William Christian
British Columbia-born in 1945, William Christian was a political scientist at the University of Guelph from 1978 until his retirement in 2008. Before that, he taught at Mount Allison University, in New Brunswick, beginning in 1970. He was a biographer of George Munro Grant and wrote extensively on political philosophy and political and economic history in Canada. Along with Colin Campbell, he published the first edition of Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada in 1974. His scholarship was considered noteworthy in that his writing emphasized Canadian ideological political roots, rather than focusing so much on a social science analysis. In addition to his academic pursuits, he has contributed frequently to the op-ed pages of such publications as the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. The above essay on George Munro Grant was part of Canada: Portraits of Faith, edited by Michael D. Clarke and published in 1998. It is re-published here by permission of Michael Clarke.
Bio last updated April 30th, 2019.
Articles by William Christian
George Monro Grant
By William Christian
August 31, 2017
George Monro Grant pursued the academic life after an injury prevented him from taking over the family farm. Grant immigrated to Canada at 25 and began an influential career organizing and fundraising. He would go on to spend twenty five years developing Queen's university into a successful institution.
George Monro Grant – Principal Grant of Queen’s College as he universally came to be known – was a celebrated churchman and university administrator who is best remembered for his travel narrative Ocean to Ocean Grant’s son, William, would much later marry Parkin’s daughter, Maude, and they would become the parents of George Parkin Grant Upon arriving, Grant found the local Presbyterians squabbling over sectarian and political matters, an experience that established religious unity as his lifelong goal
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George Parkin Grant
William Christian
August 4, 2017
George Parkin Grant once said that “faith is the experience that the intellect is enlightened by love.” After a life-changing moment one December morning, Grant was determined to understand the meaning of the truth he felt in that moment.
When George Grant arrived at Oxford in October 1939 as the Rhodes Scholar from Queen’s University in Kingston, it was his plan to study law and to then return to Canada to work as a constitutional lawyer In 1947, Grant accepted a position at Dalhousie University to teach philosophy, and by 1951 he w...