Edmonton publisher Mel Hurtig dead at 84
Posted Aug 4, 2016 02:53:14 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER – Mel Hurtig, the ardent nationalist behind “The Canadian Encyclopedia,” has died of pneumonia in a Vancouver hospital at the age of 84.
Barbara Hurtig, the oldest of his four daughters, says he was surrounded by his family at the end.
She says Hurtig was a “good dad and a great Canadian” who wasn’t afraid to face people who disagreed with him.
Hurtig was perhaps best known as publisher of the encyclopedia and co-founder of the Council of Canadians, a group dedicated to preserving the country’s sovereignty.
According to his Facebook page, Hurtig was an Officer of the Order of Canada, had honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from six Canadian universities and was the recipient of the Lester B. Pearson “Man of the Year Peace Award.”
In addition to his writing, Hurtig also dabbled in federal politics as leader of the National Party of Canada, which as formed in 1992 to battle foreign ownership of Canadian business and industry.
The party fielded more than 170 candidates in the 1993 election, but failed to win any seats, then disintegrated a year later after Hurtig stepped down.
He ran in 1972 as a Liberal without success, then broke with the party the next year over foreign ownership and formed the Committee for an Independent Canada.
Barbara Hurtig says her father’s political pluck lasted to the end, noting that when her youngest sister read him a headline about the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, he remarked: “Bravo, it’s about time.”
