Canadian Debates: Publishing House and Canadian Encyclopedia

canadian debates: Hurtig was a passionate, progressive voice that attracted followers and ruffled feathers in roughly equal measure, according to Hamilton Spectator. But neither ally nor enemy could reasonably deny his contribution to the defining Canadian debates of our time. The author, entrepreneur and political activist, who died Tuesday at 84, left his father Edmonton fur shop in the mid-1950s to found first a chain of bookstores, then a publishing house and eventually a series of public projects all dedicated to promoting the ideas he held dear: that Canadians should be allowed to shape their own future and that prosperity should be fairly shared. Hurtig first came to prominence as a publisher, most notably of the massive Canadian Encyclopedia, an ambitious project hinting at the nationalism that would define his political life. Hurtig feared that with the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada was selling off the resources that gave us our competitive advantage. After selling his publishing company, he became a key figure in the debates over free trade that divided the country in the 1980s. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.