William Douglas Gairdner (October 19, 1940 – January 12, 2024) was a Canadian track and field

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

in the men's

400 m hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once ar ...

and the men's

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

in Tokyo, Japan. He was awarded a silver medal in

event at the

1963 Pan American Games The 1963 Pan American Games were held from April 20 to May 5, 1963, in São Paulo, Brazil. Host city selection For the first time, two cities submitted bids to host the 1963 Pan American Games that were recognized by the Pan American Sports O ...

in Brazil. Gairdner attended Appleby College in Oakville, and was a resident of Toronto. Following his hurdling career, he applied himself to the field of academia. He gained his first M.A. in 1967 (studying

Structural Linguistics Structural linguistics, or structuralism, in linguistics, denotes schools or theories in which language is conceived as a self-contained, self-regulating Semiotics, semiotic system whose elements are defined by their relationship to other element ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

) and then earned a second one at the institution in 1969 in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

and Creative Writing. A year later he graduated with a Ph.D. in English Literature from Stanford. He was a published author and, among his works,

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have published '' The Trouble with Canada'', ''The Trouble with Democracy'' and '' Oh, Oh, Canada!''. Gairdner died on January 12, 2024, at the age of 83.

Bibliography

* '' The Trouble with Canada: A Citizen Speaks Out'' (1990) * '' The War Against Family: A Parent Speaks Out'' (1992) * '' The Trouble with Democracy: A Citizen Speaks Out'' (2001) * '' The Book of Absolutes: A Critique of Relativism and a Defence of Universals'' (2008) * '' The Trouble with Canada... Still! : A Citizen Speaks Out'' (2011) * '' The Great Divide: Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Never Agree'' (2015)

References

External links

Canadian Olympic Committee

William Gairdner Profile

Profile of William Gairdner on BPS Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gairdner, Bill 1940 births 2024 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1963 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Canada Canadian decathletes Canadian expatriates in the United States Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian male hurdlers Olympic track and field athletes for Canada Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario Stanford University alumni Track and field athletes from Ontario Writers from Ontario Appleby College alumni Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Medalists at the 1963 Pan American Games Canadian Track and Field Championships winners