W.A. Mackintosh : The Life of a Canadian Economist

The first biography of a leading Canadian economist and policy advisor. The first biography of a leading Canadian economist and policy advisor. W.A. Mackintosh (1895-1970) was an exemplary public intellectual and a modest person of rare abilities. In the first biography of this influential economist, Hugh Grant addresses how Mackintosh's commitment to public service and to the principles of reason and tolerance shaped his contribution to economic scholarship, government policy, and university governance. In the 1920s and '30s, Mackintosh emerged as the country's leading economist. His most notable contribution was through his "co-discovery" with Harold Innis of the staple thesis of Canadian economic development, which informed research in the field for a generation. During the Second World War Mackintosh joined the Department of Finance, where he played a central role in the successful management of the wartime economy and in Canada's adoption of Keynesian economic policy. As the author of the federal government's 1945 White Paper, Mackintosh laid out the broad strokes of Canada's adherence to Keynesianism in the post-war period. After his return to Queen's, Mackintosh would become the university's fifteenth principal and guide the institution as it prepared for the transformation of Canadian universities. A remarkable man who had a profound influence on the development of modern Canada, this definitive biography restores the record on his important contributions to Canadian economic thought and national and international finance. Cover Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Illustrations Preface PART ONE - Beginnings 1 - Educational Pioneering in Old Ontario: Madoc, 1895–1912 2 - Queen’s Undergraduate: Kingston, Wiwa Hills, and Indian Head, 1912–1916 3 - Harvard’s Traditional Philology and the Unfenced Prairie: Cambridge and Brandon, 1916–1919 4 - Agricultural Cooperation in Western Canada: Cambridge and Sintaluta, 1919–1920 PART TWO - Canadian Political Economy and the Origins of the Staple Thesis 5 - Queensian Economics: Kingston, 1920–1928 6 - Wheat as Staple: Kingston and Europe, 1928–1936 PART THREE - How Keynesianism Came to Canada 7 - The Queen’s Conspiracy and the National Employment Commission: Ottawa, 1936–1938 8 - The Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations: Ottawa, 1938–1939 9 - “The Economist’s War”: Ottawa, 1939–1943 10 - International Reconstruction: Ottawa, London, Washington, and Bretton Woods, 1941–1946 11 - Domestic Reconstruction, the White Paper, and the Green Book: Ottawa, 1941–1946 PART FOUR - A Ruling Passion: Queen’s University 12 - Queen’s after the War: Kingston, 1946–1951 13 - The Principal Lecturer: Kingston, 1951–1961 14 - The Royal Commission on Banking and Finance and After: Ottawa and Kingston, 1961–1970 Legacy Notes Bibliography Index