Editing Mel Watkins

{{Short description|Canadian political economist (1932–2020)}}
{{for|the American critic and author|Mel Watkins (American writer)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Mel Watkins
| image              = <!-- filename only, no "File:" or "Image:" prefix, and no enclosing [[brackets]] -->
| landscape          = <!-- yes, if wide image, otherwise leave blank -->
| alt                = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Melville Henry Watkins
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1932|05|15}}
| birth_place        =[[McKellar, Ontario]], Canada
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|2020|04|02|1932|05|15}}<ref name="obit">{{cite news |last1=Sas |first1=Jonathan |title=Remembering Mel Watkins |url=https://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/remembering_mel_watkins |accessdate=April 2, 2020 |publisher=Broadbent Institute |date=April 2, 2020}}</ref>
| death_place        = [[Ottawa]], Ontario<ref name="Valpy">{{cite news |last1=Valpy |first1=Michael |title=Prominent socialist intellectual Mel Watkins believed in a political philosophy of compassion |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-prominent-socialist-intellectual-mel-watkins-believed-in-a-political/ |accessdate=April 11, 2020 |work=Globe and Mail |date=April 10, 2020}}</ref>
| known_for          = Cofounding [[the Waffle]],<br>Watkins Report
| party              = [[New Democratic Party]]
| spouse             = Kelly Crichton
| partner            = <!-- (unmarried long-term partner) -->
| module             = {{Infobox academic |child=yes
| alma_mater         = 
| thesis_title       = 
| thesis_year        = 
| school_tradition   = {{hlist | [[Canadian nationalism]] | [[socialism]]}}
| influences         = {{flatlist|
* [[Walter L. Gordon]],<ref name="Fleming 2010, p. 182">{{cite book |last=Fleming |first=R.&nbsp;B. |year=2010 |title=Peter Gzowski: A Biography |location=Toronto |publisher=Dundurn Press |page=182 |isbn=978-1-77070-539-5}}</ref>
* [[Harold Innis]]<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Stanford |first=Jim |author-link=Jim Stanford |year=2013 |title=Re: 'The Past Reframes Itself,' by Mel Watkins |url=http://reviewcanada.ca/?periodically_letter=the-past-reframes-itself |magazine=Literary Review of Canada |location=Toronto |access-date=November 15, 2019}}</ref>
* [[Kari Polanyi Levitt]]<ref name="obit"/>
* [[Hyman Minsky]]<ref name="obit"/>
* [[John Maynard Keynes]]<ref name="obit"/>
}}
| era                = 
| discipline         = {{hlist | [[Economics]] | [[political science]]}}
| sub_discipline     = [[Political economy]]
| workplaces         = [[University College, Toronto]]
| doctoral_students  = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| notable_students   = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| main_interests     = 
| notable_works      = 
| influenced         =[[James Laxer]], [[Peter Gzowski]]<ref name="Fleming 2010, p. 182"/>
}}
| signature          = 
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}}
'''Melville Henry Watkins''' (May 15, 1932 &ndash; April 2, 2020)<ref name="obit"/> was a Canadian [[political economy|political economist]] and activist and [[professor emeritus]] of [[economics]] and [[political science]] at the [[University of Toronto]]. He was a founder and co-leader with [[James Laxer]] of [[the Waffle]], a [[left-wing politics|left-wing]] political formation within the [[New Democratic Party]] that advocated an "independent socialist Canada" and [[Canadian nationalism]].<ref name=mel>{{cite web|author=Hugh Grant and David Wolfe|title=The Staple Theory at 50: Mel Watkins as teacher, scholar and activist|url=http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/progressive-economics-forum/2013/10/staple-theory-50-mel-watkins-teacher-scholar-and-|publisher=Rabble|date=15 October 2013}}</ref><ref name=watkins>{{cite web|author=Jim Stanford|title=The Staple Theory at 50; Reflections on the Lasting Significance of Mel Watkins' "A Staple Theory of Economic Growth"|url=https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2014/03/Staple_Theory_at_50.pdf|publisher=Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives|date=March 2014}}</ref><ref name=melwatkins>{{cite web|title=Once Upon a Waffle|url=http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2582/|work=Canadian Dimension|date=12 November 2009}}</ref><ref name=mwatkins>{{cite web|author=Joanna Szymanski|title=Mel Watkins - a Backgrounder|url=http://www.renfrewndp.ca/MelWatkins.html|publisher=Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke NDP|date=May 2005}}</ref> He was appointed a Member of the [[Order of Canada]] in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gg.ca/en/media/news/2019/governor-general-announces-120-new-appointments-order-canada|title=Governor General Announces 120 New Appointments to the Order of Canada|last=General|first=Office of the Secretary to the Governor|date=2019-12-20|website=The Governor General of Canada|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref>

==Life and career==
Watkins was born on May 15, 1932, on a farm near [[McKellar, Ontario]]; one of six children born to Wilmot and Sadie Watkins.<ref name="globeobit"/><ref name="Star">{{cite news |last1=Rubin |first1=Josh |title=Mel Watkins, 87, was the compassionate heart of the Canadian left for more than a half-century |url=https://www.thestar.com/amp/news/canada/2020/04/03/mel-watkins-87-was-the-compassionate-heart-of-the-canadian-left-for-more-than-a-half-century.html |accessdate=April 6, 2020 |work=Toronto Star |date=April 4, 2020}}</ref> At the age of 16, he and his twin brother, Murray, enrolled at the [[University of Toronto]] where among his lecturers was  [[Harold Innis]], whose [[staples thesis]] became a lifelong influence on his thinking.<ref name="globeobit">{{cite news |title=Mel WATKINS (obituary) |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theglobeandmail/obituary.aspx?n=mel-watkins&pid=195877949 |accessdate=April 6, 2020 |work=Globe and Mail |date=April 6, 2020}}</ref> He pursued graduate work as a [[classical economics|classical economist]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. He became a professor of economics at the [[University of Toronto]] in 1958<ref name="globeobit"/> and, in 1963, published an academic article, "A Staple Theory of Economic Growth”, which revised and updated Innis's staples thesis and was influential in the growing Canadian economic nationalist movement and also brought him to the attention of [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|Canadian finance minister]] [[Walter L. Gordon]].<ref name="obit"/><ref name="globeobit"/>

His political activity followed his work heading up the federal government's Task Force on Foreign Ownership and the Structure of Canadian Investment, which investigated the impact of growing American control of the [[economy of Canada|Canadian economy]]. Striking this task force of economists had been urged upon the [[Lester Pearson|Pearson]] government by former [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|finance minister]] Walter Gordon. The "Watkins Report", as it was widely known, was issued in 1968 and recommended strict regulation of foreign investment in Canada, particularly [[foreign ownership]] of Canadian businesses and resources. Its findings led to the establishment of the [[Canada Development Corporation]] to help facilitate greater Canadian ownership as well as the [[Foreign Investment Review Agency]] to regulate foreign ownership.<ref name=mel/><ref name=watkins/><ref name=melwatkins/><ref name=mwatkins/>

His concern for Canadian economic sovereignty led him to join others in 1969 to found the Waffle, which issued a ''[[Manifesto for an Independent Socialist Canada]]'' calling for increased [[public ownership]] of the economy as a means of securing Canadian independence from the United States, as well as establishing social and economic equity. The group was essentially expelled from the [[New Democratic Party]] (NDP) in 1972 and while Watkins supported the group's attempt to form a new [[left-wing politics|left-wing]] political party, the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada, his interest and involvement waned, particularly when he left to spend time in the far north to investigate the living conditions of the [[Dene]] people.<ref name=mel/><ref name=watkins/><ref name=melwatkins/><ref name=mwatkins/> After the collapse of the Waffle in 1974, Watkins spent most of his time teaching and writing.

In the early 1970s, Watkins was hired by the [[Dene Nation]] (then known as the Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories) as the economic adviser for their delegation to the [[Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry]].<ref name="globeobit"/>

In the 1980s and 1990s, he was active in opposition to the [[Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement]] and then to the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] describing them as "charters of rights for corporations."<ref name="globeobit"/>

He eventually rejoined the NDP, and ran as its candidate in [[Beaches—East York (federal electoral district)|Beaches—East York]] in the [[1997 Canadian federal election|1997]] and [[2000 Canadian federal election|2000 federal elections]]. He placed second on both occasions behind Liberal [[Maria Minna]].<ref name=mel/><ref name=watkins/><ref name=melwatkins/><ref name=mwatkins/>

Watkins supported the [[New Politics Initiative]], which was formed in 2001 to attempt to convince the NDP to join with social movements to found a new left-wing party. He retired from academia and moved to Constance Bay in [[eastern Ontario]], where he continued to write a column for ''[[This Magazine]]'' and pieces for other publications. He was also a board member of and regular contributor to the online newsmagazine ''[[Straight Goods]]''.<ref name=mel/><ref name=watkins/><ref name=melwatkins/><ref name="globeobit"/> He also served as president of [[Science for Peace]], and was a member of [[Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs|Pugwash Canada]].<ref name="globeobit"/>

==Bibliography==
*''Madness & Ruin: Politics and the Economy in the Neoconservative Age'' (1992).  {{ISBN|0-921284-64-0}}
*''Canada Under Free Trade'' (1993).  {{ISBN|1-55028-377-4}}
*''Dene Nation: The Colony Within'' (1977).  {{ISBN|0-8020-6315-2}}

==Electoral record==
{{2000 Canadian federal election/Beaches—East York}}
{{1997 Canadian federal election/Beaches—East York}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://rabble.ca/category/bios/mel-watkins Mel Watkins's Blog] at [[rabble.ca]]
*[https://www.policyalternatives.ca/authors/mel-watkins Mel Watkins Author] from the [[Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives]]
*[https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/mel-watkins-fonds Mel Watkins archival papers] held at the [https://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/ University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Mel}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2020 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian economists]]
[[Category:Canadian nationalists]]
[[Category:Canadian political scientists]]
[[Category:Canadian socialists]]
[[Category:New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons]]
[[Category:Political economists]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto]]
[[Category:Writers from Ontario]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni]]