John Guyon Richards (born August 19, 1944) is a Canadian politician and professor at
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...
(SFU) in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
. During the 1970s, he served as an elected member of the legislature in the province of
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
, representing the electoral district of
Saskatoon University from 1971 to 1975.
A member of the
social democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
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(NDP), Richards was for a time the only elected official who supported
The Waffle
The Waffle (also known as the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada) was a radical wing of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little elect ...
, a group of intellectuals and students who tried to push the NDP further to the left. He left the NDP in 1973 over its refusal to
nationalize
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
the potash industry, and sat as an independent socialist until the next election, when he was defeated in the new district of
Saskatoon Centre
Saskatoon Centre is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is one of 13 districts covering the province's largest city, Saskatoon.
Members of the Legislative Assembly
Electoral history
...
and turned to academia.
In recent decades Richards's views have moderated, and he became an early exponent of the 'Third Way' politics popularized by UK
Labour Party leader
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
. He remains one of Canada's foremost political intellectuals, writing and editing a series of books and articles that suggest the development of more pragmatic social democratic politics, in addition to work on aboriginal policy, the energy sector, language policy, federalism, and international development.
Richards was instrumental in the creation of a new school of public policy at SFU
and volunteers for a small university in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, a country he has been visiting since the early nineteen nineties. He has worked with the
National Democratic Institute
The National Democratic Institute (NDI), or National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, is a non-profit American NGO that works with partners in developing countries to increase the effectiveness of democratic institutions. The NDI's ...
, an American-based democracy-building organization, in Bangladesh,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
and
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
.
References
1944 births
Living people
Canadian socialists
Politicians from Exeter
Politicians from Saskatoon
Saskatchewan New Democratic Party MLAs
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