Mel Hurtig: Publishing House and Canadian Debates

mel hurtig: The author, entrepreneur and political activist, who died Tuesday at the age of 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, according to Toronto Star. Hurtig was a passionate, progressive voice that attracted followers and ruffled feathers in roughly equal measure. Thu., Aug. 4, 2016 It a good thing for Canadians the furrier life did not appeal to Mel Hurtig. But neither ally nor enemy could reasonably deny his contribution to the defining Canadian debates of our time. After selling his publishing company, he became a key figure in the debates over free trade that divided the country in the 1980s. Hurtig first came to prominence as a publisher, most notably of the massive Canadian Encyclopedia, an ambitious project that hinted at the nationalism that would define his political life. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.