Michael Augustus Walker (born 1945, in Corner Brook, Newfoundland) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

. He is best known as the founder of the

Fraser Institute The Fraser Institute is a libertarian-conservative Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. The institute describes itself as independent and non-partisan. It is headquartered in Vancouver, with additional offices in Calgary, T ...

. He is a journalist, broadcaster and consultant.

Biography

Walker earned a BA from

St. Francis Xavier University St. Francis Xavier University is a public undergraduate liberal arts university located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a member of the Maple League, a group of primarily undergraduate universities in Eastern Canada. History St. Franc ...

, and went on to earn a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

. He worked at the Bank of Canada and the

Department of Finance Canada The Department of Finance Canada (french: Ministère des Finances Canada) is a central agency of the Government of Canada. The department assists the minister of finance in developing the government's fiscal framework and advises the government o ...

. He then taught at the

and

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Wo ...

. Under his leadership, a series of conferences were started in the mid-1980s to measure economic freedom and rank countries accordingly. A prominent spokesman in the media for

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

causes, he founded the Fraser Institute in 1974. He was its Executive Director until 2005, and remains a Senior Fellow. He considers himself a libertarian. In 2010 he received an honorary doctorate degree from

Universidad Francisco Marroquín Francisco Marroquín University (Spanish: ''Universidad Francisco Marroquín''), also known by the abbreviation UFM, is a private, secular university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. It describes its mission as "to teach and disseminate the ethical ...

.Honorary Doctoral Degrees
at

References

External links

Michael Walker: Profile from the Fraser Institute

Video Collection from NewMedia.ufm
(

) 1945 births Living people Canadian libertarians Canadian economists People from Corner Brook University of Western Ontario alumni St. Francis Xavier University alumni University of Western Ontario faculty Carleton University faculty {{Canada-economist-stub