KIERANS, Eric (William) 1914-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 2, 1914, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; died May 10, 2004, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Economist, politician, businessman, educator, and author. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kierans earned a reputation as an honest and feisty member of the Canadian cabinet who fought against the separatist efforts of such politicians as René Lévesque to form an independent Quebec. He attended Loyola College on a scholarship, earning a B.A. in 1935. After graduating, for a time he wrote political speeches for the Liberal party before being hired as a salesman for the Ogilvie Flour Mills Co. Service in the Victoria Rifles of Canada during World War II was followed by graduate study in economics at McGill University; he left the university in 1951 without a degree, but was already finding success in the business world by purchasing small companies that were struggling and making them profitable. He also started his own company, Canadian Adhesives, which manufactured glue. From 1953 to 1960, Kierans taught at McGill University as professor of communication and finance, and he was director of the School of Communications as well. He left the university in 1960 when he was named president of the Montreal Stock Exchange; three years later, he entered politics as the minister of revenue for Quebec. He later became minister of health, and from 1968 to 1971, having lost his 1968 bid to lead the Liberal Party, served as postmaster-general and then minister of communications under Pierre Trudeau. His opposition to the government's economic policies, which emphasized increased spending, compelled Kierans to leave office. He was a consultant to the government of Manitoba for a year before returning to McGill as professor of economics until 1980. Also during the late 1970s, he led the Caisse de Dépot in Quebec, an investment organization. During the 1980s, Kierans kept active as president of Kara Investments Ltd., director of the Lester Pearson Institute for International Development, and as a lecturer at the University of British Columbia and Memorial University. He also appeared as an economics commentator on the CBC Radio program Morningside. Kierans was the author of books commenting on Canadian economic policy, including Globalism and the Nation State (1984) and Wrong End of the Rainbow: The Collapse of Free Enterprise in Canada (1988), written with Walter Stewart. In 2001, he completed a memoir with Stewart titled Remembering. In addition to receiving several honorary doctorates, Kierans was honored for his services to his country in 1995, when he was named an officer of the Order of Canada.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times, May 12, 2004, p. A20.

ONLINE

CBC News,http://www.cbc.ca/ (May 8, 2004).

Wednesday Night,http://www.wednesday-night.com/ (May 11, 2004).