Contributors

Robert L. (Bob) Ascah holds degrees in commerce and public administration from Carleton University. He completed his PhD in political science at the University of Alberta in 1984. After graduating, he joined the Alberta public service, beginning in Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs, then moving to Alberta Treasury in 1986. At Treasury, he was responsible for financial sector policy, foreign borrowing, and liaising with credit rating agencies. In 1996, he joined Alberta Treasury Branches, becoming responsible for government relations, strategic planning, and economic research. In August 2009, he was appointed director of the Institute for Public Economics at the University of Alberta, where he served for four years. Ascah is the author of Politics and Public Debt: The Dominion, the Banks and Alberta’s Social Credit (University of Alberta Press, 1999). His current research interests include Alberta fiscal history, the history of ATB, and appointments to Alberta agencies. Find more of Ascah’s work on his blog, abpolecon.ca.

Ergete Ferede is a professor of economics at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. He has taught at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), University of Alberta, and University of Windsor. His research has been published in the National Tax Journal, International Tax and Public Finance, Public Finance Review, and Small Business Economics. He is also currently pursuing various research projects on corporate income tax policy, intergovernmental grants, marginal cost of public funds, and tax reform.

Ian Glassford, before he retired, worked as the chief financial officer of Servus Credit Union, a $15-billion financial institution serving Alberta. His career has included roles as a foreign exchange and money market trader, serving on the board of a Canadian investment dealer, and taking on professional responsibilities in areas from wealth management to strategy. He has collected the usual range of alphabet soup, including a BComm from the University of Alberta, an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, and an ICD.D.

Trevor W. Harrison is a professor of sociology at the University of Lethbridge. From 2011 to 2021, he served as the director of the Parkland Institute, an Alberta-wide research organization, of which he was also a founding member. Harrison is best known for his studies in political sociology, political economy, and public policy. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of nine books, as well as numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reports, and is a frequent contributor to public media, including radio and television.

Kenneth J. McKenzie is a professor in the department of economics and distinguished fellow in the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. He has published extensively in public economics, with an emphasis on taxation. He has received several research awards, including the Harry Johnson Prize for the best article in the Canadian Journal of Economics, and is a two-time recipient of the Douglas Purvis Memorial Prize from the Canadian Economics Association. He has served as editor of Canadian Public Policy, and as a member of the editorial board for the Canadian Journal of Economics and the Canadian Tax Journal.

Melville McMillan is professor emeritus in the Department of Economics and a fellow of the Institute of Public Economics at the University of Alberta. His BA and MSc are from the University of Alberta, and his PhD from Cornell University. After a brief stint at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), he joined the University of Alberta as a faculty member in 1975. McMillan’s research and teaching interests are in public economics and, in particular, public finance, fiscal federalism, urban and local economics, and the demand for and supply of public goods and services. He has published in these areas and has advised governments and organizations nationally and internationally (e.g., the World Bank). Although “retired,” McMillan remains engaged in academic and policy matters.

Elizabeth Smythe is professor of political science at Concordia University of Edmonton where she teaches international and comparative politics courses as well as Canadian public policy. Her research interests include international trade and investment agreements, food standards, social movements, and global justice. Her most recent publications are The Role of Religion in Struggles for Global Justice (Routledge 2018) co-edited with Peter J. Smith, Katharina Glaab, and Claudia Baumgart-Ochse; and “Food for Thought: How Trade Agreements Impact the Prospects of a National Food Policy” (Canadian Food Studies 5, no. 3 [2018]).

Graham Thomson has covered Alberta politics for more than thirty years, starting with his work as Legislature correspondent for the CBC and later becoming the political editor of the Edmonton Journal before spending sixteen years as the paper’s political affairs columnist. Among his awards are a National Newspaper Award for his reporting, and a nomination for his columns. Graham spent eight months at the University of Toronto in 2008–09, where he studied environmental law and climate change after being awarded a Canadian Journalism Foundation fellowship.