Mel Hurtig

Mel Hurtig Template:Post-nominals (June 24, 1932 – August 3, 2016) was a Canadian publisher, author, political activist, and political candidate. He was president of the Edmonton Art Gallery. He described himself as a Canadian nationalist, while he also wrote several books critical of Canadian government policy.

Early life and education

Hurtig was born in Edmonton, Alberta,<ref name="Bailey">Template:Cite news</ref> on 24 June 1932. His parents were Jewish immigrants: his father from Romania and his mother from Russia. An alumnus of the Edmonton Talmud Torah,<ref>Rebeca Kuropatka, "Talmud Torah in Edmonton celebrating 100th anniversary," The Jewish Tribune, May 10, 2012, p. 2.</ref> he grew up in Edmonton and graduated from high school there.<ref name=starobit>"Canadian nationalist Mel Hurtig dies at age 84". Toronto Star, August 4, 2016, page A4.</ref>

Businessman, publisher and author

In 1956 at the age of 24 he opened a book store, Hurtig Books,<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Bailey"/> on Jasper Avenue and 103rd Street, which later grew into a large retail book operation with three locations.<ref name=starobit /> His stores featured staging of plays, poetry readings, encouraged social interaction, and unusually, permitted drinking coffee.

After selling his stores in 1972, he established Hurtig Publishers Ltd. with $30,000 in borrowed money. It became "one of the liveliest book publishing companies in Canada."<ref>"Mel Hurtig," in Grant H. Kennedy and James B. Stanton (eds.), The Albertans (Edmonton: Lone Pine Publishing Ltd., 1981), p. 151.</ref> In 1980, he started work on The Canadian Encyclopedia, spending $12 million on a comprehensive three-volume national encyclopedia first published in 1985.<ref>"How Canada got an encyclopedia to call its own" Jane Taber, The Globe and Mail, October 7, 2010.</ref> A second edition, which took four years to complete and cost $8.5 million to produce, appeared in four volumes in 1988.<ref>Mel Hurtig, "Foreword to the Second Edition," The Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1988), vol. I, p. [vii]; John Godfrey, "The great Canadian Encyclopedia chaos," Financial Post (Sept. 16, 1988), p. 14.</ref> Much to the surprise of the publisher, the second edition was unexpectedly sold at up to a 55 per cent discount by national companies, roiling the market.<ref>James Adams, "Coles' discount slices into revenues for new encyclopedia," Edmonton Journal, (Sept. 20, 1988), p. C9.</ref>

In September 1990, Hurtig published the five-volume Junior Encyclopedia of Canada, the first encyclopedia for young Canadians. He sold the company to McClelland & Stewart in May 1991.<ref name="ce">"Mel Hurtig" Template:Webarchive The Canadian Encyclopedia</ref>

Hurtig was an Officer of the Order of Canada, was granted honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from six Canadian universities, and was the recipient of the Lester B. Pearson Man of the Year Peace Award.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Politics

In 1967 Hurtig became interested in politics when the Liberal Party was looking for a new leader due to Prime Minister Pearson's impending retirement. He ended up supporting Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau's successful bid for Liberal leadership.<ref name=":0" /> In 1972 he ran as a Liberal in the federal riding of Edmonton West. He finished second to longtime Progressive Conservative incumbent Marcel Lambert.<ref name="ce"/>

In 1973, he left the Liberal Party and joined with other nationalists including Walter Gordon, Jack McClelland, and Claude Ryan to establish the Committee for an Independent Canada (CIC), which lobbied against foreign ownership of Canadian economic assets and cultural imperialism. He served as Chair for the first year of the CIC.

In 1985, Hurtig established the Council of Canadians, another nationalist organization, five years after the demise of the CIC.<ref name="ce"/> The primary purpose of this organization was to lobby against a perceived rising tide of support for free trade. He considered his establishment of the Council as the act he was "most proud of."<ref>"Hurtig, Mel," in Edmond Y. Lipsitz (ed.), Canadian Jewry Today: Who’s Who in Canadian Jewry (Downsivew, Ontario: J.E.S.L. Educational Products, 1989), p. 150.</ref> He would leave in 1992 but the council survives to this day, albeit with a mission of social, environmental, and economic justice rather than nationalism.<ref>Council of Canadians website</ref>

In 1992, Hurtig was elected leader of the National Party of Canada and led it in the 1993 federal election. He ran in the riding of Edmonton Northwest, but with 4,507 votes and 12.8 per cent of the popular vote, finished a distant third to Liberal Anne McLellan. It was nonetheless the best showing of the National Party candidates in that election—notably, Hurtig was the only National Party candidate to finish ahead of an incumbent MP, namely Tory Murray Dorin.<ref name="ce"/>

Electoral record

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Death

In 2005, Hurtig moved from Edmonton to Vancouver, British Columbia, in order to be closer to his four daughters. On 3 August 2016 he died there at a hospital, from complications from pneumonia.<ref name="Bailey" /> On the day of his death, one daughter, Leslie Hurtig, read him "newspaper headlines about the launch of the inquiry into murdered and missing women"; he responded, "Bravo", and died that afternoon, surrounded by family. In addition to his daughters, Hurtig was survived by four grandsons.<ref name="Bailey"/>

Recognition

• Canadian Book Publisher of the Year, 1974 and 1981
• Made an Officer of the Order of Canada, (1980)<ref>Order of Canada citation</ref>
• Honorary LL.D degrees from York University (1980), Wilfrid Laurier University (1985), University of Lethbridge (1986), University of Alberta (1986), Concordia University (1990), University of British Columbia (1992)
• Eve Orpen Award for Publishing and Literary Excellence, 1985<ref>"Mel Hurtig Wins Publishing Award," The Jewish Star (Edmonton), July 1985, p. 2</ref>
• Silver Ribbon Award, City of Edmonton, 1985
• Centenary Medal, Royal Society of Canada, 1986
• Alberta Achievement Award, 1986
• Toastmasters International Communications and Leadership Award, 1986
• President's Award, Canadian Booksellers Association, 1986
• Quill Award, Windsor Press Club, 1986
• Speaker of the Year Award, Canadian Speech Communicators Association, 1986
• Corporate Citizen of the Year Award, Community of Business and Professional. Associates of Canada, 1988
• Lester B. Pearson Man of the Year Peace Award 1988
• 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal (1992)
• Canadian Version of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)
• Canadian Version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)

Selected works

• Nationalism and Continentalism, 5 November 1981 speech at the Empire Club of Canada
• The Betrayal of Canada, 1991
• A New and Better Canada, policy statement for the National Party of Canada
• How to solve Canada's economic mess without raising personal taxes or increasing the debt (National Party of Canada official platform document in 1993 election).
• At Twilight in the Country/Memoirs of a Canadian Nationalist, 1996
• Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids, 2000
• The Vanishing Country, 2002
• Rushing to Armageddon, 2004
• The Truth About Canada, 2008
• The Arrogant Autocrat: Stephen Harper's Takeover of Canada, 2015

External links

• Mel Hurtig found outlet for patriotism through The Canadian Encyclopedia Globe and Mail obituary by Ian Bailey, 8 Aug 2016
• Mel Hurtig archival fonds is held at the University of Alberta Archives.