Mel Hurtig was born in Edmonton, Canada on June 24, 1932. He opened the city's first independent bookstore in 1956 and launched a publishing company, Hurtig Publishing, in the 1970s. He oversaw the creation and publication of The Canadian Encyclopedia. He eventually sold his publishing firm and the encyclopedia to McClelland & Stewart and turned to writing and politics.
He ran for the federal Liberal Party in 1972, but was defeated. He remained involved in political activism throughout the '70s through the '90s. In 1973, he established the Committee for an Independent Canada to make the case against foreign ownership and cultural imperialism. In 1985, he established the Council of Canadians. He wrote several books including The Vanishing Country and The Arrogant Autocrat: Stephen Harper's Takeover of Canada. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Lester B. Pearson Man of the Year Peace Award. He died after a short bout of pneumonia on August 3, 2016 at the age of 84.
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