economic and political ties to the US.

Economic nationalismAmerican imperialismCanada-US relations

Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism

2005 Memoir

Memoir of growing up with Communist parents during McCarthyism.

Family historyPolitical upbringingCanadian left

The Energy Poker Game: The Politics of the Continental Resources Deal

1970 Political Economy

Politics of continental energy resources deal.

Energy crisisResource nationalism

Bibliography

  • The Energy Poker Game: The Politics of the Continental Resources Deal
  • Canada's Energy Crisis
  • The Big Tough Expensive Job: Imperial Oil and the Canadian Economy
  • The Liberal Idea of Canada: Pierre Trudeau and the Question of Canada's Survival
  • Canada's Economic Strategy
  • Oil and Gas: Ottawa, the Provinces and the Petroleum Industry
  • Rethinking the Economy: The Laxer Report on Canadian Economic Problems and Policies
  • Leap of Faith: Free Trade and the Future of Canada
  • Decline of the Super Powers: Winners and Losers in Today's Global Economy
  • Inventing Europe: The Rise of a New World Power
  • False God: How the Globalization Myth has Impoverished Canada
  • In Search of a New Left: Canadian Politics After the Neoconservative Assault
  • The Undeclared War: Class Conflict in the Age of Cyber Capitalism
  • Stalking the Elephant: My Discovery of America
  • The Border: Canada, the U.S. and Dispatches from the 49th Parallel
  • Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism
  • Empire
  • The Acadians: In Search of a Homeland
  • Mission of Folly: Canada and Afghanistan
  • The Perils of Empire: America and Its Imperial Predecessors
  • Beyond the Bubble: Imagining a New Canadian Economy
  • Tecumseh & Brock: The War of 1812
  • A House Divided: Watching America's Descent into Civil Conflict
  • Travels Through the Golden State: A California Diary
  • Staking Claims to a Continent: John A. Macdonald, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and the Making of North America

Style & Themes

Literary Style
AnalyticalCriticalJournalistic
Recurring Motifs
Economic nationalismAmerican imperialismCanadian sovereignty

Health

  • heart-related problems
    2018年2月
    Sudden death while researching a book in Europe

Legacy

Advocate for democratic socialism and Canadian economic nationalism. Co-founder of the Waffle, influenced NDP, authored over two dozen books, contributed to Petro-Canada creation.

Archives

  • Clara Thomas Archives, York University

Trivia

  • Shocked the 1971 NDP leadership convention by winning one-third of the vote against David Lewis.
  • Second wife Krista Maeots committed suicide by drowning at Niagara Falls in 1978.
  • Parents were members of the Communist Party of Canada, left after Khrushchev's speech.